• adam_y@lemmy.worldEnglish
    53·
    3 天前

    What you’ve done there is confuse what I was describing as usage with historical context.

    What you just said is like saying, “actually Gay really means just happy”.

    I mean, yes, it did, but now not so much.

    And that’s the difference between descriptive and prescriptive usage.

    David Foster Wallace talks about it a fair bit in one of his essays. Prescriptive description of English usage being somewhat colonial and, to an extent, authoritarian as well as being particularly useless on the ground, so to speak.

    So yeah, it was that way around, but try using it that way round now and see how far you get.

      • adam_y@lemmy.worldEnglish
        42·
        3 天前

        Errr… That’s not what I’m saying chief. I’m saying you are right, just that things have changed in usage.

        The wiki article actually says that too.

        • OryxAndCake@slrpnk.netEnglish
          21·
          2 天前

          The wiki article actually says that too.

          Can you quote the bit? I’m not seeing it. The only place anything similar is mentioned refers to it happening outside of the uk.

            • OryxAndCake@slrpnk.netEnglish
              21·
              2 天前

              Bruh. You literally posted this: https://slrpnk.net/post/40256413/23312028

              I’ll copy it over too, just in case you also don’t remember how to click on links, chief.

              Explanation if any of our foreign cousins want it.

              Tea, short for tea time.

              In the South you used to (and still do) have the following three meals a day:

              Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

              In the North, however…

              Breakfast, dinner, tea.

              Both might tie the end of the day off with supper too. Brunch is for the jobless middle class and wandered into the conversation with yuppies in the 80s.

              There’s also a tea break, which is usually just a cup (or mug if you are a ruffian) of tea. Not to be confused with tea time, where you might reasonably expect to eat your dinner.

              Then there’s high tea, which yes, features tea. Often a pot and almost never a mug. It frequently comes with anemic sandwiches and perhaps a scone.

              I hope that clears things up.

              So apparently all this here isn’t you explaining about the British custom of ‘tea’ in a top comment on a thread about ‘wacky things British people say’, but is actually you just explaining about the ‘tea’ custom of a totally unrelated and as yet un-named country?..

              Seriously, chief, this one is on you. You goofed up and didn’t like being corrected, so you had this little tantrum trying to ‘no, you’ your way into still being right. Lmao. That’s pathetic.

                • OryxAndCake@slrpnk.netEnglish
                  2·
                  2 天前

                  You said something wrong and were corrected and instead of taking it graciously, you doubled down and ‘um akshually’ three times now by moving the goal posts to desperatly cling on to being ‘correct’

                  First time, apparently you know secret, but very common, but not so common it’s on wikipedia, information about how British ‘tea’ culture terms have been transposed.

                  Second time, apparently no, you weren’t even talking about the UK when you offered to explain british ‘tea’ culture to any foriengers here.

                  And now thirdly, oops it was all a joke! You didn’t mean to claim any authority on the subject, it was just owo silly boy humour and I’m a big ugly meanie for calling you out.

                  Lmao, this was hella embarrassing to watch you go through.

                  Next time you’re corrected, take it on the chin and don’t double down with your bullshit. It only makes you look bad.