"feelings" vs. "feels"

[Laurence Horn]

In my day, giving someone a feel was very different from giving someone a feeling.

LH

On Oct 8, 2012, at 11:53 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:

> This is a blog entry (http://verbs-not-nouns.dreamwidth.org/26365.html),
> quoted and linked by permission. Some Google results below.
>
> ==========
>
> The difference between Feelings and Feels
>
> “Feelings are the emotions you have, feels are why you drink.” - Awesome
> roommate
>
> Feelings are the definable things. They’re identifiable. You can name them
> when they’re happening.
>
> Feels are the big rushes of All The Emotions! Good or bad or both/neither,
> it‘s intense. It’s the whump and the drop and the *space and the glee and
> excitement and sorrow and the new and the unexpected and the all of
> everything. It’s messier, harder to figure out exactly what you’re feeling,
> because there‘s so much and it‘s so intimately right there right now and
> your logic brain is a little bit flooded with emotional stimulation. Feels
> usually need help or distance to puzzle out exactly what‘s happening, to
> pull them apart into the separate emotions or back away enough that you can
> see the bigness of it all.
>
> It’s a little bit of a silly fannish jargon, but I like having this
> concept/word in my toolbox. It means I can start conversations before I
> know exactly what’s going on. When things are new and intense and I need
> help, I can just announce “I have feels!” and the people I’m talking to
> understand that they might need to hold my hand a little, or guide me, or
> ask questions, or be patient while I stumble around trying to find the
> words to explain what I’m feeling. But it means I’ve started the
> conversation and which is a necessary first step to figuring things out.
>
> It’s been particularly useful for figuring out this whole relationship
> thing. There have been a lot of feels in the last couple of months.
>
> =========
>
> Ghits: "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted
> some entries very similar to the __ already displayed."
>
> 632     "my feels" site:www.tumblr.com
> 752     "my feels" -site:www.tumblr.com meme
> 925     "my feels" -site:www.tumblr.com -meme
> -----
> 2309
> -531    "Oh my, feels just like I don't try."
>           (From the song "Everybody Loves Me" by Onerepublic)
> -----
> 1778
>
>
> Pre-Internet hit:
> Brave Horatius did wait and wait, but still those queer feels would n't go
> away. Pretty soon I got awful sick. By and by I did have better feels. And
> to-day my feels are all right and the mamma is gone a-visiting and I am
> going on an exploration trip.
> -- Philip Gengembre Hubert. The Story of Opal: The journal of an
> understanding heart. The Atlantic Monthly: March, 1920, p. 295
> http://tinyurl.com/9nupzsg
>
>
> Mark Mandel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org