1251: The Nuance of Proof May 13, 2018

-
There is no harm in seeing that words can have multiple and even conflicting meanings [1], though there are some words for which a misunderstanding can lead to communicational problems with deep social and cognitive effects. The word 'proof' for instance has the sense of sounding as if it means something has been confirmed as a fact. Indeed, often this is the way in which the word is used, but as is evidenced (proven?) with the statement and expression "the exception that proves the rule", if 'prove' meant "confirm as factual" then the statement would not make sense, as exceptions make rules invalid. Instead, what 'prove' means 'to test'. To say this is all it means though would be prescriptivist; due to past misunderstanding and misinterpretation, the word has gained a more objective sense of sounding infallible, and this may lead people to be critical of the uncertainty of proof. At this point however, all one can do is to be mindful of both.
To see some hypothetical Word Facts, visit Patreon.com/wordfacts. Check out the latest Youtube video too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqYX2heE0T0

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Important Announcement: Blogspot Access Will Close

-
There will be no additional new content hosted on this blogspot account, and in 4 weeks from now (30th of September 2020), the blogspot account will no longer be publically available. If you are subscribed via email, please visit WordFacts.Org and subscribe via email there; there is a link to do so on the bottom of every page, so you will only need to scroll all the way down on any page you are on (see video below if needed). Apologies for the inconvenience, but the blog, video, and commercial services are now being moved specifically to WordFacts.Org 
Continue »

1511: "I'll be home in 3 days; don't wash" Might be False Jan 31, 2019

-
Image
Check out the latest podcast on the Patreon for as little as $1: • It is very easy for misinformation to spread so long as there is a grain of truth to it, such as the line of ' let them eat cake ', which was probably never said by Marie Antoinette. Another such disputed quote is "I return in 3 (or 5 or 8) days; don't wash" said by Napoleon to his wife Josephine. This quote is more likely to have been written than that attributed to Antoinette as he did often write her love letters, but many of the original lines from which the now-famous quote could have been drawn are often contradictory or not so reliable.
Continue »

852: delilah Apr 8, 2017

-
Plenty of common Western names have some biblical relevance. It is usually from the frequency of these names that terms like 'john' referring to a man who hires prostitute, or foundation the baseball team, Yankees , come about. Some names, such as 'Delilah', are also used as nouns separate from the name, but with connotations stemming from Scripture, and not contemporary connotations. It is from the story of Samson and Delilah where the sense of the word as 'seductress' began, but the name was around for much longer than this. There is disagreement concerning the true etymology of this word, but it either comes from the Hebrew element 'dal' meaning 'weak' or the Hebrew for 'delight'. Unlike other much older names like 'Matthew' or 'John', 'Delilah' only started to be used as a name in the 17th century with the Puritans, though it gained more popularity following Saint-Saens' opera, Samson and Delilah (1877). Li
Continue »