al-in-chgo's definitions
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Altering or adding to a prior word or term term that must be further defined in the light of later developments or technical innovation.
Example: No one called "World War One" that until there was a "World War Two" with which to contrast it. The going term during the 1914-1918 war and up to 1939 was "The Great War."
Altering or adding to a prior word or term term that must be further defined in the light of later developments or technical innovation.
Example: No one called "World War One" that until there was a "World War Two" with which to contrast it. The going term during the 1914-1918 war and up to 1939 was "The Great War."
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Other employment of term retronym:
Telephone becomes "rotary-dial phone" to distinguish it from the push-button phones that became widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s (although rotary-dial phones still work if all you want to do is place a call and don't need to access features like querying a bank account balance).
Similarly, telephone also becomes "corded phone" to distinguish the traditional hard-wired telephone from those that are wireless in some way, such as cordless phones.
"Regular" coffee to distinguish it from decaffeinated coffee; some people say "caffeinated" coffee but strictly speaking this is a grammatical back-formation, not a retronym, because "to caffeinate" would mean to ADD caffeine to traditional coffee.
Note, though, that Coca-Cola is a "caffeinated" or "caffeine-containing" soft drink in its usual red-can form. Now that there is a Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola "caffeinated" could find use as a retronym for "the real thing."
"Manual" or "standard" or "stick" transmission on a car, none of which terms was necessary before automatic transmissions on cars became widespread and assumed to be the norm.
And, of course, "acoustic" guitar.
Other employment of term retronym:
Telephone becomes "rotary-dial phone" to distinguish it from the push-button phones that became widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s (although rotary-dial phones still work if all you want to do is place a call and don't need to access features like querying a bank account balance).
Similarly, telephone also becomes "corded phone" to distinguish the traditional hard-wired telephone from those that are wireless in some way, such as cordless phones.
"Regular" coffee to distinguish it from decaffeinated coffee; some people say "caffeinated" coffee but strictly speaking this is a grammatical back-formation, not a retronym, because "to caffeinate" would mean to ADD caffeine to traditional coffee.
Note, though, that Coca-Cola is a "caffeinated" or "caffeine-containing" soft drink in its usual red-can form. Now that there is a Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola "caffeinated" could find use as a retronym for "the real thing."
"Manual" or "standard" or "stick" transmission on a car, none of which terms was necessary before automatic transmissions on cars became widespread and assumed to be the norm.
And, of course, "acoustic" guitar.
by al-in-chgo March 6, 2010
Get the retronym mug."Economic moat" is a term coined by investor Warren Buffet. It means how susceptible a company is to competition by other companies. Coca-Cola and Phillip Morris (Marlboro cigarettes) are companies with wide economic moats because of the popularity and consumer loyalty of their marquee brands. Boeing has a narrow but deep economic moat because its 777 and 787 aircraft are not subject to immediate displacement, but companies like Airbus and Bombardier could play catch-up over the course of several years by developing similar models that would threaten their primacy. That would close the moat.
-- "Give me an example of a company with a wide economic moat."
-- "The local water company, because no competitor can rush right in with a distribution system (pipes)."
-- "Besides, who else is gonna fill that moat? lol."
-- "The local water company, because no competitor can rush right in with a distribution system (pipes)."
-- "Besides, who else is gonna fill that moat? lol."
by al-in-chgo May 3, 2013
Get the economic moat mug.The process of erection in a man, whereby his penis gets stiffer and larger, and sometimes points away from the body at an angle.
Adjective form: "tumescent."
After sexual outlet, the reverse process is called "detumescence" (see listing).
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Adjective form: "tumescent."
After sexual outlet, the reverse process is called "detumescence" (see listing).
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"It was a pretty normal tumescence, but it took longer than usual."
"Maybe you've been having too much sex. Or it's just a consequence of getting older."
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"Maybe you've been having too much sex. Or it's just a consequence of getting older."
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by al-in-chgo March 13, 2010
Get the tumescence mug.Barack Obama's flippant reponse to Mitt Romney's complaint during their third televised debate (October 22, 2012) that the U.S. Navy had fewer battleships than at any time since 1917. Obama's remark that the military has fewer "horses and bayonets, too" makes an analogy that measuring battleships (as opposed to aircraft carriers) is an archaic metric of military power, in much the same way that measuring "horses and bayonets" would no longer indicate an army's might. (NB: Marines are still issued bayonets.)
"The Navy has fewer battleships than at any time since 1917."
"The military has fewer horses and bayonets, too. We live in a different world."
"The military has fewer horses and bayonets, too. We live in a different world."
by al-in-chgo October 23, 2012
Get the horses and bayonets mug.Typically a Mutual Fund is an investment fund aimed at individual investors sponsored by an investment (or "mutual fund") house like Fidelity, Vanguard or T. Rowe Price. Each fund holds a "market basket" of stocks or bonds and individual investors buy into the fund by buying a share at "Net Asset Value," which is the total worth of the fund's holdings, calculated every day, divided by the number of shares outstanding. In other words, a mutual fund whose portfolio (value of all holdings) is worth a million dollars that has a hundred thousand shares outstanding will value those shares at ten dollars apiece. A typical stock-based mutual fund can earn its investors money in three ways: the dividends and capital gains that stocks pay out, and possible appreciation of the fund value per share.
For an individual investor, the advantage of owning a mutual fund is that s/he achieves diversity -- mutual funds own more than fifty stocks, on average -- that could not be achieved by buying a typical hundred shares of stock in only a few corporations. The disadvantages of such funds are that the "load" (sales commission) involved in buying or selling such funds can be considerable, and all funds incur some sort of service fees; that's how the investment house earns its money. Also, no "equity" or stock-based investment is guaranteed.
For an individual investor, the advantage of owning a mutual fund is that s/he achieves diversity -- mutual funds own more than fifty stocks, on average -- that could not be achieved by buying a typical hundred shares of stock in only a few corporations. The disadvantages of such funds are that the "load" (sales commission) involved in buying or selling such funds can be considerable, and all funds incur some sort of service fees; that's how the investment house earns its money. Also, no "equity" or stock-based investment is guaranteed.
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"My broker wants me to buy shares in something called an "open-end fund" but I don't know what that means."
"That's just a way to describe the majority of mutual funds, which remain open to all new investors who have the money to invest in them."
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"My broker wants me to buy shares in something called an "open-end fund" but I don't know what that means."
"That's just a way to describe the majority of mutual funds, which remain open to all new investors who have the money to invest in them."
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by al-in-chgo March 25, 2010
Get the Mutual Fund mug..
Toronto-based rock trio (1984-91) credited with fusing the Punk style (Dead Kennedys e.g.) with Surf (the Ventures) into a distinctive but soon-imitated sound (sometimes called third-gen Surf).
The band usually recorded without vocals and has a number of EP's and CD's to its credit. Its last CD was released in 1995 but the band had effectively come to an end with the death of bassist Reid Diamond to cancer in 1991.
Televiewers may know Shadowy Men best from one particular song: "Having an Average Weekend," which was adopted by the Canadian satirical troupe Kids In The Hall as intro/outro music to the half-hour show of the same name.
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Toronto-based rock trio (1984-91) credited with fusing the Punk style (Dead Kennedys e.g.) with Surf (the Ventures) into a distinctive but soon-imitated sound (sometimes called third-gen Surf).
The band usually recorded without vocals and has a number of EP's and CD's to its credit. Its last CD was released in 1995 but the band had effectively come to an end with the death of bassist Reid Diamond to cancer in 1991.
Televiewers may know Shadowy Men best from one particular song: "Having an Average Weekend," which was adopted by the Canadian satirical troupe Kids In The Hall as intro/outro music to the half-hour show of the same name.
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"What was that band on the radio that played those interesting chords?"
"Dude, you've never heard of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet? They were huge in the eighties and early nineties. Even did the theme music for 'Kids In The Hall' on TV."
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"Dude, you've never heard of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet? They were huge in the eighties and early nineties. Even did the theme music for 'Kids In The Hall' on TV."
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by al-in-chgo March 1, 2010
Get the Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet mug.Originally and still a poker metatphor, 'all in' has also come to mean a situation whose subject is unreservedly involved, without qualification. Fully committed. In this sense the term "all in" is almost the same as its denotative opposite, "all out," as in all-out warfare.
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All in means you don't stop for Sundays.
All in means nobody can talk you out of it.
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(from New York Times online, October 17, 2011):
Mr. Immelt’s remarks took on the tone of a halftime pep talk. He said that with a clearer regulatory structure, an increased export base and an “all-in” business climate, the United States would be able to compete on a global front.
---Note that the Times used the term 'all in' with a hyphen separating the two words, which is customary when such a term is used as a single adjective. (Compare: "Frank is just flat-out broke".) Also note that the Times put slightly distancing quotation marks around the phrase in the above Immelt citation. This probably means that the Times writer recognized the phrase as a colloquialism, not yet fully acceptable standard written English, in this extended (non-poker) usage. Some grammarians (cf. Strunk and White, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE), object to ironic or distancing quotation marks on the theory that if a term or phrase is known to most readers, introduction or contexting is not necessary. Most likely, though, the New York Times' elaborate style sheet does not forbid such use.
All in means you don't stop for Sundays.
All in means nobody can talk you out of it.
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(from New York Times online, October 17, 2011):
Mr. Immelt’s remarks took on the tone of a halftime pep talk. He said that with a clearer regulatory structure, an increased export base and an “all-in” business climate, the United States would be able to compete on a global front.
---Note that the Times used the term 'all in' with a hyphen separating the two words, which is customary when such a term is used as a single adjective. (Compare: "Frank is just flat-out broke".) Also note that the Times put slightly distancing quotation marks around the phrase in the above Immelt citation. This probably means that the Times writer recognized the phrase as a colloquialism, not yet fully acceptable standard written English, in this extended (non-poker) usage. Some grammarians (cf. Strunk and White, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE), object to ironic or distancing quotation marks on the theory that if a term or phrase is known to most readers, introduction or contexting is not necessary. Most likely, though, the New York Times' elaborate style sheet does not forbid such use.
by al-in-chgo October 17, 2011
Get the all in mug.