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Banned Words List Carries Its First Emoticon
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:08 AM
from the bet-they-have-power-in-the-upper-penninsula dept.
from the bet-they-have-power-in-the-upper-penninsula dept.
DynaSoar writes "Lake Superior State University in Michigan's Upper Peninsula ('The land of four seasons: June, July, August and Winter') has just published its 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Besides such unsurprising inclusions such as 'green' corporations being 'game changing' due to concern with their 'carbon foot print,' this year's list contains an emoticon for the first time — not a smiley face or variant, but the 'heart' symbol made from the characters 'less than' and 'three.' It's perhaps a sign of the evolution of language, or at least of this volunteer linguistic watchdog group, that a symbol compounded of two characters, neither of them a letter, is considered not only a word, but a particularly egregious one."
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A cause for celebration (Score:5, Funny)
Let's celebrate.
\o/
Re:A cause for celebration (Score:5, Funny)
Is that a devil fist or a woman laying on her back?
Parent
Re:A cause for celebration (Score:5, Funny)
\0/
|
_/`\_
Woman
\0/
|
_/^\_
Parent
Re:A cause for celebration (Score:5, Funny)
Oh god, help me! Half of my cock is severed underneath my feet!
Parent
Re:A cause for celebration (Score:4, Funny)
You're giving me a 3 on.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A cause for celebration (Score:4, Insightful)
Seems like they think it's a good idea to gradually turn the rest of Slashdot into "Idle".
Parent
Re:A cause for celebration (Score:5, Insightful)
Well it looks like shit and feels broken. Can we PLEASE have the old /. back?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
<(^^)>
(>^^)>
dance for the <3 of it
Link to the list (Score:4, Informative)
...but they 3 irony (Score:5, Insightful)
They appear to either hate political discourse or the sound-bite products of political discourse.
They clearly love irony though. A US university trying to ban words from the Queen's English?
Parent
wtf (Score:5, Funny)
I thought it was mammaries or butt-cheeks, depending
on the context.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:wtf (Score:5, Funny)
( O )( O ) = Boobies with big nipples
[ . ][ . ] = Robot boobies
( : )( . ) = Triple Nipple Boobies
( % )( % ) = Pierced Boobies
( @ )( @ ) = Epic Boobies
( ^ )( ^ ) = Perky Boobies
( , )( ' ) = Lop-sided Boobies
( U )( U ) = Long nipple Boobies
\ .
| . | . | = Man Chested
( . )( . )( . ) = Total Recall
There are inevitably more. Add to the list.
This has been a public service announcement.
Parent
Re:wtf (Score:5, Funny)
my fav:
( . Y . )
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
mine:
( O Y O )
Re:wtf (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:wtf (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:wtf (Score:5, Funny)
You kids and your fancy computer characters! Back in my day, we could only use numbers and calculators. It was 51358008 and we liked it. Now get off my lawn!
In my day we'd say "what's 44125687 + 11252321 ? It's what your girlfriend is! 55378008 Get it? Turn your calculator upside down!" Of course it was 4th grade, so they pretty much all were, except Fat Jason. Just don't call him that, 'cause he'll sit on you.
Parent
Re:wtf (Score:5, Funny)
The first time I saw it I thought it was an emoticon for teabagging. Looks a lot more like a sac than a heart, imho.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
<3 is supposed to be a heart!? And all this time I thought it was mammaries or butt-cheeks, depending on the context.
It's actually "asshat".
I thought it would have been this: (Score:5, Insightful)
8====D
Re:I thought it would have been this: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Pinocchio? (Score:3, Funny)
just a really long nose.
You've got to be lying.
Re:I thought it would have been this: (Score:5, Funny)
That's one big smiley face!
... or are you just glad to see me?
Parent
New Summary (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone sees '<3' and nerdgasms. The aftermath is left here on Slashdot.
This is not news, it's spam.
Move along please.
Wait I thought.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
But... (Score:5, Funny)
I <3 monkeys and have set up a green organization so to achieve our directive and maintain a low carbon footprint, along with my wife to protect them. My wife is a bit of a Maverick and is trying to run for president but I am ok with being First Dude.
Language evolves - deal with it (Score:5, Insightful)
Americans leave out the "u" in colour, armour, neighbour, etc. We no longer pronounce "night" as [ni:xt] or [ni:t] (IPA [wikipedia.org]). We could come up with a huge number of examples, but why bother? Language evolves over time, words lose or gain meaning. It's a natural process. You'd think an academic institution would understand this simple concept, but I guess grabbing headlines is more important than practicing proper academia.
Emoticons are just an evolution of a new language. It's actually quite extraordinary. We have now created symbols that can represent simple meanings cross-culturally and cross-linguistically, and these symbols are popularized in large part by the youth of the world. They are creating a whole new language right before our eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if we would soon be able to communicate simple messages between different cultures that speak different languages via symbols (some would argue we already can). It's a shame that institutions such as this one and the "get off my damn lawn" crowd are ridiculing such an extraordinary example of the human ability to adapt and break down communicative barriers.
Re:Language evolves - deal with it (Score:5, Interesting)
We have now created symbols that can represent simple meanings cross-culturally and cross-linguistically
We had these thousands of years ago, on the walls of caves.
Parent
Re:Get Off My Lawn, Punk (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Why the hate, LSSU? (Score:5, Funny)
Me: LSSU! <3 :( :D
LSSU: </3
Me:
LSSU: ( ^_^ )
LSSU: <(^_^<)
LSSU: (>^_^)>
LSSU: (o^_^)O
LSSU: O(^_^o)
Me:
LSSU: (>O<)
Me: D:
Re:Why the hate, LSSU? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
OMG my junk has just been censored by /. (Score:4, Funny)
The opposite of <3. (Score:5, Funny)
For some time now I've been using >=3 as an emoticon for "hate". Rarely do people seem to get it, though.
Pity they didn't include "loosers" (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe ban the losers who constantly spell lose as loose.
It's gotten to the point that I involuntarily flinch every time I see the word 'looser', even in the correct context.
Re:Pity they didn't include "loosers" (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:a flashback to the 90's (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
That's what he WANTS you to say (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Interesting - that appears to be closer to modern German (my native language) than modern English.
It's cause we stole it from you long ago. Most of English's "base" is German derived. It's just we're also very loose about adding words stolen from other languages. Making a faux pas at a rodeo is strictly verboten - you say this to an English speaker, and most of us will know what you're talking about, even though "faux pas", "rodeo", and "verboten" have all entered the English lexicon in the past 150 year
Re:a flashback to the 90's (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, if you are referring to the bibles that the Gideon society leaves in hotel rooms, that is in modern English. You can tell it is in modern English because, as a native English speaker, you have little difficulty reading it. Also, "wife" is not spelled "wyf," as it would be in middle English, and it does not read like German or contain any "ash" (æ) characters, at it would if it were actually old English.
Parent
2 = 4/2 (Score:3, Insightful)
2!
Well, you're only half right...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:3 is the emoticon (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, and how long until...
8===D
Gets the boot?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well, all right...
zomg wtf why is this not in idle why did it appear on my home screen i wasted my precious time reading it ill never get that time back slashdot has gone downhill this isnt news for nerds why am i reading it i hate it why cant we just stick to news on my personal minutiae thats what news for nerds should be all about not this humor crap i traded my emotions for efficiency for a reason you insensitive clods stop that laughing one of these days youre going to wind up dead just like your idiot