Subject: Re: [lojban] xebni

From: Robin Lee Powell <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 03:50:11 -0400

Invent Yourself writes:
>On Mon, 16 Oct 2000, Evgueni Sklyanin wrote:
>
>
>> I am puzzled to see "hate" and "despise" in one line. To me, these are
>> quite distinct emotions.
>
>
>In American usage, we use the two almost interchangeably. It would not
>make sense to hear anyone say "I don't hate him, I despise him.".

Actually, I've heard exactly that usage more than once.

The only reason seems to be that, having two syllables, you can inject a
lot more hate-sound into 'despise', i.e. it's only a difference of
scale. The difference in quality is, as you say, not used generally in
American usage.

-Robin

-- 
http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rlpowell/ BTW, I'm male, honest.
Despite not getting very emotional about it, the fact that quantum
entanglement doesn't allow transmission of information is probably the
most profound dissapointment I've ever experienced. -- RLPowell