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What's a word you've spent a long time not using right? (lemm.ee)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what "tories" meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it's not usual to use it as short for "territories" as I've used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I'm reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.

More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing "encephalitis" with "hydrocephalus" when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Table might count for me here.

I grew up in America and "a bill was tabled" means that a bill was removed from consideration there... while as in Canada it means the precise opposite "a bill was tabled" means it was introduced for debate.

I don't use the term often in common speech, but I was really confused reading political news when I first arrived.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

in America and "a bill was tabled" means that a bill was removed from consideration

Really?

In Canada to remove from consideration the term is "shelved", just in case that's different. Tables and shelves, what's with these terms? (probably what happened with the physical paper it was written on.)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yea, and the Cambridge dictionary backs me up here https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/tabled

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

UK

to suggest something for discussion:

An amendment to the proposal was tabled by Mrs James.

US

to delay discussion of a subject:

The suggestion was tabled for discussion at a later date.

US doesn't make any sense to me. The table is where things are discussed. You bring it to the table.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just because it has been brought to the table doesn't mean it will go anywhere else. "Tabling" a discussion suggests that we are stepping away from the table for now. We are taking away any deal we have struck, but leaving behind any issue still under contention. Maybe we will bring it up when we come back, maybe not.

We use "tabling" in much the same sense as the idiom "leaving money on the table", meaning "concluding a transaction without demanding all consideration owed to you".

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

Then it is shelved. Basically for a later dated. Tabled is where the discussions take place.