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Sorry, I can't resist indulging in a moment of pedantry here. The phrase "The king is dead, long live the king!", which this title and many others play off of,
by blackbagboys 11y ago
Sorry, I can't resist indulging in a moment of pedantry here.
The phrase "The king is dead, long live the king!", which this title and many others play off of, is referring to two separate individuals, the now-dead king in the first clause and his successor in the second. The phrase is representative of a theory of monarchy in which, upon the death of the sovereign, their authority passes instantaneously to their heir, without the need for a coronation or a formal investiture, in order to foreclose on the possibility of pretenders to the throne arising during an interregnum.
So the correct (and I know you said 'usual and not 'correct', but bear with me) form of the phrase would be 'spreadsheets are dead, long live [whatever is succeeding spreadsheets]'. Of course, historically speaking, it was not at all uncommon for dead royals to suddenly reappear and reassert their claim to the throne....
- conceit 11y agoSpreadsheet software is improving here and there. Excel today is not your old lotus-1-2-3. Although you'd be hard pressed to notice.
- discreteevent 11y agoIndeed. After all the phrase is not: "The king is dead. Long live the republic"
- JadeNB 11y ago> Sorry, I can't resist indulging in a moment of pedantry here. I've always got the impression that this is, rather than an abuse, instead an intentional re-purposing of the slogan to convey exactly the meaning that it appears to have (instead of the one that it historically should). I'm a die-hard prescriptivist on most matters; but, since the sentiment that the grandparent expressed is common and the one the the literal historical slogan expresses doesn't seem to be, it's hard to see why we should cling to the latter and avoid the former.