deep, thought provoking question thread

[A True Kaniggit]

Where the hell is the remote? It's been gone for over a week!

Edit: The remote has returned. The 13m/o walked into the living room with it. Where did she get it from? Who knows. I'm assuming she had it hidden in a pocket dimension that only she has access to. 

[HexMachina]

20 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 Amazon Warehouse drones can't afford Prime, silly!

Yeah, well neither can students, but that's what an overdrafts for y'know? 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Would it be weird to make a six foot tall jenga set?  

Also please consider that my new apartment is on the second floor.  Would probably have to pad the floor around it too to not screw up the floor and also out of consideration to the downstairs neighbor.  Or I guess I could make a platform for it for outdoor use.   Players might need to wear helmets.

[Castellan]

On 8 July 2017 at 2:57 PM, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 Shouldn't firemen and firewomen be called watermen and waterwomen?

Probably waterman was already taken at the time firemen were instituted.

In French they are pompiers which I presume means pump men or pump operators.

On 9 July 2017 at 2:00 AM, Ormond said:

Nope. I think words for occupations generally deal with what is being acted upon rather than the equipment used.

A laundry man or laundry woman is someone who acts upon the clothes to make them clean. They aren't "washing machine men/women." I think most speakers of English would interpret a "washing machine man/woman" as someone who fixes the machines or keeps them in good working order, not one who does the laundry.

So a waterman or waterwoman is someone who brings you water for any purpose, not someone who puts out fires with the water (and of course fires can be extinguished through other methods than water, which would make "waterperson" even less appropriate a term for someone who puts out fires.)

And a fireman of course doesn't have to be someone who puts out fires. It's also "a person who tends a furnace or the fire of a steam engine or steamship" .  You are called after what you're dealing with, whether you are trying to extinguish it or trying to keep it going.

Your general rule does not hold up. Obviously occupation names can be formed many different ways. Very often its the verb for what you are doing (e.g. bake baker), not the thing you are doing it to or the tool you are doing it with. Sometimes it would be the place you are doing it - as in one sense of watermen.

I believe using the word laundry for dirty clothes came after the verb launder for washing clothes or cloth, and the noun laundry for place where that was done, and the noun laundress. As far as I can see it all goes back to a Latin verb lavare to wash through middle Frenh to middle English. I am Australian and I don't refer to dirty clothes as laundry (even though I am vaguely aware other do). Laundry for me is the room in the house or an establishment where clothes are washed. What you call laundry I call 'dirty clothes' or 'washing'. And in fact as well as laundress coming into English there was plain old 'washerwoman' as well. 

Glad to see these vital issues raised.

 

 

[all swedes are racist]

46 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Would it be weird to make a six foot tall jenga set?  

Also please consider that my new apartment is on the second floor.  Would probably have to pad the floor around it too to not screw up the floor and also out of consideration to the downstairs neighbor.  Or I guess I could make a platform for it for outdoor use.   Players might need to wear helmets.

weirder not to imo