| General > General Technical Chat |
| No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them |
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| schmitt trigger:
My cat is meowing at me constantly. I believe he is reaching out for food. |
| Ed.Kloonk:
--- Quote from: paul@yahrprobert.com on September 18, 2021, 03:54:04 am ---Very good rant, reminds me of George Carlin. --- End quote --- Geez. He was just here a minute ago. |
| eti:
--- Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on September 18, 2021, 08:50:11 pm ---I don't know, let's ask Johnny Cash Take second best Put me to the test Things on your chest You need to confess I will deliver You know i'm a forgiver CONTACT and touch faith CONTACT and touch faith Nope. --- End quote --- One isn't singing a country and western song to one's business contacts. |
| eti:
--- Quote from: Ground_Loop on September 18, 2021, 08:46:59 pm ---My exact sentiments. My wife works for Deloitte and Touché consulting. We make great sport of analyzing the underlying meaning of their ridiculously over jargoned correspondence. --- End quote --- A little creative transposing of letters, and we get "Toilette and Douche" |
| Cerebus:
--- Quote from: TimFox on September 18, 2021, 07:15:53 pm ---In English, “contact” can be a noun or a verb: check any dictionary. --- End quote --- "Any" dictionary? --- Quote from: Dr Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, First Folio ---CO'NTACT. n.s. [contactus, Latin.] Touch; close union; juncture of one body to another. --- End quote --- No verb. :) Actually I suspect the "verbing" of contact is relatively recent in general usage, probably some time during the 20th century. Maybe earlier in American usage - if ever there was a country that loved to turn nouns into verbs it's North America. I'd need a few generations of paper dictionaries to prove when it became accepted. To my ear the formulation "get in touch with" or "get in contact with" is natural sounding, contact as a verb less so. For what it's worth Strunk and White still condemn using contact as a verb, and I suspect it would cause Fowler apoplexy. --- Quote from: William Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, Fourth ed., 2000 ---As a transitive verb, the word is vague and self-important. Do not contact people; get in touch with them, look them up, phone them, find them, or meet them. --- End quote --- |
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