Word of the week..

[Bodd]

It's very long

 

[JohnD]

What does this word mean?

prestidigitation.

 

[Bodd]

prestidigitation.

Hang on I'll get back to you.

 

[JohnD]

Sleight of hand.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Electrocute means to kill using electricity. Whos said it doesn't?

The lots of people who use it (wrongly) to describe any electric shock.

 

[Bodd]

Sleight of hand.

No no don't tell me

 

[durhamplumber]

The lots of people who use it (wrongly) to describe any electric shock.

The oxford english dictionary,says electrocute is to be Injured or killed by electric shock, and the fallasy,going back to Edison's days,is people think it means,exclusively,a fatal electric shock..Which makes complete sense.

 

[durhamplumber]

I'd say it also means to 'implement'. However, in context to ending life - it means to kill.
Electrocute means to kill using electricity. Whos said it doesn't?

The oxford dictioanary says!.

 

[Notch7]

It's very long

Oh dear, are you suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

 

[durhamplumber]

But the purists today aren't even insisting on preserving electrocute for executions, in spite of its etymology; they usually just say that it can only refer to fatal electric shocks, even accidental ones. If they're trying to keep the word pure by rejecting changes in meaning, they've already lost. Or perhaps they recognize that having a word for electric executions isn't that useful — or they're ignorant of the word's origin — and they're simply trying to hang on to a more useful distinction between merely receiving an electric shock and dying from an electric shock. But even if that's the case, since the word has been used both ways since its infancy, it seems the battle was lost before it was begun.

Read more: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/electrocution-defined.513839/#ixzz5Yj15MNUx

 

[mrcrow]

What does this word mean?

its from the french...sleight of hand...

 

[durhamplumber]

Read above ye skeptics.

 

[mrcrow]

But the purists today aren't even insisting on preserving electrocute for executions, in spite of its etymology; they usually just say that it can only refer to fatal electric shocks, even accidental ones. If they're trying to keep the word pure by rejecting changes in meaning, they've already lost. Or perhaps they recognize that having a word for electric executions isn't that useful — or they're ignorant of the word's origin — and they're simply trying to hang on to a more useful distinction between merely receiving an electric shock and dying from an electric shock. But even if that's the case, since the word has been used both ways since its infancy, it seems the battle was lost before it was begun.

Read more: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/electrocution-defined.513839/#ixzz5Yj15MNUx

Word Origin and History for execute. v. late 14c., "to carry into effect," from Old French executer (14c.), from Medieval Latin executare , from Latin execut- / exsecut- , past participle stem of exequi / exsequi "to follow out" (see execution). Meaning "to inflict capital punishment" is from late 15c.

also

The verb electrocute was coined in the late nineteenth century on the model of execute in the sense of “to inflict capital punishment upon.” Unlike execute, which has a legitimate Latin etymology, electrocute is a portmanteau word. ... By 1903, the word was in use without enclosing quotation marks.

 

[mrcrow]

Read above ye skeptics.

Read above
Word Origin for ditto. C17: from Italian (Tuscan dialect), variant of detto said, from dicere to say, from Latin. Word Origin and History for ditto. 1620s, Tuscan dialectal ditto "(in) the said (month or year)," literary Italian detto , past participle of dire "to say," from Latin dicere (see diction).

 

[SirGalahad]

Two words that go together Brexit and floccinaucinihilipilification.