Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee
Okay, let's try it this way-- which of these seem like more rational, practical, logical sentences?
Set one:
"Where's your DVD player, I brought some DVDs with me."
"My CD player scratched my new CD!"
"I just found a box of old records, but I threw away my record player!"
Set two:
"Where's your gleegsnog, I brought some DVDs with me."
"My blamtookle scratched my new CD!"
"I just found a box of old records, but I threw away my zlaxtope!"
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Actually, in the early 80's video players were more commonly referred to by the format they played, which where in essence alien words.
"My Betamax chewed up the tape."
"I just found a box of old tapes, but I threw away my VHS."
"The heads went on my VHS last night, do you have a butter knife so I can reach in and scrape the sides to get it playing again?" (An old trick, but it worked every time.)
Also the Walkman was used to describe every single last personal cassette player. Boombox for any portable machine that was not wearable, Hi-Fi, for anything that had an LP player and tape-to tape, Speccy instead of personal computer....the list is almost endless of words without practical meaning being adopted to describe more practical appliances.
Language would be very poor if we were relegated to the instantly meaningful or practical (if anything, language is impractical, imprecise and fraught with double meanings).