Dude, who even knows.

19th August 2022

Post reblogged from It's time to oil up. with 37 notes

jambeast:

kontextmaschine:

So how do places that call flashlights “torches” specify when they’re talking about pitchforks-and- torches?

image

We wouldn’t specify, since context clues is good enough. We don’t -use- medieval torches in the modern day, so if it’s in the modern day, we just assume modern torches.

If someone said “there’s an angry mob with torches and pitchforks”, we’d know to imagine (non-literally since it’s mostly just an expression) medieval torches. 

If someone described a group of people working together to search for a missing person at night and described them as carrying torches, we’d assume that, if it’s the modern day, they’re using modern torches.

If you described all that, and also described or implied that this was happening in medieval times, we’d assume medieval torches.

(Reblogging because tumblr seems to be eating my comments)

  1. sleepwithgiggli reblogged this from adjoint-law
  2. perks-of-being-a-bi-guy reblogged this from argumate
  3. adjoint-law reblogged this from argumate and added:
    Like, you can pull up to the petrol station to pump your car full of petrol, but it runs on gas.
  4. argumate reblogged this from kontextmaschine and added:
    in Australia cars fuelled with gas are filled with gas, not petrol.(ironically that gas is shipped in liquid form, but...
  5. kontextmaschine reblogged this from jambeast
  6. icehouseprimitiveman said: Torch as a verb kept its fire connotation though, you would not say you illuminated something by ‘torching it’
  7. icehouseprimitiveman said: It’s context all the way down. Just like any other language, humans don’t speak in code
  8. jambeast reblogged this from kontextmaschine and added:
    We wouldn’t specify, since context clues is good enough. We don’t -use- medieval torches in the modern day, so if it’s...
  9. kontextmaschine said: @jambeast but like if you were to write “a crowd gathered with torches” how would you specify
  10. jambeast said: Torches are also called torches. We just call them both torches.
  11. polyaletheia reblogged this from kontextmaschine and added:
    "flaming torches", generally