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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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