Re: Who is watching Amer. Idol?

Brian Running <brunning@xxxxxxx> wrote:
RichL wrote:

Here ya go, ya big lug:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/homophobes

"homophobia -
Noun
intense hatred or fear of homosexuals [homo(sexual) + phobia]

Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins
Publishers 2004, 2006."

We all know that popular usage makes incorrect definitions accepted.
That's not the point. The point is, "homophobia" does not mean
"hatred of homosexuals" in English.

What you really mean is that the word does not mean what it would if one
only examined its derivation. However you or I may not like it, words
*do* acquire meaning and become accepted simply because they are used in
association with that meaning with sufficient frequency.

Just because there are notations
of popular usage on web sites doesn't change the meaning of the word,
Rich.

It's more than a "notation of popular usage" on a web site, Brian. It's
a published dictionary:

<http://www.amazon.com/Collins-Essential-English-Dictionary/dp/000715498
4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243894756&sr=8-3>

"Homophobia" is a made-up word that doesn't make sense. There are
ways to create words correctly, why not do that? We've already got
misogyny, misandry and misanthropy, why not a word that actually
means hatred of homosexuals, rather than "fear of the same"? I think
Kevin's argument is probably right on the nose.

This bugs me the same way that made-up words like preciseness,
normalcy, etc., are used and accepted. Every time a word is misused
and then becomes accepted in its misused form, we lose a precise
means of expressing something -- words that develop from popular
misusage seem always to devolve towards broader and more-general
meanings, and we lose something. "Gay" is an example. What word has
replaced the precise meaning of gay, with the subtle connotations of
the former usage?

I'm not disagreeing with that viewpoint at all; it's a pet peeve of
yours, obviously, and it's a bit of a peeve of mine as well. I never
found it necessary to use the word "proactive" for example. But the
world rolls along in a way that's largely unaffected by what you or I
may think, Brian.

A bigger pet peeve of mine is the use of a diversion into etymology to
deflect attention from what a lot of people would consider inappropriate
behavior, no matter what you choose to call it.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Who is watching Amer. Idol?
    ... "homophobia" does not mean "hatred of homosexuals" in English. ... Just because there are notations of popular usage on web sites doesn't change the meaning of the word, ... We've already got misogyny, misandry and misanthropy, why not a word that actually means hatred of homosexuals, rather than "fear of the same"? ...
    (alt.guitar.bass)
  • Re: Help needed with expletives
    ... "Gay" to mean homosexual always ... primarily meaning what it was intended to mean. ... to homosexuals as "gay", and was therefore supposed ... as a curse word, from the very beginning. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: On topic or off topic (was Re: The cost of Mental Health)
    ... I am not denying that homosexual people adopted the word as less objectionable term for themselves than was currently used, but the wrod *gay* has had homosexual undertones for a long long time anyway - it wasn't as if homosexual people looked throught he dictionary and thought 'gay' sounded better than deregatory words that were currently in fashion and stole it. ... However, even if I mean no insult at all by it, I am aware enogh of its popular meaning and its negative connotations within the wider community *not* to use it at all. ... My sense is that as long as homosexuals sweep that word under the carpet ... The wogs knew they were wogs and the skips knew they were skips, and this distinction was how we self organised into spontaneous teams. ...
    (soc.religion.quaker)
  • Re: Mens Hour Books
    ... Brian just made that one up. ... meaning subsumed in the more general preceding definition:" ... But we already know what google is going to tell us - for you clicked ... The first one it gives us is "the Catholic Church." ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Help needed with expletives
    ... it having its supposed recent specific meaning. ... "gay" never became comfortable using it, ... it was indeed natural to refer to homosexuals as "gay", ... immediately applied the word as a curse word, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)