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> is “in anger” the right phrase? Probably not quite. You don't have to be angry to use a tool "in anger" Something used in anger would be "used for its inten
by ForHackernews 4y ago
> is “in anger” the right phrase?
Probably not quite. You don't have to be angry to use a tool "in anger"
Something used in anger would be "used for its intended purpose, or used for real rather than in tests"[0]. In this context, perhaps running Perl on live production servers.
[0] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in-anger-a-britishism-for-something https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in...
- lloeki 4y agoWow thanks for that, you just shone a light in a dark corner of my mind. I am not a native speaker, although I have a decent level in english (enough that some native english speakers thought I was on multiple occasions, which boggles my mind). So, somehow I always had an uncanny feeling with "in anger": much to my surprise I intuitively wanted to use it the "proper" way regularly but somehow always refrained from it because rationally I thought it really carried the literal "angry" weight, even though it just didn't feel true. Idioms really can turn out odd.