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Tell HN: Stop using "dropped" to mean "added"
I don't know what it is with people using the word "drop/dropped" to mean "add/added", when the latter will do fine. They don't respect the language. People think they're being cool when they're misusing the word, but they're not. Even LLMs have been picking up this bad habit.
- techpineapple 1y agoLike “dropped the bass” to mean add bass to music? It “new album just dropped?”
- OutOfHere 1y agoIn tech circles, it's like the latter: "dropped new feature/release" to mean "added new feature/release".
- bravetraveler 1y agoIf you go to give someone something, do you drop it off or add it to their inventory? I kid, of course :)
- techpineapple 1y agoReminds me of when fifteen years ago, someone said “New definition of dropped just dropped!”
- egypturnash 1y agonew slang just dropped about twenty years ago baby drops the mic
- ahofmann 1y agoYou might be standing on a sinking boat. Even Google calls some of their releases "feature drops".
- EdgeExplorer 1y agohttps://www.amazon.com/Words-Move-English-Still-Literally/dp/1627794719 https://www.amazon.com/Words-Move-English-Still-Literally/dp...
- OutOfHere 1y agoYes, but this is not one of those words that is slightly changing in its meaning. Instead, it is flipping the meaning altogether. This misuse sabotages core boolean constructs of the language. Imagine if we lose the word "drop" to this trend. What then will we use to actually mean "drop"? Will they go after "delete" next to pretend to be cooler? Is nothing sacred?
- miloignis 1y agoNo, nothing is sacred. I'll note the "literally" case in GP is arguably even more of a flip than drop. The only way for a human language to stay the same is for people to stop speaking it, i.e. Latin - France has trouble keeping French the same, and English is the polar opposite with no ruling body and a history of katamari damacy-ing words from every other language. Words can mean multiple things, and if there's enough of a gap a new word or usage will rise to fill its place. Delete works, of course, and I think the opposite to "new feature just dropped" in tech circles is "killed" or "killed off", as in killedbygoogle.com
- OutOfHere 1y agoBoolean constructs are sacred. This includes words like "yes", "no", "true", and "false". Without these holding on to their meaning, the language, the culture, and civilization will fall apart. "Dropped" is very close to them. "Delete" works for now, but give it a century, and we could lose it too because the click-generating hipsters are always on the lookout for new words to exploit.
- miloignis 1y agoBoolean constructs certainly aren't sacred, and we have a million synonyms for both yes and no should the need arise. Civilization will certainly not fall apart if language changes again, as it has for the entire history of spoken language - notably, Old English would be unintelligible to most of us now and civilization is working just fine. I just learned looking this up that Early English had a 4-form system consisting of yea/nae/yes/no ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_and_no#The_Early_English_four-form_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_and_no#The_Early_English_f... ), which is fascinating, and we appear to be doing just fine without yea and nae nowadays. Anyway, I'll note that release and drop are near-synonyms if you're talking about a physical object, so their similar use for features etc isn't wild at all, and is well established in culture (drop an album, etc), so I don't think this is nearly as big a change (like yes->no would be) as you think.
- sambeau 1y agoDropped doesn’t mean added: it means released.
- OutOfHere 1y ago"Released" is indeed one implied meaning of it, perhaps the main one, but not the only one. I have witnessed "dropped" being used in diverse contexts to mean "added", and it's getting worse.
- dingaling 1y agoBut if Microsoft drops support for old PCs, it means removed; de-released. That's why overloading words is a bad idea and should be resisted.
- sambeau 1y ago"The player was dropped and released from his contract." Dropped == released
- chollida1 1y agoWait till you hear about kids using the word bad to describe good.
- valbaca 1y agoI have to drop the news that just dropped into my lap that a new album just dropped
- legitster 1y ago"Dropped" has long had meaning in English, referring to a delivery. "I dropped it off at the shop". Hence the term a "dropbox" - aka a longtime term for a place you can receive deliveries. The online parlance is obviously stretching that definition a bit thin - but using the term "drop" can contextually be more specific than simply saying something was "added" or "released".
- msgodel 1y agoI've personally never liked it. Defending it sounds like defending the "inflammable" thing. Yes there's historic reason for it but it's unpleasant.
- on_the_train 1y agoIt's not a mistake. It's designed to be ambiguous at best and more often than not misleading. It makes you rage, it makes you click, it engages. Which is what makes money. Just note how many popular posts here and on Reddit have subtle "I made an oopsie" mistakes. It's deliberate.
- sgammon 1y agoSometimes people are just talking. There's no deliberate attempt to mislead built inherently into saying you "dropped a new feature."
- IAmBroom 1y agoYe shouldst wayten un-tille thou hast y-seen what thei hath donne wyth th'other werdes of Englisshe. Tis a travestye, for sothe.
- PeterWhittaker 1y agoI fall upon the floor, face contorted in uncontrollable guffaws!
- jfengel 1y agoSpeaking as a student of early modern English, with a hefty dose of Middle English... yer killin' me, buddy. Yer killin' me.
- IAmBroom 1y agoIch thee starve?
- nathanaldensr 1y agoYo, fam! New invalid Tell HN just dropped! :-O
- karmakurtisaani 1y agoStop telling people to stop doing something.
- OutOfHere 1y agoThat's what you're doing.
- sgammon 1y agoSlang is the free expression of thought and no, there are no rules, and no, nothing is sacred. That is the only way language works while avoiding dehumanization for the people employing it to express themselves.
- sgammon 1y agoIn other words, "Tell HN poster: No, and, by the way, language is not yours to control"
- 1659447091 1y agoImagine the repo nightmare. `Drop opts parameter for system config`, `Drop routes for navigation`, `Update tests with dropped opts` etc
- IAmBroom 1y agoSo, this thread can be summed up entirely as: HN user OutOfHere is a strict prescriptivist.
- dang 1y ago"Don't be curmudgeonly. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html