4 ms·

> Every right-thinking intellectual somehow knew that a candid assessment of Soviet rule was, well, just not the done thing!… What does this sentence even mean

> Every right-thinking intellectual somehow knew that a candid assessment of Soviet rule was, well, just not the done thing!… What does this sentence even mean, did they mean to write “was just not something you (ever) did”?

pie_flavor 3y ago
To quote the preface: > It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. It means 'don't do it' but with the passive voice, so as not to imply that the speaker is the one who should defend the instruction.
- jxramos 3y ago
  Ah yes I missed that part, that is indeed a tricky back reference to manage and pull off in prose.
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    I think this is a pretty common construction in (especially older) british english. I think it is also the back reference the parent commenter notes, but I don't think it would have been unclear without that reference, especially at the time he wrote it.
    - jxramos 3y ago
      I wonder if its mostly expressed in the negative form, because "the done thing" by itself is like an incomplete sentence and an ambiguous phrase. Kind of grammatically squishy in some fascinating way.
      - sanderjd 3y ago
        I don't think it seems incomplete or ambiguous. To me, it is pretty clear that it is turning the verb form of "done" - that is, not the adjective meaning "finished", but the past tense of the verb "do" as in "fishing is an activity that people have done for a long time" - into an adjective modifying "thing". So a "done thing" is just "a thing that is being done". Using that fishing example again, it shifts from "fishing is a thing that is done by people" to just "fishing is a done thing". This "adjectivizing" technique is a common way that colloquialisms are created. (Maybe it's a bit weirder in this case because an adjective form of the word already exists, but has a different meaning.)
FeteCommuniste 3y ago
"Not the done thing" is an idiom meaning something that isn't socially approved or acceptable. It's more frequent in the UK and Australia than in the US or Canada.
- jxramos 3y ago
  That's good to know. I'm feeling it's somewhat analogous to in the US where mentioning something is taboo.

pie_flavor 3y ago

To quote the preface: > It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. It means 'don't do it' but with the passive voice, so as not to imply that the speaker is the one who should defend the instruction.

jxramos 3y ago
Ah yes I missed that part, that is indeed a tricky back reference to manage and pull off in prose.
- sanderjd 3y ago
  I think this is a pretty common construction in (especially older) british english. I think it is also the back reference the parent commenter notes, but I don't think it would have been unclear without that reference, especially at the time he wrote it.
  - jxramos 3y ago
    I wonder if its mostly expressed in the negative form, because "the done thing" by itself is like an incomplete sentence and an ambiguous phrase. Kind of grammatically squishy in some fascinating way.
    - sanderjd 3y ago
      I don't think it seems incomplete or ambiguous. To me, it is pretty clear that it is turning the verb form of "done" - that is, not the adjective meaning "finished", but the past tense of the verb "do" as in "fishing is an activity that people have done for a long time" - into an adjective modifying "thing". So a "done thing" is just "a thing that is being done". Using that fishing example again, it shifts from "fishing is a thing that is done by people" to just "fishing is a done thing". This "adjectivizing" technique is a common way that colloquialisms are created. (Maybe it's a bit weirder in this case because an adjective form of the word already exists, but has a different meaning.)

FeteCommuniste 3y ago

"Not the done thing" is an idiom meaning something that isn't socially approved or acceptable. It's more frequent in the UK and Australia than in the US or Canada.

jxramos 3y ago
That's good to know. I'm feeling it's somewhat analogous to in the US where mentioning something is taboo.