News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The tragic rape of Charles Bukowski’s ghost by Black Sparrow Press (2013). Parent comment

Re:The tragic rape of Charles Bukowski’s ghost by Black Spar... by burnished on Friday January 21, 2022 @02:22PM (#30028660)
Can't comment about the roots of the words, but I agree with your assessment of those words.

This is actually one of my favorite games to play with friends, taking a word and talking about it's connotations, or contrasting it with another similar word. Nothing super academic, just our own thoughts and feelings and examples of use.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The tragic rape of Charles Bukowski’s ghost by Black Spar... by ng12 on Friday January 21, 2022 @02:54PM (#30029075)
Whenever there's a pair of synonyms where one is fancier than the other it's almost always because one is French in origin (i.e. used by the Norman upper class) and the other German (i.e. used by the Anglo-Saxon peasantry). Think "purchase" vs. "buy".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The tragic rape of Charles Bukowski’s ghost by Black Spar... by srcreigh on Friday January 21, 2022 @03:15PM (#30029372)
My favourite example is "fact" vs "factitious". The word "factitious" actually means bogus, make, made up. Whereas "fact" means quite the opposite. However they both come from the same latin word "facere" which means to do or to make.

Have fun digging into that one!

[ Parent | on HN ]