From olivia@sonicblond.com Mon Oct 16 07:44:57 2000 Return-Path: X-Sender: olivia@sonicblond.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@egroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-6_1_0); 16 Oct 2000 14:44:57 -0000 Received: (qmail 10024 invoked from network); 16 Oct 2000 14:44:57 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m4.onelist.org with QMQP; 16 Oct 2000 14:44:57 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO erika.sixgirls.org) (209.208.150.50) by mta1 with SMTP; 16 Oct 2000 14:44:56 -0000 Received: from localhost (localhost [[UNIX: localhost]]) by erika.sixgirls.org (8.11.0+3.3W/8.9.3) with ESMTP id e9GEitl07292 for ; Mon, 16 Oct 2000 10:44:55 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 10:44:55 -0400 (EDT) X-Sender: olivia@erika.sixgirls.org To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] xebni In-Reply-To: <200010160750.DAA15579@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII From: Olivia > >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. me too....in fact i thought it might even be a movie quote! but in the imdb, the only interesting one i found was this: Ugarte: You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust. what a film! > 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. i think a qualitative difference does actually come through. despise has an extra connotation of 'looking down on with disdain' or 'scorn from above'.... which makes sense because according to dictionary.com despise comes from a latin/greek root that means 'seeing'.... olivia -- My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons.......