4 ms·
Something of a nitpick, but just because it took me really quite an extremely long time to figure out what he meant: The line should be "we're so short on the
by lucideer 9y ago
Something of a nitpick, but just because it took me really quite an extremely long time to figure out what he meant:
The line should be "we're so short on the real thing". As quoted, it sounds like he's trying to say we're short of an achievement (e.g. achieving actual general AI).
He does erroneously say what's quoted though, so the title isn't incorrect, but perhaps they should have [sic]ed it; he says "short o' the real thing" but I don't think "o'" has ever been short for "on".
- rahimnathwani 9y ago'Short of' has at least two meanings: 1) Lacking in quantity (e.g. "I'm short of money this month"). 2) Not having reached some point on a continuum (e.g. "He stopped short of claiming to be best singer in the world.").
- lucideer 9y agoWiktionary confirms your first definition (2nd definition at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/short_of https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/short_of - wiki's 1st and 3rd definitions seem like the same thing in my mind) but other dictionaries don't seem to support this (OED only has wiki's 3rd listed) and I've certainly never encountered it before now. Odd. I would say I'm short on money this month. Etymologically my thinking was that it comes from "to fall short of" - e.g. to be too short to reach a point. Fitting your 2nd definition.
- rahimnathwani 9y agoSee #1 on this page: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/thesaurus/short_of https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/thesaurus/short_of
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]