Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
These things can be taken too far, though, Barty. Believe it or not, I was once criticised in another forum for using the word "niggardly", which the poster, in her profound ignorance, wrongly believed was derived from the word "nigger". Needless to say, it's entirely unrelated!
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I would actually be afraid to use the word niggardly today. For the reason you mentioned. The Net has become the Domain of the illiterate and ignorant, and trying to have ANY type of intelligent conversation is hopeless in most areas. I'd use niggardly here, and on Straight Dopers, but that would be about it. Maybe on Quora, depending on the thread. But I'd be actually scared to use it in most places.
I just saw an 8-page long (w/approx. 25-50 replies per page) thread on the KDP forums about "justification," with people INSISTING that "right-justify" and "left-justify" not only
exist, (as a real, typographic thing), but are
correct usages. Now, that was bad enough, but you should have seen the vitriol. It descended into some slagging match with some references to some alleged homophobia on the part of one of the posters. I mean...for the love of heaven.
Hitch