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Niets is erger dan de onzekerheid
Jan. 30th, 2010 03:32 amHad a bit of uncertainty a while ago. Should the plural of rhinoceros be rhinoceri? Or rhinocerii? Or rhinoceroses? Or a rhinocerosis? Could shorten it to rhino, but then should it be rhinos or rhinoes? I voiced this aloud and someone within earshot observed that rhino itself was properly both singular and plural. Oh. Of course. I get this all day, these uncertainties, they grind me to a halt until resolved, or at least exhausted.
Is there a word, or a phrase, for really wanting to know the meaning of something, but not wanting to consult reference work? Of wanting to be told, personally - preferably face to face, though over the telephone will do. This isn't about the reliability or otherwise of the encyclopedia or dictionary, it's about something else, and that something I cannot put a name to.
Parenthetically - as for Wikipedia and Google, sod that. Haul down the relevant volume of the Enc Brit and you get wonderfully diverted by adjacent entries, thus emerging from the enquiry better informed on Great Crested Newts or Bauxite or Urban Sewerage. Interrogate the internet and you just end up checking your e-mail and shopping around for a more inspiring weather forecast than that on the Beeb or Met Office sites.
Perhaps it's why we often value the opinion of friends on films-books-music-art-etc, even when we don't squarely share tastes. Or why the further a person is from you, the less interesting you find accounts of their dreams.
It's certainly why I find everything seems to take so long. And I'd rather have it this way than another.
Is there a word, or a phrase, for really wanting to know the meaning of something, but not wanting to consult reference work? Of wanting to be told, personally - preferably face to face, though over the telephone will do. This isn't about the reliability or otherwise of the encyclopedia or dictionary, it's about something else, and that something I cannot put a name to.
Parenthetically - as for Wikipedia and Google, sod that. Haul down the relevant volume of the Enc Brit and you get wonderfully diverted by adjacent entries, thus emerging from the enquiry better informed on Great Crested Newts or Bauxite or Urban Sewerage. Interrogate the internet and you just end up checking your e-mail and shopping around for a more inspiring weather forecast than that on the Beeb or Met Office sites.
Perhaps it's why we often value the opinion of friends on films-books-music-art-etc, even when we don't squarely share tastes. Or why the further a person is from you, the less interesting you find accounts of their dreams.
It's certainly why I find everything seems to take so long. And I'd rather have it this way than another.
