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> A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. My dictionary defines 'exigence' (which I had not encountered before) as "an urgent need or demand

by JadeNB 8y ago

> A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. My dictionary defines 'exigence' (which I had not encountered before) as "an urgent need or demand", and I find that hard to parse. Is either of the parses "… who is more demanding than talented" or (like "grasp exceeds reach") "… whose demands exceed his or her talent" correct? If not, would you mind clarifying?

noisem4ker 8y ago
I think you got it. A perfectionist's demands to self (as in standards they think should be reached) exceed what their talent can actually deliver.
pygy_ 8y ago
My bad, "exigence" is a French word whose meaning isn't exactly identical in English. To be exigent means to have a high standard. The verb "exiger" means "to require". English adds an urgency dimension that doesn't exist in French. Many French words built on that template (direct latin root + -ent/-ence suffix) can be used as is in English, but it is not always the case.
- stochastic_monk 8y ago
  To make this point relevant, are you more familiar with French and thereby translating an idea of yours in French to English with a not-quite-perfect cognate? Without such a connection, the reasoning for stating this is unclear to me. Could you clarify?
  - pygy_ 8y ago
    I'm a native French speaker, fluently thinking in English. There's a vast pool of vocabulary that is common to both languages, from which I draw words indiscriminately (Latin roots and the same formula to derive verbs/nouns/adjectives, with minor variations for each langage (e.g. add "-ate" for verbs in Englsih and "-er" in French)). Some of these are so-called "false friends", with different meanings in both languages. I have a spidey sense that works most of the time in the English => French direction (e.g. "consistent"), less so in the other.
    - stochastic_monk 8y ago
      Thank you, I wasn’t quite sure. As a native English speaker who has learned French, I’ve often run into “faux amis”. Perhaps the most embarrassing was “préservatifs”, which I expected to mean preservatives but actually meant condoms.
      - pygy_ 8y ago
        Ooh, yes, that one must have been embarrassing indeed :-) "Préservatif" is such a weird euphemism.
        stochastic_monk 8y ago
        “Prophylactic” is no less bizarre.
        pygy_ 8y ago
        Wow TIL. I have a medical background, so I'm familiar with the "preventive" meaning, but I wasn't aware of the "contraceptive" one.
        JadeNB 8y ago
        > “Prophylactic” is no less bizarre. Isn't it (less bizarre)? My dictionary gives the medical meaning of prophylactic as "intended to prevent disease"; using it to refer to contraception just requires a more generous conception of 'disease'. By contrast, if 'préservatif' in French were translated to 'preservative' in English, it would mean, again according to my dictionary, "a substance used to preserve … against decay." I find it a bit more of a stretch to generalise this to pregnancy. On the other hand, maybe it is just my English-speaker-ness showing through that I can think of pregnancy much more easily as a disease (it literally causes dis-ease …) than as decay.
        stochastic_monk 8y ago
        You’re right. I’d not realized that it was regarding preventing disease, not simply a generic precautionary measure. And while pregnancy may well be viewed as a disease or a cancer, after a fashion, at least condoms protect from a wider range of affliction.
- hinkley 8y ago
  I figured out what you meant. I suspect a lot of other Romance language students did too. Exiger seems like a 4th year sort of word though, and a lot of us unfortunately are only required to take 2 or 3 years, and German or Japanese are not uncommon.
implements 8y ago
> (which I had not encountered before) Me neither, in this context - though there's the US legal concept of "exigent circumstances" which allows police officers to enter property without a warrant if they believe a crime is in progress.
- JadeNB 8y ago
  > Me neither, in this context - though there's the US legal concept of "exigent circumstances" which allows police officers to enter property without a warrant if they believe a crime is in progress. Indeed, I had encountered 'exigency' and so had some idea of the general idea—just never 'exigence'.

by JadeNB 8y ago

noisem4ker 8y ago

I think you got it. A perfectionist's demands to self (as in standards they think should be reached) exceed what their talent can actually deliver.

pygy_ 8y ago

My bad, "exigence" is a French word whose meaning isn't exactly identical in English. To be exigent means to have a high standard. The verb "exiger" means "to require". English adds an urgency dimension that doesn't exist in French. Many French words built on that template (direct latin root + -ent/-ence suffix) can be used as is in English, but it is not always the case.

stochastic_monk 8y ago
To make this point relevant, are you more familiar with French and thereby translating an idea of yours in French to English with a not-quite-perfect cognate? Without such a connection, the reasoning for stating this is unclear to me. Could you clarify?
- pygy_ 8y ago
  I'm a native French speaker, fluently thinking in English. There's a vast pool of vocabulary that is common to both languages, from which I draw words indiscriminately (Latin roots and the same formula to derive verbs/nouns/adjectives, with minor variations for each langage (e.g. add "-ate" for verbs in Englsih and "-er" in French)). Some of these are so-called "false friends", with different meanings in both languages. I have a spidey sense that works most of the time in the English => French direction (e.g. "consistent"), less so in the other.
  - stochastic_monk 8y ago
    Thank you, I wasn’t quite sure. As a native English speaker who has learned French, I’ve often run into “faux amis”. Perhaps the most embarrassing was “préservatifs”, which I expected to mean preservatives but actually meant condoms.
    - pygy_ 8y ago
      Ooh, yes, that one must have been embarrassing indeed :-) "Préservatif" is such a weird euphemism.
      - stochastic_monk 8y ago
        “Prophylactic” is no less bizarre.
        pygy_ 8y ago
        Wow TIL. I have a medical background, so I'm familiar with the "preventive" meaning, but I wasn't aware of the "contraceptive" one.
        JadeNB 8y ago
        > “Prophylactic” is no less bizarre. Isn't it (less bizarre)? My dictionary gives the medical meaning of prophylactic as "intended to prevent disease"; using it to refer to contraception just requires a more generous conception of 'disease'. By contrast, if 'préservatif' in French were translated to 'preservative' in English, it would mean, again according to my dictionary, "a substance used to preserve … against decay." I find it a bit more of a stretch to generalise this to pregnancy. On the other hand, maybe it is just my English-speaker-ness showing through that I can think of pregnancy much more easily as a disease (it literally causes dis-ease …) than as decay.
        stochastic_monk 8y ago
        You’re right. I’d not realized that it was regarding preventing disease, not simply a generic precautionary measure. And while pregnancy may well be viewed as a disease or a cancer, after a fashion, at least condoms protect from a wider range of affliction.
hinkley 8y ago
I figured out what you meant. I suspect a lot of other Romance language students did too. Exiger seems like a 4th year sort of word though, and a lot of us unfortunately are only required to take 2 or 3 years, and German or Japanese are not uncommon.

implements 8y ago

> (which I had not encountered before) Me neither, in this context - though there's the US legal concept of "exigent circumstances" which allows police officers to enter property without a warrant if they believe a crime is in progress.

JadeNB 8y ago
> Me neither, in this context - though there's the US legal concept of "exigent circumstances" which allows police officers to enter property without a warrant if they believe a crime is in progress. Indeed, I had encountered 'exigency' and so had some idea of the general idea—just never 'exigence'.