Oppobrium? Latifundium? Bellicose? Effete? Really? What the fuck is wrong with these people. These words are like paragraphs apart

Edit: just read the term “professional-cum-technocratic ethos” this shit is not normal and the author should be ashamed

  • joaomarrom [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    I love how some Latin-based words are fancy and complicated in English while being totally normal in Romance languages. In Portuguese, Latifúndio is like a basic word everybody uses when discussing agribusiness. Same goes for plenty of medical stuff. English speakers go to the ENT if their throat hurts. We go to the otolaryngologist, otorrinolaringologista or just otorrino.

    • Terrarium [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      21 hours ago

      The English translations and study of Freud use id, ego, and superego. All latin forms to denote how sophisticated and sciencey he must have been. The concepts declared as academic abstractions, special terms to learn.

      In Freud’s actual writing, they are Es, Ich, and Über-Ich: “it”, “I”, and “beyond I”. In normal language, in his own tongue of German. Sure, he capitalizes them to make it clear they are dedicated concepts, but they are not Latin. That was English language academics trying to make it sound sufficiently academic.

      • Huldra [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.net
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        21 hours ago

        The English language already uses a capitalised I by default in common language, so attempting to use the same conventions would be at best unnecessarily confusing.

        Maybe it didn’t strictly have to be Latin, but it easily makes sense to invent discrete terms.

        • Terrarium [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          20 hours ago

          In English you could just write “Self” and be fine. The urge to Latinize comes from a tradition of academics trying to make something even more academic and, historically, required the “standard” education of learning Latin (and some Greek) at substantial expense of your parents. Snooty people for hundreds of years would not consider you educated (read: part of their in-group) unless you could come up with a new university motto.

          Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana

      • joaomarrom [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 day ago

        Yup, in Portuguese we say cotidiano and it’s a very normal word too. Another good one is “perceive”, which sounds a bit more serious and scientific, but perceber, with the same origin, is used in the same casual way as “notice” would be in English.

    • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
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      22 hours ago

      I remember my second grade teacher being very impressed that I knew the word “sufficient.” I wasn’t well-read or anything, I just spoke Spanish. No one cares about my vocabulary now though ):