[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion]
The word misuse that bugs me (for some reason) is the practice of describing a clock as fast or slow, instead of ahead or behind. If it were fast, it would be ahead and getting further ahead.
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Well it had to get ahead somehow didn’t it? If we assuming that a clock was at some point set to the correct time and we then notice that it’s ahead, it would be fair to say that it is fast. The clock on my car radio is slow, literally.
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”]
Well it had to get ahead somehow didn’t it? If we assuming that a clock was at some point set to the correct time and we then notice that it’s ahead, it would be fair to say that it is fast. The clock on my car radio is slow, literally.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, sure, confuse a perfectly good semantic nitpick through the introduction of facts.
[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion]
The word misuse that bugs me (for some reason) is the practice of describing a clock as fast or slow, instead of ahead or behind. If it were fast, it would be ahead and getting further ahead.
[/QUOTE]
… but, unless their owner has specifically set them ahead, a clock that’s ahead will be so because it is fast - i.e., it will go on getting further and further ahead.
That may be less common now that everything is digital, but myself and Dad used to make our wristwatches run slow, while Mom’s would run fast.
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”]
Well it had to get ahead somehow didn’t it? If we assuming that a clock was at some point set to the correct time and we then notice that it’s ahead, it would be fair to say that it is fast. The clock on my car radio is slow, literally.
[/QUOTE]
The clock in my bathroom is fast, literally. I still haven’t learned not to panic thinking I’m running late (not literally running).
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
You sound like my father with his purposeful literalism. Friends would call and ask “Is Peter there?” and my father would just say “yes,” and wait on the phone, until it was specifically requested that the caller would like to speak to me.
[/QUOTE]
Yours too?!
I’ve been patiently biding my time, just waiting for the opportunity to use that one myself. 