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Boolean 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 apar

Boolean 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.

OutOfHere 1y ago
There is no universe in which release and drop are near synonyms. They're used as such only by dorks, click optimizers, and SEO scammers. There also is no inhabited universe in which the words yes and no can survive being flipped in their meaning, because an attempt at such a flip will result in total collapse, in a universe without life.
- miloignis 1y ago
  If I'm holding a ball in my hand and then open my fingers and the ball is pulled by gravity to the floor: Did I release the ball from my hand? Did I drop the ball?
- evanelias 1y ago
  > There is no universe in which release and drop are near synonyms Among several slang definitions for "drop", Oxford English Dictionary includes "To release or make available" with multiple examples going back to 1988: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/drop_v?tab=meaning_and_use#6028677 https://www.oed.com/dictionary/drop_v?tab=meaning_and_use#60... > They're used as such only by dorks, click optimizers, and SEO scammers. That's clearly not true. Everyone has their pet peeves, but this is a ridiculous thing to post a "Tell HN" about.

OutOfHere 1y ago

There is no universe in which release and drop are near synonyms. They're used as such only by dorks, click optimizers, and SEO scammers. There also is no inhabited universe in which the words yes and no can survive being flipped in their meaning, because an attempt at such a flip will result in total collapse, in a universe without life.

miloignis 1y ago
If I'm holding a ball in my hand and then open my fingers and the ball is pulled by gravity to the floor: Did I release the ball from my hand? Did I drop the ball?
evanelias 1y ago
> There is no universe in which release and drop are near synonyms Among several slang definitions for "drop", Oxford English Dictionary includes "To release or make available" with multiple examples going back to 1988: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/drop_v?tab=meaning_and_use#6028677 https://www.oed.com/dictionary/drop_v?tab=meaning_and_use#60... > They're used as such only by dorks, click optimizers, and SEO scammers. That's clearly not true. Everyone has their pet peeves, but this is a ridiculous thing to post a "Tell HN" about.