Timeline for What does it mean to be in a "complete" muddle?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 12, 2015 at 12:16 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/675650409114025984 | ||
| Dec 12, 2015 at 4:14 | answer | added | user140086 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Dec 12, 2015 at 3:56 | comment | added | Hot Licks | @rhetorician - Which of course will produce the protestation that it's "redundant". | |
| Dec 12, 2015 at 3:42 | answer | added | candied_orange | timeline score: 1 | |
| Dec 12, 2015 at 1:44 | comment | added | rhetorician | Well, "complete" is half a merism, as in "a complete and utter disregard for the rules of the game," for example. | |
| Dec 12, 2015 at 1:08 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | I don't understand this question. Why should things have to have a specific number of pieces to be complete? What does that have to do with anything? Obviously, complete has quite a few different meanings, but I don't see what your beef is, nor even quite with which meaning(s). | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 23:23 | comment | added | bib | Well, I'm a bit muddled. I do not feel utterly confused or a total mess. Just slightly off-kilter. I guess things could be somewhat better. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 22:55 | comment | added | WS2 | @JHCL yes. One particular sense of complete is 17th century form - the complete gentleman, the complete sportsman. see OED sense 5a Of persons: Fully equipped or endowed; perfect, accomplished, consummate; esp. in reference to a particular art or pursuit, as a complete actor, horseman, merchant. Now arch. However the sense has been revived, and the 17th century spelling employed - compleat. A pub & restaurant in Marlow, by the River Thames, is known as The Compleat Angler. But I digress - my original question remains.. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 22:40 | comment | added | Hot Licks | (An amazing number of questions here are the result of the confusion between English and mathematics. Words like "complete", "absolute", "total", "almost", "half", et al, are not rigorously defined in terms of expressing a numerical degree or percentage of something, but rather express a sort of socially agreed-on level of severity, one that can vary considerably from one context to the next. This allows a relatively small number of words to cover a broad range of concepts and contexts, and rarely with a significant loss of critical preciseness.) | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 22:37 | comment | added | JHCL | The jigsaw reference is interesting. There are two meanings to the phrase "the jigsaw puzzle is complete": (a) there are no pieces missing, and (b) the puzzle has been solved. In this context, complete is akin to perfect: describing something that has reached a limit, or apogee of sorts. A "complete muddle" could not be any more muddled. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 22:19 | comment | added | Hot Licks | Well, actually, there's no need to say you're in a partial muddle because everyone already knows that. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 22:14 | comment | added | WS2 | @HotLicks but oddly you don't hear of anyone being in a partial muddle. Usually they are in a complete muddle. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 22:04 | comment | added | Hot Licks | Don't most people go through life in a partial muddle? | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 21:51 | answer | added | user66974 | timeline score: 5 | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 21:48 | history | asked | WS2 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |