{"id":8296,"date":"2017-07-06T06:37:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T05:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=8296"},"modified":"2017-07-06T06:37:27","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T05:37:27","slug":"quite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2017\/07\/06\/quite\/","title":{"rendered":"Quite!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have an enduring interest in the English language. I am constantly fascinated by the immense power of this communications tool. I am not a subscriber to the view that English should be carefully preserved; I feel strongly that one of its great virtues is the ability to evolve to meet the needs of the time. A language is a living thing and must be allowed its freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, however, things go a little awry or get confusing \u2026<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>We all know what \u201cfamous\u201d means. That is quite clear. What is the opposite of famous? I suppose the best I can suggest is \u201cobscure\u201d, but that does not seem quite right. The logical word should be \u201cinfamous\u201d, but that means \u201chaving an extremely bad reputation\u201d &#8211; i.e. famous for bad reasons. This is illogical, as we already have the word \u201cnotorious\u201d, which I feel serves this function.<\/p>\n<p>Another word that bothers me is \u201cinvariably\u201d. The dictionary meaning is clear, unsurprising and unambiguous: it means &#8220;without change&#8221;. However, I have observed that many [most perhaps] people use it to mean \u201calmost always\u201d. For example, \u201cHe invariably eats lunch at the caf\u00e9\u201d should mean that he goes there 7 days a week. However, it commonly means \u201che goes there nearly every day\u201d. Is this local to me? Is it just a UK English thing?<\/p>\n<p>A word that has flummoxed me of late is \u201cquite\u201d. It is another word where the dictionary definition seems quite clear, but is defied by many people with whom I have communicated over the years. To me, the word is a qualifier that tones down an adjective. For example, \u201cthe house is quite nice\u201d means that it is fine, it is OK, but it is not wonderful. So, when a colleague [who speaks US English] said my writing was \u201cquite good\u201d, I took that as meaning that it could be better. The correct meaning of the word is \u201ccompletely or entirely\u201d &#8211; in other words it <em>strengthens<\/em> an adjective. For example, \u201cyou are quite welcome\u201d means that your welcome is complete and total. Again, I wonder whether the toning down use of \u201cquite\u201d is a UK English thing? There is a further nuance. Take the phrase \u201cshe is quite the little princess\u201d. In this case, the word seems to be making \u201cprincess\u201d into a metaphor.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I should just give up and go learn Toki Pona &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/colinwalls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6579\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/linkedin.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/colin_walls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6583\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/twitter.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/colinwalls.author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6591\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/facebook.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/116301748426290440139\/posts?hl=en%3Fhl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6587\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/google.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/ColinWalls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6595\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/slideshare.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"41\" height=\"41\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6599\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/wordpress.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have an enduring interest in the English language. I am constantly fascinated by the immense power of this communications&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8296"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=8296"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=8296"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}