The word "homophobic"

[UnquietDad]

Brings out the pedant in me.

It's used so glibly, and yet it doesn't mean what people think it means.

Broken down, "homo-phobic" just means "fear of that which is the same". Which is surely the opposite of what's being implied here - being nasty to gay people because they are different.

In fact, "heterophobic" would cover it!

While I'm here - "chocoholic". Why? Someone addicted to alcohol is an alcoholic, so surely someone "addicted" to chocolate is a "chocolateic", and someone who works a lot is a "workic."

And don't get me started on "-gate" as a suffix...

[SheikYerbouti]

You think too much, UQD.

[UnquietDad]

thank you!

[Hassled]

But isn't it just a truncation of homosexual-phobic?

[SheikYerbouti]

Off on a tangent a bit, but I hate people (mainly readers of the ghastly Heat! magazine) who amalgamate the two names of a couple.

Like "Branjelina" and "Tomkat."

It makes me shake with rage.

[mistypeaks]

As in water-gate? (or is it watergate?)

[donnie]

I suppose homosexuaphobe would be better.

[Enraha]

In today's parlance it would be "Watergate-gate". Really pisses me off royally too.

[UnquietDad]

Someone stole the park gates here a few years ago. It was Gate-gate.

[asicsgirl]

backformation! we love it!

like 'hamburger' really = hamburg + er (as in a steak in the Hamburg style)

but has been reanalysed as ham + burger

and now we have fishburger, cheeseburger etc.

-oholic is now a productive ending in its own right

rather cool process imho

[Threadwormm]

Of course it means what people think it means, since it was specifically coined to possess that meaning, whatever might otherwise have been suggested by its compontent parts.

We can sometimes just invent.

[HuwEdwards]

UQD - you really are barmy

[Elasticwoman]

I can't overlook the way some one's window overlooks my fence. Esp when I'm hanging out the washing and dd is hanging out with me.

Why does overlook mean the opposite of itself, UQD? And is dd helping with a chore or just making a nuisance of herself?

[MargaretMountford]

please don't get me started on chocoholic - it is just plain wrong

[UnquietDad]

elasticwoman - and "cleave" means two totally opposite things. I can live with that.

But I think "homophobic" just smacks of laziness, as if people latched on to the first word which describes the thing, whenever it was that it first came in.

(Some days I feel a bit lost having English as my native tongue, and think I'd love to be part of the Académie Française.)

[Pan]

dd asked me ages ago: "Why do we say 'the alarm is going off', when it is making a big noise. It must be on, then. Not off."

[Pan]

I have nooo idea where she gets her pedantry from.

[MrsJohnCusack]

I always think this
phobic means fear really

the 'phobe' suffix is also used for 'hatred' - that's usually where homophobic is used isn't it

but of course homo means 'the same'

you're right

the prefix 'miso' means hate so we need a word like 'misohomosexualist'. or something

[asicsgirl]

in fact uqd i think you would love german, which has duden. a whole 12 volumes of pedantry!!!

[Elasticwoman]

I was once criticised for using the word homosexual in an essay when I was talking about lesbians. (Pinter's Old Times was the text.) I felt that the word homosexual was not sex-specific but my tutor told me it refers only to males.

So, UQD and every one, was I right or wrong?

Do I get a Pedant's Star for remembering this after 29 years?

[Elasticwoman]

I'd like to add that words do evolve. Sensible, for example, meant something very different in Jane Austen's time. It did not then mean remembering to bring your umbrella and wearing shoes you could walk in.

[mistypeaks]

I was always under the impression that "homo" was the genus name for human. Homo Sapien being modern human. Which would mean homophobes hate all humans?
But I am not a true pedant. I am just a thicko.

[CatWithKittens]

I understood that the (very optimistic) term 'homo sapiens', meaning, literally, 'wise man' (or mankind) had Latin roots, whereas 'homo', as in homosexual, had Greek roots and meant 'the same' or 'of like kind'. I have to say that having just discovered, after the wash, that DH had put his red boxers in the washing machine with the nappies this morning does incline me to wonder how on earth 'homo sapiens' came to be so named or where he has gone since he was identified in those terms.

[PennyBenjamin]

Have to agree with Catwithkittens - different roots for the same prefix.

Infamous Latin speaker Pontius Pilate uttered the words "Ecce homo", meaning "Behold the man", whereas Catwithkittens' husband appears to have "homogenized" her washing.....

[PinkPussyCat]

I love reading the pedantry threads.... just wish I was clever enough to post on them...

[CatWithKittens]

It's almost worth the pink nappies for PennyBenjamin's use of "homogenization" - I like it and has certainly reduced, by at least 80%, the megatonnage of the blast awaiting DH when he gets back. Thank you for making me see the funny side of it - especilly as bleach appears to be doing its whitening work - sorry I know it can't do that and, either literally or metaphorically, be green, but DSs will not wear pink nappies, I'm sure.