Re:Ambiguous words and dictionary hacks (2007)
by dragonwriter on Monday October 15, 2018 @09:43AM
(#18219539)
> A pig is not a pork.
No, but it is pork (while pork is most often used for meat, it can be used for live pigs, especially those destined for meat, and structurally differs from “pig” in such use largely in that it is a mass, rather than countable, noun.)
> A rain-forest is humid but not dank
A rainforest absolutely can be dank, as well as merely humid.
> These words have reason to exist and have particular usages
While that's true, the particular current usages aren't the historical reason they exist in many cases, it's just a result of how overlapping meanings have shaken out to be more (but not completely) distinct over time.
No, but it is pork (while pork is most often used for meat, it can be used for live pigs, especially those destined for meat, and structurally differs from “pig” in such use largely in that it is a mass, rather than countable, noun.)
> A rain-forest is humid but not dank
A rainforest absolutely can be dank, as well as merely humid.
> These words have reason to exist and have particular usages
While that's true, the particular current usages aren't the historical reason they exist in many cases, it's just a result of how overlapping meanings have shaken out to be more (but not completely) distinct over time.