Re: What (not) to write...

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:10:01 +0100, Helen Hall
<usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:QmtOz7DZeo4IFwbp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
rec.arts.sf.misc:

In message
<ddfr-5518A6.11402530092008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David
Friedman <ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

One thing that strikes me in this discussion is that the
most common current meaning doesn't seem to correspond
to even a special case of the (apparently older) and
more general meaning.

If you reduced a population of animals by somehow
identifying the less desirable ones in some sense--say
the dairy cows that gave less milk--and killing or
selling them, that would be a form of culling. But most
of the examples seem to involve killing a random
selection of a wild population, in order to reduce their
numbers.

So it sounds like a meaning that has been swamped by a
euphemism.

Very possibly. These things happen. It happened to
"intercourse". :)

Although one sense in particular is now dominant to the
point of being the default, <intercourse> can still be used
in a variety of senses. A better example is <hussy>,
originally just a variant of <housewife>.

There's nothing particularly euphemistic about the use of
<cull> to mean 'reduce a population by killing off some of
its members'. Indeed, it's a natural development from the
sense 'select for quality', which in turn was a natural
development from 'gather together, collect' (as in Latin
<colligere>, from which <cull> derives via Old French
<cuillir> and Middle English <coilen>). The intended result
of culling a herd or other animal population is often to
improve its overall quality, and a shift of focus from those
positively selected to those negatively selected is rather
natural in that context.

Brian
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: What (not) to write...
    ... more general meaning. ... of the examples seem to involve killing a random ... improve its overall quality, and a shift of focus from those ... But in the cases being described, there's no selection, except in a very ...
    (rec.arts.sf.misc)
  • Re: What (not) to write...
    ... frequently used of making a literary selection. ... and more general meaning. ... If you reduced a population of animals by somehow identifying the less ... milk--and killing or selling them, that would be a form of culling. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.misc)
  • Re: Natural selection is a false term - says Darwin in Origin Species
    ... language had any meaning at all. ... Chomsky says that natural selection can't explain where ... evolution for example are used so inter-changeably that nobody even ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Evolutionists Arguing Against The Basis of the ToE
    ... >> in the evolved sequence. ... > What do you think "coherent meaning" is Von? ... > written or spoken out of context necessarily have coherent meaning? ... > selection based upon functional differences in genetic sequences? ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Natural selection is a false term - says Darwin in Origin Species
    ... Natural selection is not random, ... the directing the selection force perhaps, he said no, nobody did any ... this is the only known case of you being able to gain meaning ...
    (talk.origins)