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What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 months ago by notnotmike@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

1261 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

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[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This shows them as interchangeable for either use? What am I missing here?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/damping

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dampen

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Historical use, vs evolving English use.

Just like literally is now figuratively.

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Oh, that makes sense. Usage creep bothers me, too. Especially the "literally" thing. I know gatekeeping is unpopular, and linguists will tut-tut you for being prescriptivist. But some language shifts are just fucking dumb and make people sound dumb.

[–] hakase@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is literally the opposite of what happened. "To damp" was used to mean "to moisten" in the 1670s, a hundred and fifty years before "dampen" started to be used for it also in the early 1800s.

As with many if not most of the pedants in this thread, you're dying on a hill that's actually just straight-up wrong.