Laughter without any stimulant

[coffeesippin]

On 11/15/2018 at 8:42 AM, DrP said:

I can look it up in the Oxford or Cambridge dics if you like - it will say a similar thing.  

There are different types of laughter.  That happens a lot with language....  one word can mean a whole class of things.  There are sniggers, giggles, guffaws, chuckles, chortles etc....  the list of ways to describe the different types of laughter is quite long and they describe subtle differences.  I can't watch your vid here at work - will do if I get the chance at home later.

I have read that a prominent contributor to one of the English language's major British dictionaries was a lunatic in an asylum, the details escape me at the moment (old age working) but I totally believe it .. the same word having opposite meanings for instance .. laughter an expression of joy and appreciation  ..  snigger an insulting demeaning obsenity .. many words are as opposed .. same with spelling .. I blame the English language on a lot of the Schitzophrenia in English language societies .. and it's no  wonder English is the language of Babylon the modern day new world business/military order (the mouth of the Lion .. the Lion being Britain.)   One British dictionary has Venus as Lucifer .. while the bible and most dictionaries have Venus as the bright and morning star which the bible calls Jesus.   English is my only language, but I doubt if any other language is as murderous.   You may not enjoy my post if you're British .. I'm Canadian .. getting the worst of the U.S. English and British English too.  

[Strange]

1 hour ago, coffeesippin said:

I have read that a prominent contributor to one of the English language's major British dictionaries was a lunatic in an asylum, the details escape me at the moment (old age working) but I totally believe it

Dr William Chester Minor, a contributor to the first Oxford Dictionary: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-the-oxford-english-dictionary-went-from-murderers-pet-project-to-internet-lexicon

1 hour ago, coffeesippin said:

the same word having opposite meanings for instance

It is quite common: cleave (join) and cleave (split), for example. 

1 hour ago, coffeesippin said:

snigger an insulting demeaning obsenity

That is not what it means in British English, maybe it is different in Canada.

1 hour ago, coffeesippin said:

One British dictionary has Venus as Lucifer

Lucifer was the Latin name for Venus as the morning star. (The evening star was called Vesper; these are both Latin translations of the Greek names.)

 

[coffeesippin]

2 hours ago, Strange said:

Dr William Chester Minor, a contributor to the first Oxford Dictionary: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-the-oxford-english-dictionary-went-from-murderers-pet-project-to-internet-lexicon

It is quite common: cleave (join) and cleave (split), for example. 

That is not what it means in British English, maybe it is different in Canada.

Lucifer was the Latin name for Venus as the morning star. (The evening star was called Vesper; these are both Latin translations of the Greek names.)

 

Yes, same word opposite meaning is as common as mental illness, and that is so common as to be normal.  Canada is far too multicultural for words to have a 'Canadian' meaning, British will bring their flavour, Polish theirs, a thousand races, ethnic groups, subsets, etc.  Newfoundlanders used to have an English almost impossible to understand and they were divided into hundreds of dialects.  Words probably vary greatly in meaning according to class in Britain.  In my lower income caucasian, 'the boys sniggered behind the girls' outhouse' brings out some meaning.  

Lucifer this is very interesting .. Isaiah 14:12 is the only reference in the bible according to Strong's Concordance .. from the Hebrew word 1966 heylel sense of brightness, from Hebrew word 1984 halal (to be clear originally of sound then colour, to shine, make a boast, rave.  Strong (or a later editor) made an obvious error likening Lucifier to the morning star because Revelation 22:15 quotes Jesus,  "... I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star."    Perhaps this contributed to the murderer's madness in his pet project.

Latin name for Venus as Lucifer?  I did a quick search, and found a reference of that effect, but no dates.  Was this another attempt to confuse between good and evil?  I fail to understand how anyone with a clear mind who has seen Venus as the morning star (planet of course needs not to be said but ... ) can deny it's singular beauty and specific 'voice' calling to truth and beauty, honesty and goodness.  The shine of gold can blind the mind to beauty, though, and twist light into darkness.

And thank you for the link, very interesting, and a fine discourse on the confusion of tongues.

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by coffeesippin
Added Latin, lucifer .. and a thanks to Strange.

[coffeesippin]

Another fine example of the insanity of the English language:  Susurrous derives from the Latin noun susurrus, meaning "a hum" or "a whisper," and may be a distant relative of swarm (think of the collective hum of a beehive). Susurrus is itself an English noun with the meaning "a whispering or rustling sound" (Stephen King provides us with the example of "a violent susurrus of air"). Both the noun and the adjective (note that the two are spelled differently) are products of the 19th century, but they were preceded by the noun susurration, which in the 15th century originally meant "malicious whispering or rumor." Today susurrous is used to describe any kind of sound that resembles a whisper: a light breeze through a tree, perhaps, or the murmurs of intrigued theatergoers.

     We see that the peaceful and soothing whisper of a light breeze through a tree has the same word as malicious whispering.  How is anyone supposed to grow up sane with such a language?  But in an imperialist nation sane people are not wanted because they resist things like murderous wars intended to enlarge the borders of the wealthy.   'Drive them crazy and put a gun in their hand.'  

[StringJunky]

14 minutes ago, coffeesippin said:

Another fine example of the insanity of the English language:  Susurrous derives from the Latin noun susurrus, meaning "a hum" or "a whisper," and may be a distant relative of swarm (think of the collective hum of a beehive). Susurrus is itself an English noun with the meaning "a whispering or rustling sound" (Stephen King provides us with the example of "a violent susurrus of air"). Both the noun and the adjective (note that the two are spelled differently) are products of the 19th century, but they were preceded by the noun susurration, which in the 15th century originally meant "malicious whispering or rumor." Today susurrous is used to describe any kind of sound that resembles a whisper: a light breeze through a tree, perhaps, or the murmurs of intrigued theatergoers.

     We see that the peaceful and soothing whisper of a light breeze through a tree has the same word as malicious whispering.  How is anyone supposed to grow up sane with such a language?  But in an imperialist nation sane people are not wanted because they resist things like murderous wars intended to enlarge the borders of the wealthy.   'Drive them crazy and put a gun in their hand.'  

We are a bastard nation with many fathers, so it's not surprising our language is somewhat ad hoc.