Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 September 9

= September 9 =

" Ridiculously hot"
"Ridiculously hot girl" - is it grammatically correct? What is the purpose/meaning of "ridiculous" here? --Galactic Traveller (talk) 05:52, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's correct. "Ridiculously" means "very" here. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 06:22, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It is one of the many words in English which have over time acquired a second use as an intensifier, though in this case with a connotation of "excessive". --ColinFine (talk) 21:10, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't call it excessive. That means there's a negative quality about its muchness; it's an undesirable amount.  (Unless you're talking about the excess like which nothing succeeds - that's not a true excess, because it's fully accommodated, the more the merrier.) I can't imagine someone preferring to exchange their image of a "ridiculously hot" person for one who's clearly less attractive.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   02:52, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I think there is a negative implication, but the term can be used jocularly. If I say that a political party's position is ridiculously wrong, I mean it negatively.  If I say that I did ridiculously well in a game, I'm joking that other people would think it ridiculous.  --Anonymous, 03:43 UTC, September 10, 2010.
 * I don't get that. Colin correctly said it's an intensifier.  It makes negative things more negative; and it makes positive things more positive.  It can't be used to make negative things less negative (= more positive), or to make positive things less positive (= more negative).  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   04:44, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I think Colin's connotation of "excessive" is possible. If you mean ridiculously as in over the top, implausibly, even freakishly!. There is that kind of hot that turns you off (or me at least). ---Sluzzelin talk  04:56, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * In the case in question, the closest term would be extremely. There's no "negative" or "excessive" connotation to it. Also, in my experience, it seems to be used more often with positive adjectives ("that girl is ridiculously hot", "the food there is ridiculously good", "wow, he is ridiculously fast", etc.), not negative ones (some things, like "man, that class was ridiculously long", sound ok, but a lot don't&mdash;"#she's ridiculously ugly", "#dinner was ridiculously bad", "#that runner is ridiculously slow" all sound strange to my ear). r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 05:04, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I guess I've been reading it too literally then. I thought it could also be interpreted as "hot to the extent that we find ridiculous", thinking that the axis of this intensifier could go beyond an optimum. ---Sluzzelin talk  05:09, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * More likely it's an abbreviation of the phrase "It's ridiculous to think that anyone could be that hot" - i.e., closer to 'unbelievable' than 'extreme'. By the way, I didn't think the girl in that link was all that hot.  may be she's just too young for my tastes, but still...  -- Ludwigs 2  05:25, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * (after ec #4) Yes, I think that is a too-literal reading. It's not that the person is in any sense ridiculous.  The speaker is bereft of suitable adjectives with which to describe this ravishing creature, and that paucity of his vocabulary, which he interpolates as a general inadequacy of the language itself, is what he's saying is ridiculous.  In the turn-off scenario, would you use the word 'hot' at all?  I think it's reserved for people who the speaker considers are actually currently somewhere in the hot zone, not those who've passed right through it and are now exhibiting unnatural freakishness or whatever.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   05:28, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Making "ridiculous" into an adverb is actually an expansion of vocabulary, isn't it? Anyway, I do agree that this is being analyzed too literally. "Ridiculously" means "extremely" and there is no conscious connection to "ridiculous" when it is used. (And it can be used both positively and negatively, in my experience - "ridiculously ugly" or "ridiculously stupid" or similar phrases are also possible.) Adam Bishop (talk) 12:50, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Existential Threat
On the BBC today there was was talk about Pakistan facing an "Existential treat" because of the floods, terrorism, and even cricket match fixing. This contours up images of people looking for meaning in a meaningless world, and whining about the angst of existence like in a Jean Paul Satre book, but from the context I gather it simply means "threat to existence". Is this normal usage of the term? -- Q Chris (talk) 07:36, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's an abbreviated way of saying "Threat to one's existence". In reference to nations, it's more often used in connection with Israel (see Policide).  For another possible meaning of the term existential threat, there's a classic ca. 2002 joke that develops at some length a scenario about how the French are invading Afghanistan by dropping in beret-wearing baguette-carrying café philosophers, but I can't seem to find it by Google searching right now... AnonMoos (talk) 12:40, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Here's a version of it: -- AnonMoos (talk) 12:47, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Everybody Hurts
What does it mean? Everybody hurts (other people) sometimes. Everybody feels pain. Both?--80.58.205.34 (talk) 11:50, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It's a matter of interpretation of course, but I'd be very surprised if it wasn't intended to mean that everybody feels pain - specifically, emotional pain. --Viennese Waltz 11:54, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * From the lyrics I'd say "Everybody feels pain". -- Q Chris (talk) 11:55, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

http://www.lyricinterpretations.com/rem/Everybody-Hurts Quadrupedaldiprotodont (talk) 14:14, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Bestemor
What does "Bestemor" mean in (presumably) Norwegian? 79.123.57.130 (talk) 14:26, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Grandmother. See, for example, Wiktionary: wikt:bestemor. See also mormor and farmor. ---Sluzzelin talk  14:33, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Perfect. Thanks. 79.123.57.130 (talk) 14:58, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

What Is The CP
What does CP mean?199.126.224.245 (talk) 22:42, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Control point. What that means, don't ask me. Looie496 (talk) 23:36, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * In games, a control point is a point on the map/battlefield that players must take control of in order to get a step closer to winning the game - very often they are marked with a flag, hence the phrase 'capture the flag' when referring to this type of game. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  12:46, 10 September 2010 (UTC)