Language Rant Part Deux
 

I wish I could report that reading posts about installs, fitment, and rims no longer drives me crazy, but that would be inaccurate.

I'd be happy to relay that "as well" now sounds normal and unpretentious to me, but sadly.. I'm not quite there yet. I'll keep trying as well.

Instead, I thought it'd be more fun to focus on a new source of consternation; the usage of words to make it sound like you're doing something amazing when, in fact, you're doing pretty much nothing.

What am I talking about, you might ask?

Well, let's start with an ad Time Warner Cable ran a while (years?) ago, advising customers to upgrade to the huge cable package that had every channel ever created so that the customer can "feel the power of YOU!" Yep.. they actually described the act of watching TV as a power that you can feel. Watch Time Warner Cable because you are POWERFUL! Sitting on your butt all day will eventually give you a powerful heart attack, I guess....

Another example? Rock music has its root in having a high, visceral energy, and not necessarily in subtlety. Not bashing it.. just putting it out there. Rock performers burn a lot of calories, and images of sweaty rock musicians purvade the industry. Hence the evolution of the phrase, "to rock," used to describe something particularly intense, i.e., "Dude, the entire party ROCKED!" or whatever. Now, "Johnny rocked a pink scarf with his ensemble." Johnny didn't rock anything.. he wore a flippin' piece of fabric around his neck. Pretty much anyone could do that. OK, not PRETTY much anyone... ANYONE. "Suzy rocked a pair of studded Calvins." Nope, Suzy wore a pair of overpriced pants. Great job.

How about "extreme?" Extreme was.. well... extreme. Extreme bad weather. Extreme heat. Extreme cold. Then... extreme sports. I'll give you that one.. some really are extreme. Then.. extreme diets. Extreme fashion. OK... you could probably make a case even there. Now... extreme colors. Extreme lip gloss. I'm rocking an extreme sweater now as I feel the power of me by my TV. Almost gives me the runs.


Speaking of which...got time for one more? It's a forum favorite. "Running." "What rims are you running?" "I'm running a a Big Sniffer kryptonite polished intake." "Yeah, well I run a JSRC on my square wheel setup while rocking a JDM lightweight dipstick." You're not RUNNING anything.. you're sitting on your butt driving a car. The engine is running, sure. You.. not so much.

Awesome.

The word that gets me is the new use of the word "sick".

Every time I see it used anymore, I have to do a brain cell conversion.....:iono:


Must be nap time ..........:happyanim:


humfrz .............ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"Literally".

Example: "I was literally living out of my suitcase". Really?

"Bro" or worse "Bruh"

Example: "Nice car, bro" What, are you my long lost brother I didn't know I had? No? That's what I thought"

I think I'm still a few birthdays away from this thread.

"Crying"

Example: "I was literally crying my eyes out when I read your post". No less then 3 no-no's

I see this in all over social media. People are 'crying' over the silliest of things. A p;icture of a puppy is enough.

It's OK to cry...

Are many of the words we used all our life really any better than some of these?
"Cool" Is something really a lower temperature because people like it?
"Hot" Will you burn you fingers if you touch that really attractive girl.
"Man" Although technically accurate such things as "Hey man" is a bit impersonal.

Could go on and on but since we are used to those words we think they are fine. No doubt that people from 1920 would think that words we find normal were just as strange as we do now. Slang comes and goes.

Still hate "fitment" since it isn't really slang but people think it is a real word.

Well, it is. It just does not mean what people think it means. Like 'incentivize' wasn't a word till they decided to add it because dumbasses win. That still doesn't incent me to use wrong words just because...

fitment
[fit-muh nt]

noun
1. equipment; furnishing.
2. fitments, fittings : the fitments of a ship.

Ya I should have been more clear about what I meant as not a word.

It is not a noun, verb, adjective or any other replacement for the word fit which is what people seem to think it is.

Yes, there's always "the other side," and yes, despite your desire to play devil's advocate, I know you secretly agree with me.. <grin>.. or not...

Having said that, there's a bit of distinction between your examples and the ones I gave..

"Cool" has been around since the late 1940's, and grew out of a movement in jazz. It was a rejection of "hot" jazz.. notey, lots of embellishment, fast, complicated. "Hot," similarly, has been around since then and it, too, grew out of musical styles and idioms. "Man,".. yep.. it's been around a VERY long time, too. Unlike the other two terms, it's just a friendly colloquial way of introducting familiarity into a conversation. In the Syracuse, NY area, it's very common for a waitress or other service personnel to address a client as "honey." I don't like it, but it's a way to project friendliness. That's what "man" is, even when used in a difficult situation.. "Hey, man, get off my car!" has a greater chance to diffuse a bad situation than "Hey, butt nugget, get off my car!" At least with "Man," the offender feels respected.

I'm glad we agree on "fitment." As others have already stated, it IS a word, but doesn't exist in the context most use it in here on this forum.

I'm just having fun. "Partner" is another one that I wish hadn't "evolved." I have a partner in my airplane. Every time I refer to my partner, folks think I'm being homosexually unfaithful to my female wife.

I get your point, T. Yeah, I'm old... and yeah, I'm right.. <grin>.

I have posted the definition of fitment probably 100 times here but have no illusions that it will change anything.
Yes cool came from a certain culture and then worked it's way into common use. So did the new words. You excuse the old ones because you agree with the culture that developed them not so much just because of the word.
Just be glad some words do go away! Can you just imagine these young guys walking around saying "groovy dude"?

I hate it when people use French words in English. So bourgeois.

Meh. Ces't la vie.

I get what you're saying, but disagree. "Cool" and "hot" have taken on allegorical meanings, whereas "extreme," "running," and "rock" have been diluted to the point where their original meanings are now meaningless. "Cool," as you stated and we all know, means to lower a temperature when used as a verb, or having relatively less heat (be it color, caloric temperature, or energy of any kind) when used as an adjective. "Hot," similarly, means the inverse. Modern usage of those words is still respectful of and refers to their original meanings. I just can't see lip gloss as "extreme" unless maybe it's made out of cut glass and laced with PCP, nor can I accept someone "rocking" a fanny pack unless they're trying to lull it to sleep. It just makes no sense, and distills the original meanings of the words to the point where the words are just sounds.

Sort of like the way folks use most profanity these days... "SH*T" can mean ANYTHING... "F'nin'" is just a noise... means nothing. Ain't that sh*t f'nin' cool? HOT! Like, you feel me?

Such sad.

Like I said, I'm mostly making observations, having fun, and not losin' sleep over any of this. My youngest son (26) and I have had a few conversations about this issue. He doesn't my understand my objection to what he views as the "evolution" of language. Evolution, at least to my understanding, has some connotations of positive progress and benefits; hence, the existence of the term "devulotion" to describe the movement in the opposite direction.

If this is an example of the evolution of the language...

"This is my goal. I have a 2014 Frs. Yep I'm a Toyota Fan. My buddy got a porche 718 s boxer Turbo. 2.5 L 350 HP 309 tq. And Boxer 4 cil. Road and Track talk shit that it sounds like a STI. "Yes Subaru WRX and STI owners be mad" it has s a 12.4 to 12.9. standing Quarter mile and track wise is great too. Got to find that stat.

Got to beat it.. just to prove a point. JSRC can do this with ACE Headers and... well good tires... full blown Turbo is not an option cause live in Cali. Watch the vid folks!! And see what the mean."


.... well... I guess I'm not real interested in joining the evolution.

Again.. just having fun. Just excrement-posting for our mutual amusement, mostly.

Best to all,

Barry

:drinking:

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1MT4aI...t-b-decals.jpg

I think TPTB intentionally messed with the language via pop culture to screw the newer generation. I mean just check out all the kids these days walking around with their pants down. Another step towards idiocracy. :bonk:

It's quite obvious man from 100 years ago would have a hard time understanding our current lingo and vice versa. That's why it's quite challenging to design things like warning signage for nuclear waste dumps, just to make sure whoever 100 years from now wouldn't dig it up and use it for tea or something.

100 years .....? ...... hell, 74 years will slip right in ........... :sigh:


humfrz

When I point at a rock and say "That's a rock", people still know what I mean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You are still applying your personal cultural acceptability to the use of words. I have used the term "rocking" something for over 40 years and see not a thing wrong with it even though you have now used it twice as an example of some horrid distortion of the language. In fact just a couple of days ago I said "I would rock that car" in a thread on this very forum. How is it acceptable to you that terms that came to use through jazz are fine but those that came from other sub cultures are all wrong? It is probably more related to your own participation in the Jazz sub culture than anything else.

Slang usually starts with a small group and works it way out so people may use the words without even realizing where they came from.

As I have said here before I have seen a huge change in auto slang over the years. Does anybody under 50 know what I mean when I say mags? To say your car was FI meant a totally different thing back in the early 80s. Once upon a time to have a blown engine was a cool thing unless you blew your engine because it was blown. These terms were all perfectly normal once but mean nothing or something radically different.

Yes grammar, spelling and phrasing on the Internet can get wonky. There can be several reasons for that though and all are not bad. People take short cuts, ESL and many other factors come into play. Hell I have gone back and read some things I have wrote and tried to remember if I was drunk when I wrote them. Even the worst grammar criticisms on here screw up as well on occasion. This is a mixed forum not an advanced English lit class and as long as I can figure out what they mean then all is good.

You keep pointing out that this discussion is just entertainment on your part but seem to think that somehow the others participating have some vested interest. I assure you that I for one am in no way passionate about this an am also just killing time in a quasi intellectual discussion.

Powerlaces alright!!

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...rs-2015-12.jpg

Oh you mean this...

http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/turuta...e/6ec21149.JPG

This thread reminds me of semiotics classes back in school.

More like this:
https://www.kaltire.com/wp-content/u.../cragar61c.jpg

Actually BBS with a blue center cap means magnesium. :thumbsup:

In Japan that would be an SSR / Watanabe rim.

Dam that reminds me of how we didn't even have an FI car till the late 80's cuz we poor. That dam 5 min wait on the warm up lamp and choke with our old carb Honda and Volvo lmao!

Back in a time where the "i" on a badge at the back meant fuel injection.

That was sort of where I was headed. Any wheel that didn't require a hub cap was called a mg once upon a time. Very few mags were actually made of magnesium. Most were just chrome plated steel.

Yep, back starting in the late 50's, and on for several years "FI" was commonly referred to a "fuel injected". Now it usually means "forced induction", although turbochargers were available on some early 1960's cars......:iono:


humfrz

Heck, I wouldn't know, I couldn't afford either one .....:sigh:


humfrz

Warm up lamp? You rich bastard. Many of my cars you didn't have to wait for the choke to open. You just thought "that is long enough" and pushed the knob back in.

Turbo and superchargers were available on some 30s cars.
I bet you are still wonder why the term "24 skidoo" dropped out of use.

3 pages and nobody mentioned the word Dope which now means awesome.

For example if you walk into your local Foot Locker and the sales kid sees your Jordans he might say: "Yo dawg those kicks are dope!"

Yep, I should have qualified that ........ American production cars.

"24 skidoo" ....... :iono:

https://soundcloud.com/anthony_donovan/24-skidoo

Yes, to "23 skidoo". I've skedaddled several times in my life ..... one reason I'm still alive ..... :D


humfrz

Dam (noun) : a body of water confined by a barrier.
Damn (interjection) : used as an expletive to express anger, annoyance, disgust.

Those are Canadian skidoos. ...exchange rate and all.

Can you imagine the "forum" questions back then......:eyebulge:

* where is the choke knob ..??

* when do I pull it out ..??

* how far do you pull it out ..??

* how long do I leave it pulled out ..??

* What will happen if I don't pull it out ..??

* I ordered a JDM choke knob, how do I install it .. ??

* I installed a short throw choke knob ....only have to pull it out half as far

* The choke knob pulled out all the way .....and there is a long wire hooked to it .... what should I do .. ??

* I forgot to push the choke back in after driving for several miles, did I do damage to my engine .. ??

* my manual choke is faster than your automatic choke


humfrz

I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned the word "cock".
As in "I love stroking my cock".

Attachment 152574

Oh, cut ol @krayzie some slack ...... he usually starts slurring his words about this time of night .....:(


humfrz

Our '82 Honda Accord didn't have a choke knob or lever that I can recall, just needed to wait for the WARM light to go off before pulling out.

Ricer Note: Before DOHC VTEC decals came about, all the cool Honda cars had 16 Valve PGM-FI decals on the doors.

Thanks for the thoughts, T. I purposely refrained from any reference to jazz lingo in my previous post, but rather just referenced the same original meanings of "cool" and "hot" that you did; I still see a distinction between their modern, still relatively accurate usage, and the usage of the other words that don't sit as well with me. A girl that is "hot" may not feel significantly warmer to the touch, but she may excite you, raise your temperature, and if she's aware of her hotness, she may end up manipulating you and "burning" you. Play it "cool".. expend less energy.. stay relaxed rather than tense.. conserve motion... morphing into another positive adjective that is applied to anything exhibiting qualities that are intriguing w/ maybe a little mystery involved. Something like that.

Taking your statement, "I would rock that car." What is meant by that? If you mean that, if you had access to it or owned it, you'd drive it so aggressively that you and the car would be on the edge your and its performance envelopes the majority of the time and that you'd be sweating bullets from exertion while doing so, then yeah, baby, you're rocking that car. If you mean that you like the car and wouldn't mind driving it to the grocery store, then I'm not sure "rock" makes as much, if any sense.

And, yes, whenever I see FI, I simply can NOT stop reading it as "Fuel Injection." I get that the world moves on and I don't. Doesn't mean I have to like it! :)

Best to you..

Barry

Cutting in here ....... I reckon what ol @Tcoat meant by "rocking a car" is that his cars usually had dead batteries, so, in order to start them, he had to "rock" them off of the wheel's flat spot, to get them rolling ...... then jump it, slam it in gear, pop the clutch .....and roar off .......:D


humfrz