# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 72
**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:** [February 27, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1421 "2024-02-27T01:23:51Z")
And, once again, there’s another one. Things can be comparatively unique. Something, for example, can be unique in multiple ways, hence, “more unique” than something else. But, yes, often it’s just used as a synonym for “rare” or “unusual.” ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1422 "2024-02-27T01:23:58Z")
I wish folks would lay this topic to rest; gives me a headache and I need to lie down. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1423 "2024-02-27T01:24:04Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > This thread is, like, literally boring, amirite?   \*\* _carefully hides drill behind my back_ \*\* ---
**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:** [February 27, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1424 "2024-02-27T01:24:14Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I have in real life. Can you give the example? (I’m not doubting you–I’m actually trying to collect examples. It’s so hard to come across any.) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1425 "2024-02-27T01:27:40Z")
This literally digression is literally so boring it is literally making me homicidal. And I’m not sure what sense of the word I am using! ETA, did not mean to reply to you specifically @pulykamell ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1426 "2024-02-27T01:29:07Z")
Fortunately, the digression is not literally unique, here. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1427 "2024-02-27T01:29:22Z")
I have actually not ever _heard_ literally used as an intensifier. I don’t usually call people on their grammar in real life. I work in a convenience store. I’d be correcting all day and end up in the stocks (if we had them) after a few hours. I would call someone out for that one. Incidentally, my Son in Law, uses “brung” ~shudder~ I do not correct him. He’s adult family and lives in my house. I do correct my 11 year old granddaughter (his daughter) when she uses it. It’s a work in progress. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1428 "2024-02-27T01:30:30Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Can you give the example? I can’t remember the details, because it was a long time ago, but I was being given instructions on how to do something at my job, and I was told that you “literally” have to only do it this specific way. (It was a retail job almost 30 years ago.) I assumed that they actually meant that you literally have to only do it a particular way. They later clarified that they meant it was usually the best way to do it, but because of their language I was under the impression that I couldn’t in any way deviate. That’s the one that sticks in my head the most, because it caused a massive headache for me as a new employee there. The funny thing is that I can’t remember the details of what was actually said or what the process was (it had something to do with how to prepare a pallet of damaged goods for return on a truck) but the misuse of “literally” in that situation is what stuck with me, both because of how absurd the situation was and how pissed I was about the conversation and in particular that word. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1429 "2024-02-27T01:31:55Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > Incidentally, my Son in Law, uses “brung” ~shudder~ I do not correct him. Are they using the word incorrectly, or are you under the mistaken impression that it’s not a word? > **[Definition of BRUNG](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brung)** > > to convey, lead, carry, or cause to come along with one toward the place from which the action is being regarded; to cause to be, act, or move in a special way: such as; attract… See the full definition ---
**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:** [February 27, 2024, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1430 "2024-02-27T01:35:51Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > Incidentally, my Son in Law, uses “brung” ~shudder~ I do not correct him. My 9- and 7-year-old daughters both use “brang” as the simple past for “bring.” I do let them know that “brought” is the “official” past tense, and when speaking with teachers and the like, they should use that, and that “brang” is colloquial. I use different words than that, but that’s what I try to convey. I don’t particularly care they use “brang” as long as they know “brought” is considered standard in prestige dialect English. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1431 "2024-02-27T01:37:06Z")
a **:** to convey, lead, carry, or cause to come along with one toward the place from which the action is being regarded _brought_ a bottle of wine to the party b **:** to cause to be, act, or move in a special way: such as (1) **:** [ATTRACT](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/attract) her screams _brought_ the neighbors (2) **:** [PERSUADE](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/persuade), [INDUCE](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/induce) try to bring them to his way of thinking (3) **:** [FORCE](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/force), [COMPEL](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compel) was _brought_ before a judge (4) **:** to cause to come into a particular state or condition bring water to a boil Could you explain? Every example uses the correct (to me) version of bring. My gd would say: “I brung my homework home.” and I would tell her: “It’s, I brought my homework home.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1432 "2024-02-27T01:45:29Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > Could you explain? Every example uses the correct (to me) version of bring. As it says, it is the: > chiefly dialectal past tense and past participle of [BRING](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bring) I’m guessing you didn’t read to the very end of the page, where it gave three examples of journalists using the term. I’ll repeat them for you. > Our challenge will be to let people know who _brung_ it to them. > —_ABC News_, 21 Jan. 2024 > > Born in the commercial capital of Colombo, Dassanayake left at age 16 to study in London, but trips home — and his mother’s cooking — kept him well rooted in the beautifully spiced dishes that _brung_ him. > —Amy Drew Thompson, _Orlando Sentinel_, 19 Jan. 2023 > > The labor leader, hunting in Scotland, must come to identify with his former adversaries and will sell out the folks who _brung_ him. > —David Mamet, _National Review_, 31 Mar. 2022 It seems largely interchangeable with “brought”. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1433 "2024-02-27T01:49:56Z")
Yes, but perhaps a cultural thing? It brings to mind the phrase; “Dance with the ones that brung ya” and oddly google and this message board correct that. Interesting, I had never heard that usage except for that particular phrase I quoted above. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1434 "2024-02-27T01:57:31Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > Yes, but perhaps a cultural thing? I’ll note too that Merriam-Webster has an article discussing the terms “brought”, “brang”, and “brung”. > **['Brought' vs. 'Brang' and 'Brung'](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-of-brang-vs-brung-vs-brought)** > > Consider it already ... broughten? It does say that “brang” and “brung” are nonstandard English, and strongly recommends the word “brought” instead, because it has a stronger presence in English and a better pedigree. The other terms are less common. Though in particular, “brung” is dialectical, in the sense that in some regional variations of English it is fairly common. Not so much with “brang”, which is labeled as “substandard”; while it’s considered to be a recognized word in English, it’s not really common anywhere. This does reinforce what @pulykamell was saying before about how language is imprecise by nature and any kind of language that finds common usage by definition can’t be “wrong”. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1435 "2024-02-27T02:01:55Z")
He punched him so hard, he _literally_ knocked him into orbit. He punched him so hard, he _fucking_ knocked him into orbit. I ask you, which of these intensifiers works in any sentence requiring one, with zero danger of creating confusion? Precise, pithy _and_ elegant. A word for the ages. I rest my case. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2024, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1436 "2024-02-27T02:10:39Z")
There’s zero danger of confusion in either. Both are intensifiers in those cases. Unless the first takes place on a spaceship or some kind of situation where it is literally possible to knock someone into orbit. In that case, “literally” is meant literally, and pretty amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1437 "2024-02-27T02:15:02Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I feel there are a lot of people who have some weird notion of the “purity” of language, and that a language should remain static, and established usage should remain preserved in amber, and that any change portends language’s demise into cacophonous nonsense. Or something like that. And coincidentally that perfect English is whatever was spoken when they were growing up. > [@Sylvanz](#): > > However, there are some things that grind my gears because the word is used exactly the oposite of what it means. Literally as an intensifier _literally_ (in the old sense of the word) is not the ‘exact opposite’. Literally (in the new sense of the word) two brain cells should be sufficient to determine that the opposite of an intensifier is a word that does the opposite of intensify, and literally literally (old sense again) does not do that. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1438 "2024-02-27T02:15:42Z")
Ah, but you missed where I said “any sentence.” Think big, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1439 "2024-02-27T02:17:11Z")
–wonders why the thread blew up, reads a 70+ post digression on _literally_ literally– Forget it 'Lines. it’s Dopertown. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1440 "2024-02-27T02:18:37Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Don’t start looking at the way people use the word “unique”. I wonder if @Sylvanz likes to “well acktshually” people who use ‘decimate’ when more than 10% of something was destroyed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=71) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=73)