• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The joy of language…

    If something sounds stupid and doesn’t make sense how we use it, chances are because at some point everyone just shortened something because “everyone knows what I’m talking about”.

    Like, I’m sure there’s already kids that don’t know what LOL actually stands for, just that it means something is funny.

    Etc and e.g. are already there.

    No one does it better than the Brits tho. Cockney rhyming slang is just the most etymological fascinating shit ever. Like half the words in a sentence sound like random gibberish, but that’s the entire point of it.

    They do it because they don’t want anyone to know what they’re talking about, unless they already know what they’re talking about.

    At the end of the day, words just represent what we agree they represent.

    But especially in English, that rarely makes logical sense when just looking at present usage.

    • snooggums@midwest.social
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      6 months ago

      Like, I’m sure there’s already kids that don’t know what LOL actually stands for

      I don’t even play it and I know that stands for League of Legends. Sheesh!