Calling people martyrs

[DrFaroohk]

Does ANYONE actually know what martyr really means?

"Oh man I'm so tired from work. I had to stack over 14,000 bags of cement!"

"OMG QUIT BEING SUCH A MARTYR."

No. No matter how much we stamp our little feet and clack our little keys furiously as we type about what martyrs people think they are, it will never be true.

That is all.

[bainsidhe]

I understand the point you're trying to make and I agree with you, but I also used this as an opportunity to test my google-fu. Aside from the most obvious meanings, martyr has the following definition:

a. One who endures great suffering: a martyr to arthritis.
b. One who makes a great show of suffering in order to arouse sympathy.

[siead_lietrathua]

martyr isnt used often as it's literal definition as someone willingly put to death for their religious belifes. It has entered into that area of slang in recent years for someone who consistantly agrees to take on a large workload only to use it as ammo later to complain. it's used in a sense of sarcasm, not as a literal.
if we are gonna start debating words misused for the sake of sarcasm, you might as well head over to urban dictionary and start at the letter A

[DrFaroohk]

Ah. See I was under the impression that a word means what it means, and that no one can just come in and change it.

[Jaden]

Really? Because I was under the impression that society and context got to dictate a word's meaning, as the language evolved over decades and the word came to mean other things. So, martyr, which used to exclusively mean a person who suffers for a cause, now means both that and somebody who's a narcissistic drama queen. Unlike a word such as faggot, which has not stopped being a slur against gay people no matter how much one person would like to say that they don't mean it that way, since one person is not society as a whole and doesn't get to decide what a word means.

[Nekojin]

Ah. See I was under the impression that a word means what it means, and that no one can just come in and change it.

Are we really going to do this argument all over again, in yet another thread? Quit being such a martyr.

[Andara Bledin]

Ah. See I was under the impression that a word means what it means, and that no one can just come in and change it.

Seriously?

You can keep creating thread after thread about this, but it won't change the fact that language is neither as static or as fluid as you seem to want it to be.

Change happens. Either deal with it or deal with the problems that are brought about by your unwillingness to deal with it.

To even make that statement after the last thread is ridiculous. It's as if you hit a reset button in your brain so that you didn't have to admit to its very existence.

^-.-^

[ngc_7331]

Ah. See I was under the impression that a word means what it means, and that no one can just come in and change it.

English speakers can't even agree on what a word means to begin with. Such as chip = crisp little bit of potato-y goodness if you're American, and a french fry if you're British. And do you think gay always referred to homosexual? Come on now, think about it. Do a google seach, you can find all kinds of words that have changed their meaning over time.

[Nekojin]

English speakers can't even agree on what a word means to begin with. Such as chip = crisp little bit of potato-y goodness if you're American, and a french fry if you're British. And do you think gay always referred to homosexual? Come on now, think about it. Do a google seach, you can find all kinds of words that have changed their meaning over time.

This is an old argument - at least three threads' deep, at this point. He knows that words can change their meaning. He just wants to be able to change it himself, so that "gay" or "fag" doesn't have any bigoted anti-homosexual connotations when he says it.

[blas87]

I openly admit to calling a lot of my coworkers martyrs.

I mean, you listen to someone just pound their chests and whine and whine about how hard they work and how bad they have it, (when everyone else knows that's just...bullshit), and then they turn around and volunteer to work on holidays or put in two, three times what is required for OT (when it's allowed).....it's like.....get off that cross, idiot.

[Rapscallion]

Ah. See I was under the impression that a word means what it means, and that no one can just come in and change it.

I suggest you find out which body oversees this aspect of life and register a complaint with them. Alternatively, you could be seen as setting yourself up in an unelected position of authority if this is just off your back.

Rapscallion

[DrFaroohk]

So exactly how many people does it take to change the meaning of a word?

[Rapscallion]

You may be able to answer that. Are you having any success with a group of one?

Rapscallion

[DrFaroohk]

What the fuck are you even talking about? I think you're in the wrong thread, chief.

[Rapscallion]

Er, no. I'm in the right thread.

Rapscallion