SomeBODY ONCE TOLD ME

Hey! Name's Max! I'm 23, have a naked cat, and am a slut for plants. That counts for something, right? (He/him.)

[astro-b-o-y-d]

*Hairless cat voice* oooooh im a wrinkley naked bitch

[rawjellyfish]

[rodimuses]

This is an extremely powerful image

[thenatsdorf]

View this post on Instagram

“I don’t have any fur and I really like the feel of yours.”

[lastfmuser]

You love your dad, you love your dad so much! Give me a kiss, give me a kiss! You love your dad. Look if i move away, he’s gonna grab me with his paws. Look at what he’s doing. Yes, he loves his dad, he loves his dad so much! My boy! Oh, love! Biting is not necessary!

[ravenstolethesun]

Reblogging again for translation!

[glitchsafari]

[tsunderetonic]

this video is possibly among the greatest things I have ever experienced

[roguetelemetry]

reblog and the glitch obelisk will grant your wishes for 2018

[babyanimalgifs]

this video always cheers me up

[beesmygod]

“chuffed doesnt mean what you think it means”

it means exactly what i think it means its just some stupid word that literally has two definitions that mean the opposite thing

[mysterysnake-deactivated2013122]

what the hell

[ashwilliamsrighthand]

This makes me really chuffed

[pameladoove-deactivated20180821]

This post is quite egregious

[cornflakepizza]

Well I’m nonplussed by this whole post.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

goddamnit.

[leatherpatches-deactivated20150]

[conservative-libertarian-deacti]

[mattsunsthighs]

all of you go to hell

[divagonzo]

And you wonder why i am boggled at times

[inactive1346597623595641352]

These are called contronyms! A word that is its own opposite.

[rubes-dragon-deactivated2024030]

Why the fuck do these exist

[operativesurprise]

One theory is that the sarcastic use of the word became exceedingly prevalent and because another dictionary definition. 

[sufferingsappho-deactivated2017]

Are you telling me that we were such sarcastic shits it literally changed our language.

[nigenaide]

speaking as a linguist: yes. that is exactly what happened. isn’t it beautiful.

[leafcrunch]

my neighbourhood has never had an ice cream truck. in the summer, we have the knife sharpening truck. it slowly circles the block and rings its ominous bell. i have never seen someone interact with it. it may be that only those marked by death can see it

[sun-and-time]

alex??? this is truly frightening ??

[leafcrunch]

i never really thought about it much until today but you’re right this is honestly a messed up thing for me to be accustomed to

[ghostcries-deactivated20161112]

also guys i think it’s time to start spelling ‘small’ right again,, it’s been long enough

[princeofdoomrps-archive]

see the thing is, at this point, smol isn’t even a “mispelling” of small anymore; it has its own connotations. while small is a regular adjective, smol acts more like a diminutive marker, which English has been lacking

in essence, a smol dog will always be a small dog, but not all small dogs are smol.

[nentindo-deactivated20210501]

what the fuck are you talking about

[daggers-drawn]

Linguistic evolution. Accept the smolness into your vocabulary and be cleansed.

[shwetanarayan-deactivated202504]

@nentindo, assuming you’re asking in good faith & not just trying to dismiss a perfectly accurate analysis, here’s an elaboration of what @princeofdoomrps said:

small and smol mean different things, so they’re different words. smol means something like “small in a cute way” & not just like both small and cute but the two are related. This is what makes smol more like a diminutive marker (c.f. -tje in Dutch, or -let/-ling/-ie [like in kidlet/kidling/kiddie] in some forms of English*)

note that: 1. not all small things are smol. Microbes and electrons? Generally not considered smol.

2. similar-sized things in the same category can be smol or not depending on cuteness. So, a tiny cottage may be a smol house, but an equally tiny tenement room that is an awful place to live? Not smol.

3. smol can refer to youth (e.g. the people I call my “smol frens” are mostly taller than I am but much younger)

4. It also can have implications of fondness/emotional attachment, especially, from what I’ve seen, in fandoms where people call characters things like “my smol son”, which doesn’t have to mean someone who’s actually young, short, or cute at all. Like, IDK if anyone uses that to refer to Hannibal but I wouldn’t be surprised?

So! There are contexts where you could call something/someone small but not smol, and contexts where you could call something/someone smol but not small. This is the textbook definition of “different words”. They are no longer the same word and op, you are very welcome to only use one of them! Anyone is! 

Just be aware that pretty much every part of your vocabulary, someone at some point has decried as “wrong” usage and complained about people mangling the language this way, and when you do this thing you’re carrying on a long tradition of pompous silliness.

–

* English isn’t completely lacking in diminutive markers just kinda deficient. And some of those markers have become derisive or dismissive in usage, which i hope never happens to my smol word-child, smol.

[edited for clarity]

[libertarirynn-deactivated202006]

I love linguistic evolution.

[bonbonlanguage]

You know what I think is really cool about language (English in this case)? It’s the way you can express “I don’t know” without opening your mouth. All you have to do is hum a low note, a high note, then another lower note. The same goes for yes and no. Does anyone know what this is called?

[rk8con]

[suspendnodisbelief]

These are called vocables, a form of non-lexical utterance - that is, wordlike sounds that aren’t strictly words, have flexible meaning depending on context, and reflect the speakers emotional reaction to the context rather than stating something specific. They also include uh-oh! (that’s not good!), uh-huh and mm-hmm (yes), uhn-uhn (no), huh? (what?), huh… (oh, I see…), hmmn… (I wonder… / maybe…), awww! (that’s cute!), aww… (darn it…), um? (excuse me; that doesn’t seem right?), ugh and guh (expressions of alarm, disgust, or sympathy toward somebody else’s displeasure or distress), etc.

Every natural human language has at least a few vocables in it, and filler words like “um” and “erm” are also part of this overall class of utterances. Technically “vocable” itself refers to a wider category of utterances, but these types of sounds are the ones most frequently being referred to, when the word is used.

[classicfern]

Reblog if u just hummed all of these out loud as you read them

[madsciences]

@ishyreblogs

[cactassprince]

Dear Josephine: The one where I reminisce

Life’s been sort of weird lately. I don’t know if it’s hitting me that you’re gone, if this whole sudden roommate thing is throwing me through a loop, or what it is, but I’ve been off my game.

I was looking through the documents on my computer, trying to find things for school, but I came across a folder of old photos. Like, pre-coming out old.

I don’t know if you can tell where this is from, but I can. It was when you came back to grandma and grandpa’s after a Spring Break trip with your girlfriend. Yeah, that one. I told you she was a bitch, but you still insisted on dating her for another three months before you caught her cheating on you through text. I never said I told you so because you were pretty torn apart by it (Understandably so... She’s still a bitch, though.)

This was from our trip to see your college campus during pre-orientation. Grandpa was sick, so grandma stayed home with him and sent me to go with you. Everyone thought I was a student, too, and that we were roommates. What they didn’t know was that I’m a year younger than you and I wasn’t even graduated at that point. It did certainly spark my interest of going to the school, though. I had never considered it until I made new friends alongside you. You met that cute boy that you had two dates with when the semester started before you never talked ever again. I still Facebook stalk him sometimes on your behalf.

I don’t have a lot of photos after getting to college and coming out and all of the wild transformation I went through. I mean, I do, they’re mostly of Weedle, though.

I don’t know what’s up with me, Josy. It’s just been a lot to stomach lately, I guess. I keep feeling like something’s about to bite me in the ass. Hopefully it’s not this roommate situation.

[cactassprince]

Dear Josephine: The one where I get a roommate?

I think that’s actually a thing that’s happening? It’s a stranger who I took on a tour of Brackenbury today. They’re lost and only have so much money, so I figured, hell, they seem nice enough. Let them crash until they figure something out and not have to waste money on our shitty motel.

I don’t know how well you remember Brackenbury, but it certainly favors the locals over travellers. The first few months here were rough. It took me a year before most of the locals started calling me Max and he/him. I could’ve left and gone back with our grandparents, but I’m a stubborn bastard and wanted to prove I could do it. And I did, so, it worked out!

Now, back to the whole roommate thing… I’m kind of just hoping for the best, really. He seems nice and we get each other on a deeper level than I would’ve thought. He also tried my ice cream order, which even you have strong feelings about me actually consuming. It’s good, Josy. That’s all I can say.

He pinky swore he wouldnt kill me, so unless I never write another letter, then he is to be trusted.

Oh, also his name is Ash. Maybe I should mention that. Should I? Does it matter? Fuck it.

[cactassprince]

White Baneberry

[cactassprince]

Max shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck, “Ah, man… Alright, uh,” He looked around before turning back to Ash, “Are you able to confirm you are not a murderer, rapist, or thief?”

[dream--eaterr]

Ash held out his hand with his pinky up. “I pinky promise.”

[cactassprince]

Max wrapped his pinky around Ash’s, “Okay, if I die, my ghost is cuttin’ that shit off. You can crash on my couch for now.”

[dream--eaterr]

Ash laughed and let go of Max’s pinky. “Thanks! I’ll pay you back, I promise!!”

[cactassprince]

White Baneberry

[cactassprince]

Max shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck, “Ah, man… Alright, uh,” He looked around before turning back to Ash, “Are you able to confirm you are not a murderer, rapist, or thief?”

[dream--eaterr]

Ash held out his hand with his pinky up. “I pinky promise.”

[cactassprince]

Max wrapped his pinky around Ash's, "Okay, if I die, my ghost is cuttin' that shit off. You can crash on my couch for now."

[cactassprince]

White Baneberry

[cactassprince]

Max shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck, "Ah, man... Alright, uh," He looked around before turning back to Ash, "Are you able to confirm you are not a murderer, rapist, or thief?"

[cactassprince]

White Baneberry

[cactassprince]

“Trouble?” He laughed, “I do this all the time. Couldn’t be fired if I tried.”

With that, he lead Ash out, waving goodbye to the ice cream employees. He walked ash all through town, showing him all the buildings and the one, small as it was, park. He even told him of the waterfront many locals visited on weekends, as it was far more of a day trip to get to than anything else.

He stopped in front of an apartment building on the far end of town, “And this is where I live, as of recently. So, if you stay in town and need a hone, this building is one of your best bets. Of course, you could always hit the next town over. It’s bigger and a tad more convenient, to be honest, but that’s the student in me speaking.”

[dream--eaterr]

“We should visit the waterfront sometime if you want!” Ash suggested. When they stopped in front of the apartment building, Ash frowned slightly. “Which way did you say the motel was? I’m pretty sure that’s all I can afford right now.”

[cactassprince]

Max paused before he answered. He crossed his arms, "How much you got?"

[cactassprince]

White Baneberry

[cactassprince]

"Trouble?" He laughed, "I do this all the time. Couldn't be fired if I tried."

With that, he lead Ash out, waving goodbye to the ice cream employees. He walked ash all through town, showing him all the buildings and the one, small as it was, park. He even told him of the waterfront many locals visited on weekends, as it was far more of a day trip to get to than anything else.

He stopped in front of an apartment building on the far end of town, "And this is where I live, as of recently. So, if you stay in town and need a hone, this building is one of your best bets. Of course, you could always hit the next town over. It's bigger and a tad more convenient, to be honest, but that's the student in me speaking."

[cactassprince]

White Baneberry

[dream--eaterr]

Ash shrugged. “It makes sense. Plus your magic thing is a lot easier to hide than my eye, so I can imagine that it’s been easy to just exist without raising any suspicion. I didn’t mean to scare you or anything, I guess I was just sort of projecting my experience with all this stuff. I don’t even know if other creatures or people find it as easy as I do to identify mages as I do. It might just be a me thing.”

[cactassprince]

"It's not necessarily easy, no," Max fidgeted a bit, "But it's not unheard of. We have certain quirks and auras, like the energy you can see. If anyone were to be on the lookout for a mage, they could identify one. Not so much if they're ignoring we exist." He paused, then spoke with a taste of uncertainty, "There's... a notorious mage who wrote many books before he vanished. I've slowly been finding then from town to town. Including here."

He shook his head to rid himself if the thoughts, "It doesn't really matter. Brackenbury is a safe place and my magic is concentrated around what I love. So, it's whatever." With a quick shift in demeanor, he stood, "Come on. Let's continue a walkthrough of town. I did leave my shift after all."