Friends don't waste wine when there's words to sell

[venta]

I have just met the word "disambiguate" in some documentation I'm reading (DOM Level 1, if you care).

[Poll #357609]

Yes, I should be concentrating on DOM rather than posting silly polls. Thank you for asking.

Update: It is, of course, a great word. It covers a concept which (in my opinion) isn't covered by any other word, and is nicely euphonious to boot.

I'd now close this poll if I had any idea how to do so :)

Comments

Re: Chambers - never wrong

[venta.livejournal.com]

Really ? I wasn't aware of the word mindset being a particularly new arrival on the scene. I'll have to go chasing through dictionaries when I get home.

I'd certainly use "attitude" and "mindset" to mean something subtly different, though I'm not sure whether I'm correct to do so.

Re: Chambers - never wrong

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Cambridge online dictionary suggests that one's mindset is (roughly speaking) the collection of one's various attitudes towards different things:

attitude: a feeling or opinion about something or someone, or a way of behaving that is caused by this.
mindset: a person's way of thinking and their opinions.

Re: Chambers - never wrong

[wimble.livejournal.com]

OED dates it to 1909:

1909 Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 6 425 The fullest meaning, or images with the fullest meaning attached, are those which seem never quite to disappear... The meaning is, then, that of mental unity and mind-set.

Re: Chambers - never wrong

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether the word is or is not a new one. However, from my experience at least, it is its adoption in order to actively not use "attitude" which bugs me.

There's nothing wrong with language evolving, of course (although the French seem to disagree), and I'm usually calm and generally Unbothered. For some reason this one is a particular source of irritation!