Absolutely Will Not Stop (Steamroller)
Mar. 15th, 2008 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jheti
And in the I'm Right box, we can add the fascinating subject of that particular adjective and emotional state "nonplussed".
I first learned this word at the age of seven, from a Star Trek book. I did not look this word up until I was twelve, because some random adult or other with social power had informed me that I was head-deskingly WRONG about its usage.
Let us consider the word. It usually appears in dialogue, and usually in this fashion.
"Uh, I, that is--yes," he said, nonplussed.
That's not the exact sentence I found it in; I don't remember the specific sentence, just how neato I thought it was that there was a word besides "Ummm" for that state of total, sometimes-stuttering-inducing, more-or-less hesitant bewilderment.
I sat down and thought about it when I realized I understood the word but had no idea what it actually meant. Like many kids do when good explanations aren't right at hand, I made some likely-sounding shit up.
"Non-" means not something. "Plussed" means adding things. Thus, I figured "not-adding" as a compound word meant, "that blank feeling you get when you attempt to put two and two together and not only don't get four, the whole math problem evaporates in a giant cloud of 'UH.... WHAT?', leaving you groping about for something meaningful, or at least less stupid, to say."
Seriously. Nonplussed = critical stop at brainfunction.exe, socialskills.exe, worldview.exe, and sometimes faithinhumanity.exe, and is usually followed by a flat tone of voice and vague backpedaling.
This is not hard. Nor is it hard to learn. It even makes a kind of coherent mini-sense unto itself without any additional info.
So I have NO FREAKING IDEA where the "modern North American" notion that
nonplussed = unperturbed
has come from. Unless it's from people's tendency to go somewhat deadpan in moments of total brain-borking shock.
BUT THEY ARE TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS. NO MATTER WHAT.
And for the last motherfucking time, "ambivalent" DOES NOT MEAN "apathetic", "ambivalent" is pretty much the anti-apathetic, thank you.
Srysly.
Also, #0E97B9 is the most gorgeous color in that half of the spectrum I've ever laid eyes on.
I first learned this word at the age of seven, from a Star Trek book. I did not look this word up until I was twelve, because some random adult or other with social power had informed me that I was head-deskingly WRONG about its usage.
Let us consider the word. It usually appears in dialogue, and usually in this fashion.
"Uh, I, that is--yes," he said, nonplussed.
That's not the exact sentence I found it in; I don't remember the specific sentence, just how neato I thought it was that there was a word besides "Ummm" for that state of total, sometimes-stuttering-inducing, more-or-less hesitant bewilderment.
I sat down and thought about it when I realized I understood the word but had no idea what it actually meant. Like many kids do when good explanations aren't right at hand, I made some likely-sounding shit up.
"Non-" means not something. "Plussed" means adding things. Thus, I figured "not-adding" as a compound word meant, "that blank feeling you get when you attempt to put two and two together and not only don't get four, the whole math problem evaporates in a giant cloud of 'UH.... WHAT?', leaving you groping about for something meaningful, or at least less stupid, to say."
Seriously. Nonplussed = critical stop at brainfunction.exe, socialskills.exe, worldview.exe, and sometimes faithinhumanity.exe, and is usually followed by a flat tone of voice and vague backpedaling.
This is not hard. Nor is it hard to learn. It even makes a kind of coherent mini-sense unto itself without any additional info.
So I have NO FREAKING IDEA where the "modern North American" notion that
nonplussed = unperturbed
has come from. Unless it's from people's tendency to go somewhat deadpan in moments of total brain-borking shock.
BUT THEY ARE TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS. NO MATTER WHAT.
And for the last motherfucking time, "ambivalent" DOES NOT MEAN "apathetic", "ambivalent" is pretty much the anti-apathetic, thank you.
Srysly.
Also, #0E97B9 is the most gorgeous color in that half of the spectrum I've ever laid eyes on.
