Re: [ox-en] It is time to talk about free software
- From: "Nadav Har'El" <nyh math.technion.ac.il>
- Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 18:27:41 +0200
On Fri, Oct 18, 2002, Guzin PESTIMALCIOGLU wrote about "RE: [ox-en] It is time to talk about free software":
ohhhhh really big mistake again!!
I thought in Turkish and wrote it in English...
...
From: Graham Seaman [graham seul.org]
...
But isn't it usually 'dystopian' rather than 'dystopic'? (after all,
it's 'utopian', not 'utopic'...)
Graham
While "utopian" is indeed the recognized form of the adjective, it's not
suprising someone would think "utopic" was the correct form, for example
if comparing it to "myopia" (nearsightedness) and the adjective "myopic",
or to similar pairs like "academia, academic", "encyclopedia, encyclopedic",
etc.
The word "dystopia" is in fact legal: my trusty 10-pound Random House
Unabridged Dictionary defines it as:
dystopia, n. A society characterized by human misery, as qualor,
oppression, disease, and overcrowding. Cf. utopia. [1865-70
DYS- + (U)TOPIA]
dystopian, adj.
dystopianism, n.
But I consider this word a strange invention. After all, the "u" in utopia
comes from the greek word "ou", meaning "no". So negating it by changing
the "u" to "dys" is a little strange :)
--
Nadav Har'El | Friday, Oct 18 2002, 13 Heshvan 5763
nyh math.technion.ac.il |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Strike not only while the iron is hot,
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