army1987 comments on [Link] Hey Extraverts: Enough is Enough - Less Wrong

0 [deleted] 03 January 2013 08:59AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 03 January 2013 12:26:31PM *  13 points [-]

It was clear to me from the beginning that it likely was a case of Generalizing From Few Examples (“[My test subjects and I don't like alcohol, therefore] nobody actually likes alcohol, and if you claim you do you're a liar!”), but I tried to keeping on reading. I had to stop at

(And FYI, that’s the proper spelling: extrovert is common but wrong, because extra- is the proper Latin prefix.)

No, etymology has little to do with whether a spelling is ‘wrong’. Extrovert it is the far more common spelling even in formal, edited prose (25 hits in the “Academic” section of the British National Corpus for extrover* vs 3 for extraver*) and it is the first spelling in plenty of major dictionaries. (Not to mention that the Italian word for that also has an O in the middle, so the alteration from the “proper Latin prefix” didn't even originally occur in English, unless the Italian word is re-borrowed from English.)

As for me, I prefer group brainstorming for certain tasks and individual brainstorming for other tasks.

Comment author: someonewrongonthenet 03 January 2013 10:54:11PM *  4 points [-]

I still like extravert, personally, because all the other english words which borrow that latin root are spelled with an "a"...extra...extraordinary, extraterrestrial, extravagant, extraneous.

For some reason, when I hear "extrovert" I picture someone who enjoys socializing, whereas when I hear "extravert" I picture someone who "turns outwards" and seeks external stimulation - as the latin roots dictate. This is probably because I first read "extrovert" in popular usage, and first read "extravert" in reference to Jungian typology, and the two definitions are slightly different.

I suppose making English consistent is a lost cause though, and I ought to just give up.

Comment author: ewang 03 January 2013 04:00:48PM 1 point [-]

(And FYI, that’s the proper spelling: "homosexual" is common but wrong, because omo- is the proper Greek prefix.)

Comment author: fubarobfusco 03 January 2013 10:36:01PM 2 points [-]

Cute.

Alas, "homosexual" — like "polyamory", "microgravity", "electroconduction", and "mammogram" — is a Greek-Latin compound.

("Homophile" was current once, but no longer; "polyphilia" is sometimes reported, "multiamory" not so much; "microbaricity" would imply vacuum rather than freefall; "anbaroconduction" unreported outside certain fantasy universes; and a "mammoscript" sounds like the upstairs equivalent of a Vagina Monologue.)

Comment author: MixedNuts 03 January 2013 10:42:47PM 2 points [-]
Comment author: prase 03 January 2013 07:14:16PM -1 points [-]

ομο-

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 03 January 2013 08:42:24PM 2 points [-]

No, it is ὁμός, which is properly transliterated homos.