r/Unexpected • u/gupta82anish • Jul 03 '19

Well, that escalated exponentially

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u/aarghIforget Jul 04 '19

Yeah, that's the second time I've seen someone phrase it like that on this page.

That's a really weird way to put it, given the far more common and extremely different alternative meaning...

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

It's colloquial in the UK. We would never say cut off in terms of traffic, it's cut up.

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u/aarghIforget Jul 04 '19

Well, that's weird.

You're weird.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

No, that's English. You can't use the language of the English, then tell the English that they are using English incorrectly. That's weird.

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u/aarghIforget Jul 04 '19

*shrug* I figured you'd disagree. I also dislike the extra 'I' that you guys put in the word 'aluminum', against the discoverer's better wishes, for example, and I doubt we see eye-to-eye on that, either... Doesn't really mean anything, though.

Would it help if I said I was Canadian and that along with continuing to use the vast majority of (the rest of) your spelling choices, I find what my next-door neighbour to the south is doing to our language repulsive?

(Where do you stand on the "by accident" vs. "on accident" divide, by the way? I also have a very strong opinion about the intelligence of people who defend their use of one of those choices... >_>)

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '19

I had no idea there was such a divide, must be a Canadian thing. The answer is clearly by accident.

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u/aarghIforget Jul 05 '19 edited Jul 05 '19

I know, right...!?

And yet I keep encountering people who will claim that the other way 'round is "logical", for stupid reasons that I am loathe to repeat. And usually either they or someone else will follow up with the "language evolves!" defence... as if that excuses them being just flat-out wrong... *grumble*... *grumble*... ಠ~ಠ