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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

1054.0. "Synonym required!" by AUSSIE::WHORLOW (Bushies do it for FREE!) Sun Jul 04 1993 22:02

    G'day,
    
    I was reading the local newspaper job advertisements recently - on
    behalf of another, I hasten to add - and I noticed a word in an
    advertisement that really caught my eye.
    
    
    Now none of my dictionaries show the word, but I cannot think of a
    synonym that fits just _so well_.
    
    
    The text ran.....
    
     interested in and having experience in the intervention, prevention and
    *postvention* of.....
    
    
    
    Any ideas?
    
    derek
    
    
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1054.1JIT081::DIAMONDPardon me? Or must I be a criminal?Mon Jul 05 1993 00:136
    Well, if prevention comes before the invasion and intervention comes
    after the invasion, then perhaps intervention is the synonym and
    just doesn't quite say what it means.  Or supposedly does postvention
    come after the invasion has already been turned back... then is it not
    prevention against repetitions?  Extravention?  Revention?  Devention?
    And how about the way all these new words are created... Invention?
1054.2AUSSIE::WHORLOWBushies do it for FREE!Mon Jul 05 1993 00:3714
    G'day,
    
    The advertisement was for a person to raise funds and support for
    support services against teenage suicides....
    
    So arguably postvention was after intervention which resulted in
    prevention......
    
    An interesting word...
    
    Like the preamble and postamble and append and prepend...
    
    
    derek
1054.3Three possible times to get involved.SMURF::BINDERDeus tuus tibi sed deus meus mihiTue Jul 06 1993 07:2711
    Prevention is coming before.  Talk the potential suicide out of doing
    it, ideally before the situation gets that far.
    
    Intervention is coming between.  Stop the suicide while the attempt is
    in process (or, usually, in imminent likelihood of occurring).
    
    Postvention is coming after.  Clean up the mess, usually by counseling
    the family and friends.
    
    All three are of Latin provenance.  Stop by SMURF::SPQR sometime.  :-) 
    Press KP7 or Select to add it to your notebook.
1054.4with apologies...AUSSIE::WHORLOWBushies do it for FREE!Tue Jul 06 1993 16:5238
    G'day,
    
    I accept that the word has a good basis for existance - indeed it
    appears to have a very honoured pedigree! And the sense, as you
    suggest, was indeed how I interpreted it. BUT IT WAS NOT IN MY
    DICTIONARY! (Where have I heard that expression before? Ahhh yes, Dr.
    Johnson)
    
    As for SMURF::SPQR, I regret to say my latin runs to but a few words..
    
    Labor (or was it amour) Omnia vincit
    
    Civis romanus sum
    
    cogito ergo sum
    
    and of course the English motto from the coat of arms
    
    Mon dieu et mon droit (My God, I'm right) which as soon as I typed it
    meant that I blushed as now it appears very french to me!
    
    I once had a boss who would sell things and then expect us to build
    them. We coined the phrase Cogitavi ergo id est (I thought of it, so
    it exists) but that is another story.
    
    QED.
    
    and now I start to struggle...
    
    so were I to be so bold as to roam into SPQR, I could but fiddle around
    get near, oh so near to burnt and run away to go fishing for carpe
    deum.
    
    derek
    
    
    
     
1054.5No apologies required. :-)SMURF::BINDERDeus tuus tibi sed deus meus mihiWed Jul 07 1993 07:3712
    Proficiency in Latin is not a prerequisite for participation in SPQR -
    a fairish number of notes there were simply queries or requests for
    translations, both into and from Latin.
    
    That a word can be derived from its obvious linguistic antecedents is
    not a priori evidence that it has a good reason to exist; in re
    "postvention," what's wrong with "followup" or "survivor support"?  But
    then this is how language grows, right?
    
    "I thought of it, therefore it exists" might be rendered with greater
    Latin pith as "Quia id cogitavi id est," which is literally, "Because
    I thought of it, it exists."
1054.6AUSSIE::WHORLOWBushies do it for FREE!Wed Jul 07 1993 19:1323
    G'day,
    
    We were playing on the Cogito ergo sum epigram....
    
    We had started a list of management one liners...
    
    
    
    Rule for estimating projects... Nothing takes less than one man week
    Rule for looking at tenders.... beware of one line requirements
    
    when we were again confronted with a customer requirement sold by the
    boss, which we then had to determine how to do...
    
    cogitavi ergo est  would have been what we wanted but that I guess is 
    I thought therefore I am
    
    so we had to putthe id in.... (as opposed to the manager's ego...;-)  )
    
    
    
    derek
    
1054.7SMURF::BINDERDeus tuus tibi sed deus meus mihiThu Jul 08 1993 10:1419
    This really ought to be ported to SPQR, but...
    
    "Cogitavi ergo est" means literally "I [have] thought therefore [it]
    is."
    
    Without an object, cogito is an intransitive verb.  There is an odd
    disconnect with English, because with an object it means the same as
    "think of" - which is a two-word transitive verb.
    
    The verb "est" is third-person singular present indicative, which can
    be translated "he is" or "she is" or "it is."  Hence, you really did
    need the "id" to indicate that it was a thing, not an unidentified
    person.
    
    The problem with us Latin pedants is that we stumble over the sometimes
    fractured Latin that results when someone does what you did.  We tend
    to get hung up on what the *real* Latin ought to be.  Forgive us, okay?
    
    Illegitimi non carborundum.
1054.88^)CALS::DESELMSA closed mouth gathers no feet.Thu Jul 08 1993 11:024
    
    Tu noital est.

    - Jim
1054.9brain sprainAUSSIE::WHORLOWBushies do it for FREE!Thu Jul 08 1993 16:5113
    G'day,
     What's to forgive? Happy to increase the old word powers... that's why
    we're here.....
    
    
    and postvention = follow-up...... sounds good.
    
    
    regards
    
    
    derek