MetaChat - Weird.

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04 November 2005

Weird. So I learned this word from a difficult reading the other day, "instantiate",→[More:] and I soundly abused the author for using such a silly word. Then, nobody uses it in a MeCha post. Can I soundly abuse nobody now?

Ok, it's a great word, and I'm trying to work it into every day conversation, too. What $3-words are you trying to use?

post by: muddgirl at: 15:46 | 25 comments

What I was wondering was, if you soundly abuse nobody, and nobody hears, does that mean the abuse has really taken place?

posted by carter 04 November | 15:50

I am supressing the urge to start a Who's on First routine here, taking "nobody uses it in a MeCha post" as my jumping off point.

posted by PinkStainlessTail 04 November | 15:53

You must not have object-oriented dreams, muddgirl.

posted by danostuporstar 04 November | 15:58

Fungible

posted by Capn 04 November | 16:01

"Instantiate" is heavily used in talking about Object Oriented programing, and with good reason. In general, it just means to create a concrete instance of some exemplar or template; in OO, it's used to talk about creating a concrete instance of a "class" or type of object, generally with the "new" operator. (Some classes of course, cannot be instantiated.)

It implies a lot less than, for instance, "reify".

Some other useful words for both software discussion and general use: "subclass", "disambiguate", "orthogonal".

posted by orthogonality 04 November | 16:07

ambient findability.

posted by safetyfork 04 November | 16:08

I am guessing, muddgirl, that you aren't a software geek.

OP: what dano said.

posted by mischief 04 November | 16:08

liminal.

posted by Divine_Wino 04 November | 16:17

disintermediate

posted by briank 04 November | 16:20

Nope, in fact I first heard it it a History of science essay (known to be particularly obtuse in their use of language) about some old German Positivists and their connection with early minimalist architecture.

dano - nobody knows what I dream about ;)

posted by muddgirl 04 November | 16:36

"Orthogonal" is a great word that perfectly describes a not-uncommon concept (the quality of being totally unrelated [not opposite, but rather independent] to something else).

I'd use it more, if I thought I wouldn't have to explain it and feel like a prat.

posted by Capn 04 November | 16:52

autophagy

posted by alteredcarbon 04 November | 17:19

History of Science, YAY!
Sorry, no time to explain. Except to say I hope you like it.

posted by safetyfork 04 November | 17:24

signage

I hate that word.

posted by warbaby 04 November | 18:12

reify

posted by warbaby 04 November | 18:13

fungible is good.

imprimatur.

posted by dreamsign 04 November | 18:39

The social theorist Anthony Giddens also uses instantiate a lot.

I like to use "chthonic" just because it looks so weird.

posted by rumple 04 November | 18:55

I have a plethora (word geek here) of words that I would use more if I thought no one would throw things at me.

ie

baft
neutrosophy
sferics
arithmocracy
xenogeneic

posted by reflecked 04 November | 19:47

palaver

posted by WolfDaddy 04 November | 19:57

I just learned about "ambiguous"; I think I'll try and work that in everywhere I can.

posted by Wolfdog 04 November | 20:38

this thread is retromingent.

posted by quonsar 04 November | 22:15

ha! @ ^

I came back because it seems like I should have listed what I said instead of using high-falutin' :D palaver.

What I actually said:

call to the fabric store: "I'm looking for coarse weave cotton sheeting for under $2 a meter."

"He has a sort of 'fuzzy logic' philosophy, and says that everything balances out sooner or later."

"I'd like to be in a plane inside the eye of a hurricane, but I don't have the electronics skills to assist in the measurements, I'd just be baggage."

"The MLA got 51% of the vote; that's all it takes."

"There've been very few people who have been caught a flu directly from a bird."

posted by reflecked 04 November | 22:26

A guy at college said he thought it was so cool that I used the word "albeit" in conversation.

posted by stilicho 04 November | 23:51

brobdinginding... I can never remember how to spell it.

posted by brobdignagian 05 November | 07:52

a friend of mine liked "evanescent" because he felt it sounded right (it means something that dies away quickly, and is used in a technical sense in quantum mechanics, but to me it always sounds like something that lingers, fading only slowly; on reflection maybe it only means disappearing quickly in quantum mecahnics - i don't have a dictionary handy).

posted by andrew cooke 05 November | 10:28

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