What is Prose?, A definition Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Ahhh - dunno Perry.

Perhaps one of the members will let us in on it?

I must admit - I've been learning many new words for my vocab since starting up MM!
TTFN

[Guest_Nina_*]

Hi Lori, Perry

Pants means - rubbish, nonsense

Nina

[JLY]

Thoughts by other notables:

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
Robert Frost
US poet (1874 - 1963)

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.
   
John Ruskin

[Guest_Nina_*]

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.
 
John Ruskin

I totally agree with John Ruskin, wise words.

Nina

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi all,

Yes Ruskin had a point.

Whilst an undergraduate (no, not an undergarment!) I had lunch most days in Ruskin Building - plain and simple student fayre. Quite pants really.

This "pants" slang is, I think, quite modern - 1980s maybe?

I agree Lori - I've had my vocabulary considerably enlarged since joining MM (and it was so painless!) I didn't know, for example, that "pants" in the US can mean "trousers" - here it always means underwear below trousers. Though curiously, we sometimes call that underwear "underpants" - I wonder if that meant pants which are under (trousers) or garments under pants. It maybe that we also called trousers "pants" once. I don't know.

So, who is for deciding what pants are and which great poems are pants and who, wearing pants looks like poetry in motion? Then again, "motions" and "pants" are not a happy juxtaposition.

OK I waffle. Back to fixing this computer. I need to install a word processor next so I can spell-check my postings again.

J.

[JLY]

James,
T think we all might be a bit confused by the derivations / meanings of words that seem natural to us, and perplexing to others.
Perhaps we should start another thread wherein we compare the slang / vernacular that is indigenous to the different areas of the world currently populated by MM members.
JLY

[Guest_Nina_*]

Perhaps we should start another thread wherein we compare the slang / vernacular that is indigenous to the different areas of the world currently populated by MM members.

Interesting suggestion John.  Mind you the vernacular varies greatly from one region of the UK to another and from one generation to another.  Mike (Billydo) often talks a completely different language to me as do my children and their friends.

As for Fran's comment "Pants to romantics", I'd use a completely different word instead of pants which I probably shouldn't mention in this thread.

Nina

[JLY]

Nina,
It's the same here in the US. My 20 year old son speaks a different language than I do and I sometimes seem bewildered cause I sometimes don't know what he is talking about.

Here:  Pants = Trousers
        Underpants = undergarments

[Guest_Toumai_*]

What a good quote from Ruskin. Orwell was another person keen on precise, intelligible prose. One of his essays is called "Politics and the English Language" but is more about how language is abused to suit political objectives than politics themselves. (His interest in political language misuse was also shown in "1984" with Newspeak).

http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi John,

Watcha mate! (Hello, how are you?)

Excellent idea, save for the massive complexity of it. I have previously pointed to a British Dictionary of Slang. Is there an American one too? Australian etc etc? If so may we have the link, please?

Dictionary of British Slang

[JLY]

James,
Try this...it is far from a complete collection, but it will give you a snapshot of some commonly used slang words in the US.

click here

JLY

[Guest_Jox_*]

Ta John.

Going to take a butcher's...

J.

[Guest_Nina_*]

thanks for the link John.

I'll mosey on over there in a jiffy.

Nina

[Guest_Perrorist_*]

Here's a couple of Aussie slang dictionaries:

http://www.aussieslang.com/

http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html

[Guest_Jox_*]

Ta Perry,

I don't see much ponting in slang myself but I'll warne ya I'll be taking a langer look soon.

(Ashes special reply).

J.

[Guest_Rosemerta_*]

I just stumbled onto this tile and couldn't pass it by. I wasn't here when it was started and hate to open an old can of worms but it brought back a discussion of long ago that I had with others on art.

It began when an argument broke out over a piece of art that some liked and some hated. This went on into bashing the masters of modern art and whether that should ever have been considered real art. I have seen some work that an artist slapped together in 10 minutes and they made a fortune on it and another where an artist had his painting down to photographic detail and no one even noticed it. I had decided for a time that what the public considered art was what a clever artist with the gift of selling could convince them was art, whether they really liked it or not. Later I decided that art is anything that moves the artist when he is creating it and anyone else when they view it. We would have lost some great art had everyone stuck to the 'rules'.

Such has become my similar view in writing. If you gain something in writing it and another can relate in reading it then it is a written art form. Some may try to place a fine line between poetry and prose which I consider black and white. Others may see the broader sense of gray. How one sees a piece in the end boils down to personal choice. Some of it can be refined and/or categorized to be more appealing to the masses but in the end it is the sharing of ones self that is presented and we should simply be greatful for that.

**steps down from her soapbox**