maxiogee said:
Oooh FFB, Surely "outrage" is also negative - you seem to want to eat your ridiculous cake and have your outrageous one!
Well, you make a pretty slick point there-- but I didn't say anything categorical about
outrageous-- note what you yourself quoted from my post. I've added a touch of emphasis.
Ridicule is a much stronger word, and isn't used as much, but its degrogatory meaning is inescapable. "To an outrageous degree" can mean you are delighted in the excess involved-- ridiculously means you look down on it, even if it rises to the level of amusing you.
I'm saying that "outrageous" retains its meaning of
excess, am I not? I think that's the same criterion I applied to "ridiculously."
If you want to say "ah, but you can delight in ridicule too," I'll concede that point. Wait a minute-- I just noticed "even if it rises to the level of amusing you." Nope, I think I gave both words adequate, and consistent enough shrift.
At any rate we seem to agree that etymology figures in the use of words, unless one is a lox with no sense of word origins, no conception that they matter-- and a dismissive want of interest in the topic when it's offered. At his request!
Your post about the difference between the
two things modus.immobilis said was, of course, patently correct. I doubt that I am the only one who saw it that way.
.