General > General Technical Chat
No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
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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