Fashion/class/style
April 15, 2025 12:12 AM Subscribe
I remember many years ago seeing an essay about a kind of declinable noun, which went "Fashion:class:style". The point was to provide an example of each, and the examples as I remember them were "Fashion = Farrah Fawcett; Class = Marilyn Monroe; Style = Katherine Hepburn". I'd like to find more of these "declinable nouns", or some up to date examples for the one I've just given. Better still a source. As you can imagine, this isn't easy to google.
It's kind of like a noun parallel to Bertrand Russell's "irregular verbs", which went, for example, "I am firm; you are obstinate; he is a pig-headed fool".
It's kind of like a noun parallel to Bertrand Russell's "irregular verbs", which went, for example, "I am firm; you are obstinate; he is a pig-headed fool".
wisdom:knowledge:information:data
is something i've seen in knowledge management articles.
posted by alchemist at 4:49 AM on April 15
is something i've seen in knowledge management articles.
posted by alchemist at 4:49 AM on April 15
What about psychology is really biology, biology is really chemistry, chemistry is really physics, and physics is really math?
posted by gideonfrog at 7:32 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
posted by gideonfrog at 7:32 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Kim Kardashian, Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga, for updated exemplars.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:15 AM on April 15
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:15 AM on April 15
Someone was posting recently about the "double vocabulary" of Germanic and Romance origin words in English and how it's used to signal the formal and informal registers, with the older Germanic vocabulary feeling coarse, casual, basic or crude and the later wave of Latin and French words signaling formality or refinement. One of the reasons that "horses sweat and men perspire" (though you gotta sort through a lot more cultural history to see why "ladies merely glow.")
posted by fountainofdoubt at 11:15 AM on April 15
posted by fountainofdoubt at 11:15 AM on April 15
I remember learning about this in 6th grade English class! (where at the time, it went over all of our heads) The one example I recall is: gourmet/gourmand/glutton
posted by oxisos at 12:25 PM on April 15
posted by oxisos at 12:25 PM on April 15
Response by poster: seanmpuckett has the idea (although I'd be inclined to switch Cate Blanchett and Lady Gaga).
Really, it's easier to say what this isn't about. It isn't about different linguistic registers or degrees of euphemism. I'd be happy if someone were to come up with a better description of it.
OK, I'll shut up now.
posted by Logophiliac at 4:27 PM on April 15
Really, it's easier to say what this isn't about. It isn't about different linguistic registers or degrees of euphemism. I'd be happy if someone were to come up with a better description of it.
OK, I'll shut up now.
posted by Logophiliac at 4:27 PM on April 15
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posted by CMcG at 3:14 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]