Litsy

Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy | Simon Blackburn

Probably of limited interest to non-French people, but the baccalaureate philosophy exam started at 8 this morning, and the essay questions are now out:

Vocational stream
Is Nature hostile to Man
Is the artist master of their own work

Academic stream
Can science satisfy our need for truth
Does the State owe us anything

Inspired or not?

Thinking of all those teenagers sweating on their exam papers in many different parts of the world...

Kitta As a scientist, I‘m definitely interested in these questions! I feel that science can give us the answers and can tell us the truth, but that maybe we won‘t reach them in our lifetimes and we‘ll have to wait for the next generation to understand. It‘s a frustrating reality that progress can be slow. 5mo

IuliaC These are very relevant questions 5mo

SaunteringVaguelyDownwards "Is the artist master of their own work?" is taking all sorts of new nuance with AI! 5mo

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Dilara @Kitta Slow and every new discovery or insight brings about new questions! It's neverending... 5mo

Dilara @IuliaC Definitely! 5mo

Dilara @SaunteringVaguelyDownwards Oh, I hadn't thought of that 😁 5mo

Dilara For whoever is interested, Le Monde newspaper published essay examples for some of these questions: https://www.lemonde.fr/campus/live/2024/06/18/en-direct-bac-philo-2024-un-enseig... 5mo

28 likes7 comments

Sace

Merriam-Webster Dictionary | Merriam-Webster

Pedantry alert!
Over the last few months I‘ve noticed a linguistic shift that is driving me insane. I first noticed on podcasts (hence the picture), but I‘ve even noticed in work emails (written by educators no less). There seems to be a trend to shorten words. “Priorities” becomes “priors”. “Comparisons” and “Competitions” both become “comps” (which previously was used for “comprehensive exams”). ⬇️

Sace In each case it wasn‘t exactly clear which word they were abbreviating. I find this unacceptable. Educators and bookish podcasters especially shouldn‘t take shortcuts. (edited) 6mo

Sace PS: I find it doubly annoying in speech because there‘s no character limit when speaking. 🙄 6mo

Amor4Libros Agree!! 6mo

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kspenmoll I totally agree! 6mo

Mollyanna Absolutely agree! 6mo

Sace @Amor4Libros @kspenmoll @Mollyanna Thanks for supporting my moment of annoyance 😂 6mo

Clare-Dragonfly Wow! I haven‘t encountered those to my knowledge but they sound very annoying! Those words already have meanings that are not really distinct enough from the new ones. 6mo

Sace @Clare-Dragonfly I just don‘t get it. 6mo

MoniqueReads305 I agree with most of this except comps. I thinks that's publishing language bleeding into education through social media.. When authors sell their books to publishers they provide comps. That's why you'll hear stuff like Little Women meets Lord of the Files. 6mo

dabbe This retired high school English teacher agrees 💯! 💙🩵💙 6mo

Hooked_on_books “Priors” for priorities?!? I get the desire to shorten words sometimes, but that changes it to a completely different word and thus the meaning as well! Accuracy and clear communication is far more important than shortening a few words! 6mo

Hooked_on_books And that‘s absolutely not pedantry! 6mo

julesG What about speakers of English as a second/foreign language? That's so wrong. Don't make it harder for us. Language is evolving, of course, but that's just sloppy. An email is not a handwritten letter that takes ages to copy, 6mo

julesG ... It's just lazy and confusing. 6mo

Sace @MoniqueReads305 Ah! Thanks for the information. It was in fact a bookish podcast that used “comps” so knowing that bit of publishing language makes sense now. 6mo

Sace @julesG absolutely agree! And that kind of usage doesn‘t make it into dictionaries either (at least it would take a bit of searching to find). 6mo

Sace @Hooked_on_books Right? I‘m seeing/hearing it more than I would like. 😂 6mo

Sace @dabbe 🩵 I can imagine how infuriating this kind of thing would be for English teachers. I don‘t think students have started doing this (yet). 6mo

rwmg I haven't come across those yet. But I have come across comp as a verb meaning, as far as I can make out, (of a business) give somebody something free to pacify them after they make a complaint. 6mo

Sace @rwmg oh yes! That‘s another common one that (I think) most of the general public knows. 6mo

49 likes20 comments

AroundTheBookWorld

Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus for Students: With Full Color World Atlas | Merriam-Webster, Inc

Well Florida has finally lost it. It has banned over 1,600 books including several dictionaries. The reason for banning the dictionaries is because, they contain “Sexual Content”. The list of banned books is in the link below ⬇️ 📚📖

https://pen.org/escambia-county-florida-banned-books-list/#:~...

#StopTheBookBans #BannedBooks #BannedBook 📚📖

13 likes

Tonton

The Oxford English Dictionary: Single User Windows Version | John A. Simpson

I love dipping into the dictionary 😎❣️🌟

29 likes

peanutnine

Weird and Wonderful Words | Roz Chast, Erin McKean

My partner sent me this Instagram reel this morning. This word is so me and it's fun to say. According to urban dictionary it can also mean "to cuddle with, rub faces and noses with, and generally make a fuss over your pets" - which I also love to do. So snerdle is about to make a come back in my vocabulary ???
#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

CBee Ohhhhh I could be a professional snerdler 😂 12mo

5feet.of.fury Awww so cute. I could go for either definition right about now. 12mo

dabbe I think most of us love to snerdle our pets, right? Love to say it out loud! 💜🖤🧡 12mo

Megabooks Great word! 12mo

35 likes4 comments

psalva

Greek Dictionary (Collins Gem) | Harry T. Hionides

Another Greek word for #weirdwordsWednesday . Οίκος is the Ancient Greek word for home. The modern word is σπίτι (spiti- gives us hospitality). The ancient root can be found in modern Greek words like οικονομία (economy), οικολογία (ecology), and οικογένεια (family, or the generation of the house). Oh, and the yogurt company as well (no clue why…). #weirdwords #mybigfatgreekwedding #kimono @CBee

CBee Love it 😍 12mo

dabbe A yowza word! 🤩 12mo

15 likes2 comments

psalva

Greek Dictionary (Collins Gem) | Harry T. Hionides

I haven‘t been doing as much reading lately. So, for this week‘s #weirdwords, I‘m going to dip into my Greek language class again, since it‘s taking up most of my brain space anyway. The word on my mind is περίπτερο which is the word for kiosk. What‘s interesting is it‘s an architectural word that has been in use since antiquity and can describe the Parthenon, an open building surrounded by columns. #weirdwordWednesdays @CBee

CBee I used to work at a kiosk in college. When Waldenbooks was still a thing 😂 13mo

psalva Cool! If I‘m not mistaken I think I have some Waldenbooks bookmarks somewhere in my stack of bookmarks. I‘m not sure I ever visited one. The town I grew up in had a Borders, however. @CBee were they owned by the same company? (edited) 13mo

Reggie @CBee did you do the calendar one at XMas time? @psalva you remind me of the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Lol. Kimono….. I enjoy these posts. 13mo

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CBee @Reggie oh my GOSH how‘d you know??? I totally did 😂😂😂 omg it was so boring too 😂 13mo

CBee @psalva I think Borders bought Waldenbooks? But they‘ve both gone out of business now, I believe 🤷‍♀️ 13mo

psalva @Reggie 👀 That‘s definitely what I‘m turning into! Oh no! Keep me away from windex! 13mo

20 likes6 comments