4 ms·

Can somebody explain this word juggling for a non-native speaker? Wikipedia in my mother tongue explains "firm" coming from "solid/tight/strong" (https://de.wik

by ktpsns 6y ago

Can somebody explain this word juggling for a non-native speaker? Wikipedia in my mother tongue explains "firm" coming from "solid/tight/strong" (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware).

kolinko 6y ago
If you take a fresh tomato, it will be firm - kind of hard, but it doesn't take much force to give up. If you freeze the tomato, it will be hard. If you wait for a few days, it will become soft. Another example is a handshake. A soft handshake is what you shouldn't do (like handshaking a fish), a hard handshake you shouldn't do either (because it will hurt the other person), the best handshake is a firm (or solid) handshake.
m4tthumphrey 6y ago
"Hard" is the "hardest" of materials. "Firm" is not quite hard, but not soft either. "Soft" is not hard at all. A good analogy would be cooking steak; - Hard = well done - Firm = medium - Soft = rare Edit: explaining this was harder than I initially thought...
- ajuc 6y ago
  That's funny, we have similar words to firm ("jędrny"/"sprężysty"/"elastyczny"), but they aren't on the soft-hard scale, they are independent property. I wouldn't guess that firm is between hard and soft in English.
  - kolinko 6y ago
    Woah, I never realised we don't actually have a good word for "firm" in Polish :)
    - ajuc 6y ago
      jędrny is close - works for food and for body parts
pubby 6y ago
"Firm" describes a mattress. Sleeping on the ground is hard. Sleeping on a pillow is soft. Sleeping on a mattress is firm.
- eplanit 6y ago
  Which involves another term: what's a "mistress"? It's what goes between a Mister and a Mattress. :-)
deltron3030 6y ago
NANS, my explanation is that solid describes the aggregate state, and that firm is just an attribute within the solid state, basically a generalization of a mixture of sub-attributes (density/distance and cohesion) Tight refers to density, strong to cohesion. So something within that range that's very dense and cohesive is hard, and something that isn't is soft.

by ktpsns 6y ago

kolinko 6y ago

If you take a fresh tomato, it will be firm - kind of hard, but it doesn't take much force to give up. If you freeze the tomato, it will be hard. If you wait for a few days, it will become soft. Another example is a handshake. A soft handshake is what you shouldn't do (like handshaking a fish), a hard handshake you shouldn't do either (because it will hurt the other person), the best handshake is a firm (or solid) handshake.

m4tthumphrey 6y ago

"Hard" is the "hardest" of materials. "Firm" is not quite hard, but not soft either. "Soft" is not hard at all. A good analogy would be cooking steak; - Hard = well done - Firm = medium - Soft = rare Edit: explaining this was harder than I initially thought...

ajuc 6y ago
That's funny, we have similar words to firm ("jędrny"/"sprężysty"/"elastyczny"), but they aren't on the soft-hard scale, they are independent property. I wouldn't guess that firm is between hard and soft in English.
- kolinko 6y ago
  Woah, I never realised we don't actually have a good word for "firm" in Polish :)
  - ajuc 6y ago
    jędrny is close - works for food and for body parts

pubby 6y ago

"Firm" describes a mattress. Sleeping on the ground is hard. Sleeping on a pillow is soft. Sleeping on a mattress is firm.

eplanit 6y ago
Which involves another term: what's a "mistress"? It's what goes between a Mister and a Mattress. :-)

deltron3030 6y ago

NANS, my explanation is that solid describes the aggregate state, and that firm is just an attribute within the solid state, basically a generalization of a mixture of sub-attributes (density/distance and cohesion) Tight refers to density, strong to cohesion. So something within that range that's very dense and cohesive is hard, and something that isn't is soft.