{"id":339,"date":"2003-04-30T13:14:29","date_gmt":"2003-04-30T18:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=339"},"modified":"2003-04-30T13:14:29","modified_gmt":"2003-04-30T18:14:29","slug":"words_mean_thin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/30\/words_mean_thin.html","title":{"rendered":"Words mean things, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Proper <\/a>and appropriate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it odd — two words that most commonly mean the same thing (so much so that it’s impossible to find a definition for that common meaning for one that doesn’t involve the other), but that have very different spins<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I mean, you can use the two words pretty interchangably from a technical sense. “Was that the proper thing to do?” “Was that the appropriate thing to do?” But there’s an odd, subtle shading there, too.<\/p>\n

Proper <\/i>comes across as — well, prim and <\/i>… There’s a sense of formality, of manners, of rules. Gentlemen worry if an action, or a thought, or an utterance is proper. Mary Poppins teaches kids to be proper.<\/p>\n

Appropriate <\/i>comes across as — PC. There’s a sense of self-denying compassion, and making people feel valued, and, yes, also of rules. We’ve been all mesmerized into usnig the word to mean “the humanistic and multiculturally correct thing to do, as ratified by the UN Commission on Appropriate Thinking.”<\/p>\n

Etiquette writers advise us to be proper<\/i>. Shrinks advise us to be appropriate<\/i>. Mom told us to use proper <\/i>English. Our HR manager tells us to use appropriate <\/i>English. Diplomats and snooty headwaiters that deserve to be taken down a peg tell us we’re acting improperly<\/i>. Politicians and self-esteem consultants tell us we’re acting inappropriately<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Screw it. I’m going to try to use proper more often, rather than appropriate. If nothing else, it will save five bytes of disk space every time I do.<\/p>\n

(the obligatory tip o’ the subject line to Adam<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proper and appropriate. Isn’t it odd — two words that most commonly mean the same thing (so much so that it’s impossible to find a definition for that common meaning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potpourri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5088,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/04\/words_and_gramm.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":0},"title":"Words (and grammar) mean things","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Nov-03 8:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Try your luck with Richard Roth's Hundred Most Common Errors in (American) English usage. I got a 71\/100, which should tell you something. (You do have to keep your own...","rel":"","context":"In "Writing and Language"","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38599,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/31\/words-with-enemies.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":1},"title":"Words with Enemies","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 31-Aug-13 1:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I'm a rules-abiding kind of guy. And I'm a big believer in the richness of the language and in the power of proper grammar and all that.But for some reason, of late, I've been finding myself defending the idea that languages are dynamic, and that spelling, grammar, meaning, exist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127827,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/27\/toasts-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":2},"title":"Toasts","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Aug-15 11:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Proper daily toasts, per Royal Navy tradition. I sort of feel like I should make a note and keep it on hand for appropriate home toasting.http:\/\/www.hmsrichmond.org\/toast.htmThough I might skip the (now-unofficial) \"To wives and sweet-hearts [may they never meet]\" Saturday edition. \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/130839333__424886c5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/130839333__424886c5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/130839333__424886c5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31149,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/05\/proper-forms-of-address-for-catholic-clergy.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":3},"title":"Proper forms of address\u00a0for Catholic clergy","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Nov-12 5:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I ran across this in doing some #NaNoWriMo \u00a0research (since I have to deal with Catholic clergy in 1952), and found it interesting both the information and for the, um, tone of the article (including advice on how to cajole\u00a0a priest to keep him from encouraging your kids to call\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15638,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/24\/cue-sunrise-sunset.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":4},"title":"Cue “Sunrise, Sunset”","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Aug-09 10:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Crikey! Katherine went to her age 9 annual check-up this afternoon -- and came home with a brochure, \"From Girl to Woman.\" Which, I will note, she is reading avidly, even (her words) the \"icky stuff.\" And, yes, I know that's a good\u00a0and proper and age-appropriate thing, and, in fact,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132876,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/17\/enemies-of-the-people.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":5},"title":"Enemies of the People","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 17-Feb-17 5:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump has declared war on the media.No, not in some vague name-calling way. Trump has declared that the \"FAKE NEWS Media\" -- calling out the major networks, CNN, and the New York Times[1]) -- are the Enemy of the American People. The Enemy.Those are his words.And, yeah, I'm sure there's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Bfake%2Bmedia%2Benemies.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Bfake%2Bmedia%2Benemies.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Bfake%2Bmedia%2Benemies.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}