3 ms·
It feels unnecessarily pedantic to debate the usage of a word in a common English idiom, especially with an outdated definition from Oxford. It would be cleare
by duped 4y ago
It feels unnecessarily pedantic to debate the usage of a word in a common English idiom, especially with an outdated definition from Oxford.
It would be clearer to just say, "don't be an asshole" but that comes off as crass in professional communications.
- kubanczyk 4y agoOn the contrary, HN is the place to debate the usage of words. Precise word choice is how to effectively get your point across. Words should have more definitions than the obvious two ("something universally good" and "something universally stupid, annoying, embarrassing, and smelling like fart") and it's not a shame to talk about subtleties of their definitions.