[Ads-l] perfect synonyms

[Ben Zimmer]

Calling to mind the Adams vs. Jefferson standoff in "1776"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScP9gz0Vc6Q

On Sun, Feb 25, 2024 at 9:03 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> At long last, two synonyms that are even more nearly perfect semantically
> and orthographically than "gorse" and "furze."
>
> They're not very exciting though:
>
> "inalienable"
>
> "unalienable"
>
> Unlike "gorse" and "furze," this pair has the advantage of being routinely
> interchanged when quoting from the U.S. Constitution.
>
> OED has "un" from 1611 and "in" from 1647.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Dec 29, 2023 at 9:25 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > To return briefly: "whin" isn't so exact a synonym as "gorse" and
> "furze."
> > Not only is it four, not five, letters; it shares no letters with "gorse"
> > and "furze," and it doesn't appear till ca1400.
> >
> > Both "gorse" and "furze," though, come from Old English.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 4:35 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: perfect synonyms
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> At 10:50 AM -0400 7/10/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> >Years ago I revived the claim that the two most nearly synonymous words
> >> in
> >> >English are "gorse" and "furze."
> >>
> >> This pair also has a distinguished history in the philosophy of
> >> language, going back (at least) 30 years to a famous paper by Saul
> >> Kripke in "A Puzzle About Belief" (1979).  His point was that an
> >> otherwise competent speaker of English could acquire both terms
> >> through ostensive definitions without realizing that they refer to
> >> the same thing, so that "X believes that gorse is gorse" and "X
> >> believes that gorse is furze" could differ in truth value, which
> >> might to taken to suggest that (on one view of synonymy) they're not
> >> synonyms after all.
> >>
> >> >  Not only do they designate the same
> >> >referent; they are both monosyllabic and even bear a minor phonetic
> >> >resemblance.
> >> >
> >> >I can now reveal two comparably synonymous English words. They are
> >> >so mundane, however, that no one will be impressed.
> >> >
> >> >The envelope please:
> >> >
> >> >"Flapjack" and "slapjack."
> >> >
> >>
> >> The former no doubt arising from the latter on the occasion when John
> >> Donne spelled "slapjack" with one of those f-ish-looking s's in an
> >> otherwise obscure erotic poem.
> >>
> >> LH
>

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