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Post by trubble on Feb 13, 2011 9:54:52 GMT
Thank you. I don't think it can be used - in normal conversation at least - to indicate an intense hatred of something. It's more of a lack or general cynicism. A hatred would require a more active feeling/state. Would you agree? (Feel free to say no; this is the nub of my dispute and the reason I am asking).
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Post by jean on Feb 13, 2011 10:09:04 GMT
I think you're right. I suppose the problem is that 'negative' can be used in two ways - hatred can be described as a 'negative' emotion, but it requires a good deal of 'positive' input to keep it going. It's not negative in the 'nothingness' sense.
(I didn't know till I looked it up of the use in psychiatry, where a person imagines that they or parts of their body cease to exist.)
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Post by trubble on Feb 13, 2011 10:11:34 GMT
Oh me neither. Does that mean I am nihilistic about my wrinkles?
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Post by trubble on Feb 13, 2011 10:32:02 GMT
I think my grampa had that in his last weeks, when his mind began to go a bit wobbly. "Don't bother going to work, all taxes have been abolished and everyone is a millionaire. Sigh. It's boring." Okay, maybe not that one. "Don't bother buying the paper. There is no news, just the same headlines every day about no taxes". That's not that bad, now I write it down. "The securicor van is arriving to take us to the next life. Knowing our luck it will be a refugee camp'. I'm not sure he was senile, you know.
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Post by motorist on Feb 13, 2011 10:41:15 GMT
No, that can't be right. Otherwise football etc. would be spoken of as zero-sum games.I consider them zero-point games (as in no point) ;D
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Post by Weyland on Feb 13, 2011 11:32:17 GMT
It's just a little bugbear of mine regarding a conversation I had about 20 years ago lol. Oh, Trubs, you're SO post-modern! Orsum. [Jimmy Shand's just been on DIDs -- Celia Imrie.]
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Post by Weyland on Feb 13, 2011 11:38:38 GMT
1. Characterized by or professing nihilism ... Tut tut tut. Source?
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Post by jean on Feb 13, 2011 11:58:21 GMT
OED of course. Sorry.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 13, 2011 12:05:26 GMT
Imagine my surprise. Here's what Chambers says: nihil n nothing. [L] nihilism or n belief in nothing; denial of all reality, or of all objective truth (); extreme scepticism; nothingness; (sometimes with cap) in tsarist Russia, a terrorist movement aiming at the overturn of all the existing institutions of society in order to build it up anew on different principles; terrorism or anarchy; complete destructiveness. nihilist n. nihilistic adj. nihility n nothingness; a mere nothing. nihil ad rem () nothing to the point. nihil obstat () nothing hinders, a book censor's form of permission to print.[Chambers groups definitions together like that. Can take a bit of getting used to.]
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Post by jean on Feb 13, 2011 12:13:38 GMT
I didn't give the whole entry, Weyland - I was concentrating on examples of usage. I had already perfectly adequately defined the word out of my own head.
(And don't say that nihil is what my head is filled with.)
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Post by Weyland on Feb 13, 2011 12:26:22 GMT
I didn't give the whole entry, Weyland - I was concentrating on examples of usage. I had already perfectly adequately defined the word out of my own head. I know, but I've got this Chambers and have to get my money's-worth out of it. One can't have too many dictionaries. As if.
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Post by rjpageuk on Feb 13, 2011 15:39:26 GMT
So he's right to throw the phrase around the way he does? No it doesnt make sense, although I read a few other threads on that board and that poster seemed clever and correct about most things so I would recommend letting him/her off.
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Post by rjpageuk on Feb 13, 2011 15:40:31 GMT
That guy on JSG who hated me (whose name I forget) always called me nihilistic. I thought it just meant he couldnt work out how to counter my arguments ;D
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Post by everso on Feb 20, 2011 23:56:15 GMT
I just took a look over on the Science Board too. What a bunch! You have to feel sorry for them though. All needing to be cleverer than the next person.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 21, 2011 0:05:15 GMT
I just took a look over on the Science Board too. What a bunch! You have to feel sorry for them though. All needing to be cleverer than the next person. <That's the first post for very nearly eight (8) hours, Ev. >Which makes them not very clever after all, wot?
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