Philosophical Semantics, Part II

[River]

Originally Posted by Tonberry

I think biromantic would make sense for the emotional orientation, since there is heteroromantic and homoromantic as well.

Let the prettier words win. (I'll never use "biromantic". It sounds ridiculous.)

[kdt26417]

Well the Ppercs glossary is known for its inclusiveness (), so, I'll probably nominate biromantic, homoromantic, and heteroromantic to be added (while retaining biamorous as an alternative word for biromantic). We'll see if anyone votes against the additions; Ppercs isn't a very busy site so I'm going to try to give 'em awhile to vote.

By the way, I kind of had a bunch of changes "piling up," so I suddenly figured I'd best implement them before I started making mistakes (and I've been known to make mistakes). So, I already added the new definition for biamorous as of yesterday. Don't know if it matters, but thought I'd let you know.

As for which words are prettier, beauty is entirely in the eyes of the beholder.

[NovemberRain]

NR has fun with blindness.

So, I'm reading away, and i see:
I think BROmantic would make sense for the emotional orientation, since there is heteroromantic and homoromantic as well.

I lol'd

[Tonberry]

I hereby vote for bromantic to be added too :P

[lovefromgirl]

Although I think as a girl I'd have qualified as BIROmantic, with the number of pens I collected... [ba-dum CHING]

[kdt26417]

Don't know what "Biro" is. Some type of brand name for pens?

As for "bromantic," that's like Turk and J.D. on Scrubs, isn't it?

I'm so confused ...

[lovefromgirl]

Originally Posted by kdt26417

Don't know what "Biro" is. Some type of brand name for pens?

A quick Google would do you some good.

[kdt26417]

Ahh ... I see the light.

Wikipedia sez:

"Bíró is a Hungarian surname meaning 'judge,' and may refer to:

• a brand of ballpoint pen. In British English the word "biro" is often used as a generic term for any ballpoint pen.
• László Bíró, the inventor of the ballpoint pen."

[CielDuMatin]

There is a very specific legal definition for "polygamous" - it means legally married to more than one, and it is illegal in most countries. "Monogamous" means legally married to only one.

It is for this reason that the term "polyamory" came up - loving more than one, which can include being in a relationship (not a legal marriage) with more than one. This isn't illegal in many places at all.

It might be a good idea if, when developing a new vocabulary, and not trying to confuse those already using the terms, we invoke a sort of stare decisis and keep the commonly-used terms to mean exactly what they have been used for within the society.

Part of the reason for coming up with a glossary is to provide folks with a resource that makes things simpler to understand. I am finding that a lot of these so-called "inclusive" glossaries end up being more confusing and creating more mis-communication than they resolve.

So, as a suggestion, how about NOT including every single person's suggestion for brand new words in there...

[kdt26417]

Well I'm basically indifferent either way; I usually try to base glossary decisions on Ppercs membership votes. Tonberry seemed to indicate that "heteroromantic" and "homoromantic" are words already in use, so for the sake of any who might hear those words and wonder about their definitions, I assumed it wouldn't hurt to add them. This would be an addition to the Ppercs glossary of course, not to any glossary on Polyamory.com, and I don't know what the legal definitions/implications would be.

It never occurred to me to make the Ppercs glossary a legally-correct (or even entirely serious) glossary; it could be done but would require considerable research, and a re-building of the glossary from the ground up. For something like that, I'd be inclined to look for a nomination, and a majority vote, from the Ppercs membership. Nominating a couple of new entries is an easier proposition, so I (being a Ppercs member) don't mind making the nomination. The other Ppercs members can usually strike such ideas down with one or two votes.

If you feel strongly about it, I'll consider not nominating the words. (I don't plan on deciding either way for several weeks.) It's true that the words haven't appeared (to my knowledge) on Ppercs per se, so I guess Ppercs has less of a "vested interest" in them.

If you visit the glossary in question, you'll no doubt observe that lots of "questionable" entries are already in there. I don't personally nominate deleting entries as often as I do adding, but if other Ppercs members ask me to delete an entry, I take it seriously.

I could add a note to the Ppercs "polygamy" entry, strongly emphasizing the importance of using the correct legal definition. I guess I make these decisions to nominate or not nominate based on my own intuition (and any Ppercs member can do likewise without my go-ahead), but I try to take opinions outside Ppercs into account.

The sad fact is that people don't always use legally correct definitions, and "polygamy" is a prominent example of that. I've heard, for example, "polyandry" used in a way that doesn't suggest legal marriage. I've also heard "marriage" used in a way that doesn't suggest legal marriage. Incorrect, and arguably dangerous in certain situations, but people do it sometimes.

Right now, I just consider the Ppercs glossary to be a "general information" (occasionally even a "just for fun") resource. I don't even try to make it line up with the dictionary (let alone Oxford or Webster). My primary goal has been to make it reflect the words and definitions that exist in the minds and posts of the Ppercs membership, which by the way is a good argument for keeping that glossary separate from any Polyamory.com assertions. But I don't want Ppercs to be "stuck in a bottle" either, so I sometimes nominate stuff that I run across on other sites (and then let the Ppercs membership decide if they want it). It's the best I can do with an ailing website (Ppercs doesn't get a lot of activity nowadays).