# "Body double" - what it is and isn't **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 21, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888 "2024-05-21T22:02:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/41 "2024-05-23T20:07:16Z")
Nay, let us refer to the press release: > **[Doh! Oxford Dictionary Takes Homer Simpson](https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93098&page=1)** Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, what is that? In any case the Simpsonization of language proceeds apace. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/42 "2024-05-23T20:30:43Z")
Popular entertainment has been adding new words to the language since Shakespeare. (Actually earlier, if we want don’t want to quibble about Modern English vs Middle English.) Curmudgeons of his day complained about it, too. But language is defined by the people who speak it, and usage ever evolves. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/43 "2024-05-23T20:35:53Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Okay then, if that’s not endorsement, what word would you use… Legitimize? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/44 "2024-05-23T20:45:10Z")
Oxford Learners recognizes both: > **[doh exclamation - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes |...](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/doh_2)** > > Definition of doh exclamation in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/45 "2024-05-23T20:50:54Z")
Okay–a 23-year-old press release is a better cite than the current Oxford dictionary. Got it. > [@Hatchie](#): > > Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, what is that? I mean, it’s right there at the link: > [@](#): > > Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide Or, if you specifically want to know what Oxford’s Learner’s Dictionary is, go to the page and read the “About Us” page. Also, dictionaries don’t give words “a pass.” They’re not the Miss Manners of language, however much some people want them to be. I think, at this point, the quality of your argument is clear, and I’m not sure there’s more to be said. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/46 "2024-05-23T21:29:59Z")
I think the OP wants an [Académie Française](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_Fran%C3%A7aise) for American English, and it’s never going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/47 "2024-05-23T22:02:59Z")
Ah, crap, I somehow missed this was already posted. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/48 "2024-05-23T22:08:12Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Popular entertainment has been adding new words to the language since Shakespeare. (Actually earlier, if we want don’t want to quibble about Modern English vs Middle English.) Curmudgeons of his day complained about it, too. Little known fact, the word “curmudgeon” itself was first used on an episode of _I Love Lucy._ ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/49 "2024-05-23T23:14:30Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I think the OP wants an [Académie Française](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_Fran%C3%A7aise) for American English, and it’s never going to happen. No, I just want people to stop throwing around one particular and only recently corrupted term. **You** can do that. After that, you can decimate all you like. I get how language changes. Tut-tut and finger-wag if you want, call me names even - “prescriptivist”? Maybe in this one instance, but you descriptivists can be just as tiresome. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/50 "2024-05-23T23:15:36Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > No, I just want people to stop throwing around one particular and only recently corrupted term. **You** can do that. After that, you can decimate all you like. “Corrupted” is a very difficult word to understand in this concept, unless it has a religious meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/51 "2024-05-24T00:35:16Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > decimate Tee hee! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/52 "2024-05-24T01:42:02Z")
Urban rumor. What Desi actually said was that Lucy was being a “corn merchant” in one of her schemes, adding a popcorn machine to his act. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/53 "2024-05-24T01:50:40Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Okay then, if that’s not endorsement, what word would you use to describe the practice of cautious editing, waiting for something to prove its commonality before comitting it to print in a source people depend on? “Identifying.” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/54 "2024-05-24T01:51:37Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Popular entertainment has been adding new words to the language since Shakespeare. The Bard was responsible for coining, or at least popularizing, a vast number of [words](https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-words/) and [phrases](https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-phrases/) in common English use today. And writers, musicians, politicians, and pundits have continued the tradition of contributing to and expanding the use of words since. It is what makes language risk and distinctive, instead of fetid and dead like Latin. Except the bizlingo term “It’s in our DNA.” Anyone using that phrase without reference to genetics or cellular biochemistry needs to be lined up against the wall and shot. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/55 "2024-05-24T03:00:08Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Maybe in this one instance, but you descriptivists can be just as tiresome. Yep, it’s terrible when scientists describe how the world is, instead of how it ought to be. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/56 "2024-05-24T07:21:29Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Maybe in this one instance, but you descriptivists can be just as tiresome. The dictionary doesn’t define descriptivism as ‘tiresome’ at all, so it is not. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/57 "2024-05-24T13:45:37Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Yep, it’s terrible when scientists describe how the world is, instead of how it ought to be. Indeed–descriptivists are tiresome to prescriptivists for the same reason that astronomers are tiresome to astrologers. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/58 "2024-05-24T18:13:31Z")
Armchair linguists are tiresome to regular people. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/59 "2024-05-24T19:14:59Z")
Nah, dog. Regular people don’t bitch and complain about double negatives, so won’t really ever need to encounter “armchair linguists.” What is tiresome is people who correct my language when I’m speaking in my own dialect and knowing goddamned well what I’m doing. (Of course, speaking in “prestige dialect” around the peers I grew up with would give off a scent of me “putting on airs” or thinking I’m better than everyone else for speaking “standard” English. No matter what education I got, I’m still pulykamell from the block.) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888/60 "2024-05-29T16:04:09Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Armchair linguists are tiresome to regular people. Yes, but are you the “regular person,” or are you the “armchair linguist?” You are, after all, the poster who started a thread complaining about people using words wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-double-what-it-is-and-isnt/1001888.md?page=4)