Quote:
Originally Posted by Metal Mick
Hi Prusaks, et al,
many thanks. I will try the Oxford.
Believe it or not, this came about when I was reading Fault Line by Barry Eisler: he used the word "copacetic", and it was not in the Webster.
(What was that thing Orwell said about "...never use a big word when a little word will do..."?  )
Cheers, |
The new edition has "copacetic"...
adjective or copasetic ...origin unknown
slang: very satisfactory: fine and dandy His smile told him that everything was copacetic -- Robert Bloch
I wonder what Orwell would have to say about copyrights. Would he argue that free access to knowledge is a basic human right just as freedom of speech? 300 years ago it was a bunch of industrialists in his country who made the first copyright laws called, ironically,
An Act for the Encouragement of Learning...From the very beginning it was about controlling one of the important ways to maintain power and money in an unfair system.
The university I am currently associated with is becoming more like a cooperative as many other educational institutions in this country but there is one thing it does I really appreciate. It allows anyone to enter its library to use the computers and books. I am happy to see a homeless woman asking for a temporary pass with all her property in the cart beside her. Another university here even unilaterally stopped the inter-library service agreement and made students from other universities pay to use its library material.