July 26, 2006
Repressible.
You often hear someone described as irrepressible, so why is no one ever called repressible? Are all those people who aren't irrepressible... repressible? Logically, it must be so. Then why is it never mentioned? I think it's because we like to repress each other, but we don't want to talk about the fact that we do.
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13 comments:
I think people are too ruthfull and to use that phrase in such a chalent fashion.
Too much time on your hands?
Yeah, that's sort of in the neighborhood of.....
You always hear people say 'one iota...'
But can you have two iotas? A whole group of iota-ium ???
(Maybe it's a Latin word, not that I know Latin!)
Or howabout:
One scintilla.
Can you have two scintillas?
Peace, Maxine
Just as a word, that belongs in the game "Obs Pos," for obsolete positives, like chalant and ert and mune and exorable.
I think it's just that "repressible" is the default position. Most people, alas, are eminently repressible, so we take it for granted and only notice when they're ir-. (At which my mind free associates to German and the word "irren," which means "to go astray.")
The subject whelms me.
OK, Ann. Enough driving for today. Time for a nap.
Well, that guy advertising for the class action suit doesn't look very repressible to me. And it may not be couth to say so, but he doesn't seem very kempt or gruntled. What he's getting at, though, seems perfectly effable, but if you join with him you may end up scathed. Do you think in court he's ruly?
Some of us use it all the time...but not about people.
Maxine: scintillae?
vw: jlegba. See also Legba:
"Legba is the keeper of the crossroads between the worlds, the messenger ... Legba is always the first god honored in every ritual because he opens the door ... a god of West Africa and Voodooism, [he] is the child of the Sky Pantheon. He is allied with destiny, but has no particular domain. ... Legba facilitates communication, speech and understanding."
Perhaps because people who are repressible are already known as repressed?
I've always wanted to join the Society for the Preservation of Lost Positives but I could never find them. (Link goes to a third-hand reference.) Perhaps they have been repressed. Or maybe just pressed, if it only happened once?
Maxine: iota is the Greek letter "i" which is the smallest letter of the alphabet. "Not one iota" thus means "so insignificant that you couldn't write it even with the smallest available letter."
Pithy, yet profound... and definitely a lonely road trip thought.
Only a flappable person would be too concerned about this, and the couth blogger might start assembling a list of lost non-negative words.
For that matter, must one be "pressible" before they can be "repressible"?
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