live, adj. = "(of entertainment) thrilling"

Wed Dec 29 19:06:21 UTC 2010

I wouldn't call it the "old fakeroo" if the customer is getting
exactly what is expected -- DirecTV channels just like one gets at
home.

Aren't all new uses, by definition, not customary?

I am reading these e-mails in gmail, and there are several ads like
this in the right-hand column:

Watch Live TV
Your Favorite TV Shows Online.
Watch Free.
TVneto.com

Live Tv Channels
Watch 4500+ channels On your PC
No Dish, No Fees, 100% Legal .
www.NettvTop.net

So this is not a one-off.

DanG

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: live, adj. = "(of entertainment) thrilling"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yeah, Dan & Larry, but you seem to assume that DirecTV just wants to tell it
> like it is as concisely as possible.  So naive.  It's an ad!  And it's for
> Entertainment!  And you don't expect the old fakeroo?
>
> With the news and sports exceptions, they're not claiming that the shows are
> "live" (as we generally understand it) in any way, shape, or form.  The
> shows are, presumably, quite unaltered from what you might watch at home,
> but those shows aren't "live" either, unless they're being broadcast live.
> Does "live" customarily include the notion the you're seeing them in "real
> time" at the very instant the person/ robot/ cyborg activates the switch?
> My life experience sez no.
>
> And if it were to say yes, that would be a new and fakey use of "live." QED,
> OED!
>
> Couldn't they have called it "real TV" or "real-time TV" or something else a
> little less, er, self-serving and misleading?  Remember, the ad has
> been carefully crafted by persons/ robots/ cyborgs who spend all day trying
> to part you from your precious spondulix.
>
> I myself might have popped for six bits, but six smackers?  Puhleeze. That's
> a cup of coffee and a down payment on a 1000-calorie bran muffin.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 6:52 AM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: live, adj. = "(of entertainment) thrilling"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> In terms of live as thrilling/exciting, the R &B group Lakeside had
>> a=A0198=
>> 0 hit, "Fantastic Voyage," that says that the party is "live, live, it's
>> al=
>> l the way live ... forget about your troubles and your 9 to 5 ..."=A0
>> =A0
>> --Margaret Lee
>>
>>
>> --- On Wed, 12/29/10, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Re: live, adj. =3D "(of entertainment) thrilling"
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 1:05 AM
>>
>>
>> Thrilling?
>>
>> Surely by "live" they mean you are watching the same broadcasts you
>> would be able to watch at home, instead of some previously recorded
>> (and typically dated) programs.
>>
>> DanG
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 7:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------=
>> ------
>> > Sender:=A0 =A0 =A0=A0=A0American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> >
>> > Poster:=A0 =A0 =A0=A0=A0Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:=A0 =A0 =A0 live, adj. =3D "(of entertainment) thrilling"
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>> >
>> > This could be the "handcrafted" of tomorrow. At the moment it's chiefly
>> a=
>> n
>> > ex. of an ad technique that comes close to ye olde "bait & switch." It
>> > probably already has a name, though I don't know offhand what it is.
>> >
>> > DirecTV offers cable TV channels in flight (on, e.g., Frontier Airlines)
>> =
>> at
>> > six bucks a look.=A0 If you don't slide your credit card, the little
>> scre=
>> en
>> > eighteen inches from your eyes just keeps playing the ad (and a few
>> other=
>> s)
>> > repeatedly, making it difficult to concentrate on anything but the
>> screen=
>>  or
>> > sleeping with your eyes shut.
>> >
>> > But the point here is that the ad says, "Enjoy Live TV During Your
>> > Flight....It's Live TV That You Control....Imagine Live TV at 30,000
>> Feet=
>> .
>> > We did." But in fact the only reasonably "live" TV you can watch is the
>> n=
>> ews
>> > on Fox and CNN, and certain live sporting events that may coincide with
>> y=
>> our
>> > flight schedule.=A0 Nevertheless the ad also claims that you can "Access
>> =
>> 24
>> > Channels of Live DirecTV and our GPS Live Mapchannel."=A0 Yet few of
>> thos=
>> e 24
>> > channels are "live TV," and only the two news channels are "live" most of
>> > the time.=A0 (I didn't notice any little "TM" suggesting that the phrase
>> =
>> "Live
>> > DirecTV" might be a service mark, and thus presumably beyond criticism.)
>> >
>> > Some of the TV you can watch really is "live" in the customary sense, but
>> > most is not.=A0 DirecTV seems to be spotlighting the exceptional and
>> > trumpeting it as the typical. (See paragraph one.) But "live," in at
>> leas=
>> t
>> > one of the quotes, must mean something like "really terrific" in
>> addition=
>>  to
>> > its "legitimate" TV sense.
>> >
>> > HDAS includes this hitherto uncommon meaning ("thrilling, exciting,
>> > wonderful") from 1978-80. It is nonetheless startling to see it used in
>> a=
>> n
>> > advertisement, in cold blood.=A0 Unless it's far more current than I
>> thou=
>> ght.
>> >
>> > At any rate, I find it remarkable, but maybe that's just me.
>> >
>> > JL
>> > --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth=
>> ."
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> =0A=0A=0A
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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