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thingies and factiods
DIANE BENNETT (Diane.Bennett@VUW.AC.NZ)
Thu, 12 Oct 1995 11:22:14 +1200
Matthew Hill suggests:
>Thingee is, to the best of my quite fallible recollection, a Fossism,
>(Danny Wherever you are please come back), for a reputably determinable
>fact. Some might prefer factoid.
Thingie is or has become a Fossism, but to the best of my understanding
(and only on days of ultimate folly do I even pretend to understand Dr Foss
and his isms) is a rather more abstract, uh, thingie, maybe "something"
reified out of some abstract notion; something for which there is no really
good word--not event or phenomenon or factoid--as in the phrase "flea will
and the other thingie." Factoid is a little bit of data-like stuff, taken
by at least someone to be "real" such as the info gleaned from a magazine
in a doctor's waitin g room that there is no need to worry about women who
hit their heads.
Now, what was a troll again? I haven't been reading the list enough to
have seen it in context. But I am planning to be in DC and would like to
meet some of the faces behind the fingers--I think. Will community be
enhanced or illusions destroyed?
Diane
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