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What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1242 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm fine with language evolving; my issue is that there used to be a word that succinctly conveyed a particular idea, and now there is no way to concisely convey that idea in English.

"Gay" changing its meaning isn't the same thing, because there are still plenty of ways of saying "happy" in English.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Are there ways to say exactly this kind of happy? I'm pretty sure, happy and gay didn't mean exactly the same. Synonyms rarely are drop in replacement.

But yes, there is a gap now. That might get filled with another word, or people get better at discerning ironic and unironic meaning. Or maybe people stop using it in this way - groovy or rad aren't exactly common today either.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Are there ways to say exactly this kind of happy?

Festive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Don we now our gay apparel

And we'll all feel gay when Johhny comes marching home

Deutchland is happy and gaaaaaaay!

we'll have a gay old time

Gay refers to party happiness. Places where Celebrate by Kool and the Gang would be played as a reference. Places where people dance to disco. Places where the Grinch would look on and feel embittered.