>>Thanks, Rich. My colleague always use this expression "Apples and oranges". She also used word 'collaborate' (? if I picked it right) yesterday, when we removed functionality pieces by pieces. I'm not sure, what does this word mean.
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>Collaborate typically means "work together" so that sounds about right.
In socialist countries, "collaborationist" was close, if not equal, to "quisling", i.e. collaborator with the occupator. The affirmative term used was "cooperation", "coworker" and anything derived from that. I think that's why Nadya wasn't sure of the meaning. Back home I haven't heard of "collaborate" or any of it derivatives being used in its original meaning.
Such things happened with many words with Latin origins - they were used by the upper guys first, and for their specific uses, and the majority of the people learned these words by imitating them, quite often unaware of the original meaning of the word. For instance, "progressive" had only one meaning, "good for the progres of mankind (or at least its left wing)". So some doctors were frowned at when they mentioned "progressive paralysis". How can a nasty disease be progressive?
>SET RANT ON
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>It is also one of those words which, over the past several years, has been used so frequently and in so many previously socially unacceptable situations, that it has changed from being a coarse vulgarity into being relatively commonly used. Getting "screwed" has a completely different connotation now than when I was growing up. The same, unfortunately, is true of the word "sucks" in its worst (well maybe not worst) context.
I've seen that in Serbian language, when a few quite nasty idioms became commonplace and actually lost their edge. For instance, "screw him/it" (masculine and neutral forms of many words often coincide), in the imperative mode of the verb, actually means "what can one do", a general excuse for something not happening as expected because the world is as is. There's a mp3 file of one Milosevic's speech, circulating the net for about five years now, where this phrase (that he really did pronounce once in public so it was all in his voice) was inserted in about twice per sentence, and it all sounded so natural.
>It's either(1) part of a conspiracy to lower the moral fiber of the country and make us vulnerable to ...yada yada yada or (2) the natural evolution of the language reflecting a change in moral values or (3) the natural evolution of the language.
It's about the four letter words losing their edge. Even the worst curse, once it gets into widespread and indiscriminate use, loses strength. It becomes just another "er...", "I mean", "you know what I mean", "you know", it simply gets added to the general repertoire of verbal crutches.
>I can get used to hearing "screwed" and "sucks" in normal conversation even when not intended as a curse or vulgarity.
Still, the best case of the latter, IMO, is "babies suck". Or, in the other direction, a grafitto from back home, about four years ago: "Clinton rulez, Monica sux".
As for the "screw", what about "snafu"? This became a regular word long ago... and yet if you have to explain it to someone, to unravel the acronym, how do you end it, as "all fouled up"? Or the regular way?
