BS: Conflate THIS!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 03:12 PM

"We found 18 dictionaries with English definitions that include the word conflate:
Tip: Click on the first link on a line below to go directly to a page where "conflate" is defined.

General (17 matching dictionaries)

conflate : Encarta® World English Dictionary, North American Edition [home, info]

conflate : Compact Oxford English Dictionary [home, info]

conflate : Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 10th Edition [home, info]

conflate : Cambridge International Dictionary of English [home, info]

conflate : Wiktionary [home, info]

conflate : The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language [home, info]

conflate : Infoplease Dictionary [home, info]

conflate : Dictionary.com [home, info]

conflate : Online Etymology Dictionary [home, info]

Conflate : Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia [home, info]

Conflate : Online Plain Text English Dictionary [home, info]

conflate : Rhymezone [home, info]

Conflate : AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary [home, info]

conflate : The Phrontistery - A Dictionary of Obscure Words [home, info]

conflate : WordNet 1.7 Vocabulary Helper [home, info]

conflate : LookWAYup Translating Dictionary/Thesaurus [home, info]

conflate : Worthless Word For The Day [home, info"]


From this on-line wordfiner. Perhaps Little Hawk is just bloviating out of laziness?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 04:32 PM

No, Dave, it is not an abridged dictionary, it's a huge, encyclopedic dictionary. It does contain "conflation", but not "conflate". Nonetheless, your point is a valid one. Any word that is in use clearly is a word...even if it's not in some dictionary.

I dislike conflate simply because I think people have been misusing it on Mudcat and doing that way too often...but that's just my own particular opinion.

Now, here's a word that is not in the dictionary, but it's a real world, because I am about to use it.

Diddlyboob.

Amos, you are a diddlyboob! ;-)

An erudite diddlyboob, to be sure....a diddlyboob who speaks and writes brilliantly, but a diddlyboob nonetheless.

I regret to say that I still don't know what "bloviate" means, so I shall have to look it up. But you accused me of being lazy!!!!

Well.....yeah....

I am proud of my laziness, sir. The only being around here that is demonstrably lazier than me is my dog, and he has attained absolute mastery of the art, due to the fact that he doesn't need to earn a living. I hope to one day be in such an exalted position myself, at which point I shall achieve a degree of laziness which at present is still beyond reach for me. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 05:19 PM

LH, 'Orate verbosely and windily' says Wordweb.

I made a bumpersticker for my van. 'Eschew Obfuscation'.

No-one ever asked.

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 05:34 PM

And to thee, oh, Hawk, I say "eschew bloviation".

Here's a friendly thought from a man we all should learn from:

BLAME

What if I should discover that....
I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness,
that I myself am the enemy who must be loved --
what then?

          Carl Jung

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 05:57 PM

Yes, well, I must find out what "bloviation" means, mustn't I? I'll go and do that, okay?

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 06:01 PM

Well, I'll be darned. "Bloviation" is not in my dictionary either. I'll guess I'll have to search online. It surprises me that you people keep fining words which are NOT to be found in an 1147-page encyclopedic Webster's dictionary!

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 06:14 PM

Aha! The mystery is solved. It is an Americanism, and that is why it is not in my Canadian dictionary. Canadian dictionaries, quite properly, scorn the more obscure Americanisms. ;-) The term "bloviate" first appeared around 1850-55, and was a concocted psuedo-Latin term, meaning:

"to speak pompously"

"to orate verbosely and windily"

It was popularized into general usage by Warren G. Harding in the 1920s.

And that is why it is not in a Canadian encyclopedic dictionary.

So, Amos, you accuse me of speaking pompously? Of orating verbosely and windily?

Ha! I freely admit to doing so. I take delight in doing so. I do it deliberately and frequently. Why? I am attempting, in my own small way, to match the sublime heights of bloviation achieved by the master of it on Mudcat...that master being yourself.

I regret to say that I am still falling a wee bit short of your own godlike capabilities in that regard, but I am sincerly trying. Give me time. Now that I have learned the Americanism "to bloviate", I have one more round of ammunition in my arsenal, as it were...

Expect some inspired bloviation when I have had time to replenish my energies fullsomely, for then I shall advance again to the field of honour, thesaurus in hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 06:23 PM

Th'art free with compliments and praises, and such,
Render the open eye distrustful at the touch,
Such deluge of fine phrase, without inflection
Of doubt or irony, requires reflection.
And to this strange conclusion come we all:
It is untrue -- the foolish shepherd's call
Of wolf, alone against the village night,
Offered as some excuse to join the light.
This flavor causes one to flinch from touch
By one who praising, praises over-much.
Thus is the sad conclusion of reflection --
Your iron, though soft, is just projection.

Winifred Bigelow Ames
Songs in the Distant Bushes
Naughty Editions, inc., Saville, 1908

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 09:20 PM

Eschew! Eschew!

Gesundheit!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Aug 07 - 12:27 AM

"Where did you say you're from?"

"I said, I'm from SCHENECTADY!!!"

"Bless you!"

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Amos
Date: 09 Aug 07 - 12:36 AM

'Bout time that Little Hawk owned up -- all this time pretending to be Canadian -- explains a lot, I tell ya.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Gurney
Date: 09 Aug 07 - 09:37 PM

LH, that's an Aussie joke!

"Where are you jokers from?"

"Schentady and Kootenay"

"Oh."

"Where did they say they come from, Blue?"

"Dunno, they don't speak English, Sport."

Subject: RE: BS: Conflate THIS!!!
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Aug 07 - 10:21 AM

Conflatio - lieing through one's teeth.