Does "vitriol" here mean "abusive or venomous language"?

Forums: Grammar, Esl, English
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Context:
First Take: Vitriol infests Warren family grief

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/07/pastor-rick-warren-matthew-warren-suicide/2060337/

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 1,691 • Replies: 24

No top replies

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

I'm going to infer this is about a will. Infighting and bitterness have come to a boiling head and has infested this family after the death of a Warren family member. Which would most likely involve abusive or venomous language.

2 Replies

@Ceili,

Ceili, admire your helpfulness and endurance to the ESL

Furthermore judging from what little I can see of it you're a pretty girl

If I haven't inquired before, if it be no trouble, and without revealing anything critical to your ID, some of us might like to know something else about you: age, ed,. work, nationality, motives, etc

Were that I were young and single again

Though wouldn't return if couldn't take smarts, such as they be

Incidentally and completely OT wondering why there's no synonym for "marital status". Speculate we don't provide metonyms for words representing anything we don't like to think about, eg, there's no synonym for "synonym", possible subject for new thread

2 Replies

@dalehileman,

Thank-you. Sadly I'm decidedly middle age, married, I work in safety, canadian, my motives are pure.

2 Replies

@oristarA,

sharp or caustic would be better

1 Reply

@Ceili,

Ceili you've nonetheless made my day

...most everyone else scared to reveal such detail, don't know why. They must imagine a huge database like Google devoted to surreptitiously learning one's ID

Incidentally my Google is stuck in Canada even though I live in California, very mysterious. Wonder if you've ever encountered such a peculiarity and how it might be corrected

my motives apparently impure, at least subconsciously: First thing occurring to me conversing with a femme: That the word "surreptitiously" contains also the words "surre," "titi," "us," " IOU," and "sly"

0 Replies

@PUNKEY,

PUNKEY wrote:

sharp or caustic would be better

But vitriol there is a noun.
Do you mean "sharp or caustic language?"

0 Replies

@Ceili,

Ceili wrote:

I'm going to infer this is about a will. Infighting and bitterness have come to a boiling head and has infested this family after the death of a Warren family member. Which would most likely involve abusive or venomous language.

Whose "boiling head"?

0 Replies

@oristarA,

Yes, "vitriol" means "abusive or venomous language". "Hateful" would also work. Some background - the father of the deceased is a well known Christian preacher who has taken some controversial positions and offended people who do not adhere to his religion. While many have offered support after the death of his son, others have used the opportunity to attack the Warren family. From the article, I would not agree that "sharp" or "caustic" are better terms. I think you nailed it in the title.

0 Replies

Nobody has yet mentioned the reason for the use of the word 'vitriol'. 'Oil of vitriol' or just 'vitriol' are old fashioned names for sulphuric acid ("sulfuric" in the US). It is highly corrosive and hence by extension 'vitriolic' is used metaphorically to denote behaviour, language etc which is strongly abusive, hate-filled or angry and therefore metaphorically "corrosive" to happiness or well being.

Other old fashioned names for chemicals (there are many more)

Aqua Fortis ("strong water" in Latin) - nitric acid
Aqua Vitae ("water of life" in Latin) - ethanol
Brimstone = sulphur ("sulfur")
Lunar Caustic - silver nitrate
Sal Ammoniac - ammonium chloride
Spirit of Hartshorn - ammonia
Salt of Hartshorn/Sal Volatile - ammonium carbonate
Spirit of Salt/Acidum Salis - hydrochloric acid

0 Replies

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Incidentally and completely OT wondering why there's no synonym for "marital status".

Only words have synonyms. Synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings and 'marital status' is a phrase, and it is fairly easy to imagine phrases with the same meaning, e.g. 'marital condition', 'spousal condition', 'the civil status of an individual in relation to the marriage laws or customs of the country in which he or she lives' etc

Quote:

there's no synonym for "synonym"

Few word pairs are really true synonyms. There is nearly always some sense or context or nuance of meaning in which one fits and the other doesn’t. Furthermore, the more specialized and technical a word is, the less likely it is for there to exist a synonym. "Synonym" is such a word with a specialized technical sense.

2 Replies

@Ceili,

Ceili wrote:

Thank-you. Sadly I'm decidedly middle age, married, I work in safety, canadian, my motives are pure.

However, dahileman, I am a 23 year old leggy blonde barmaid who got rejected from a dance job just because my bust was so big. So unfair!

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

and 'marital status' is a phrase,

True Con but the fact it's a phrase doesn't mean it can't have a synonym. It's merely my contention that any such phrase ought to have a one-word synonym or two

I can't defend it, it's just intuitive

there's no synonym for "synonym"

Quote:

Few word pairs are really true synonyms.

I'd agree tho some come pretty close

Quote:

Furthermore, the more specialized and technical a word is, the less likely it is for there to exist a synonym….[itself] a word with a specialized technical sense

Still it's a pretty common term and while "front page" is also a common term for the first section of a newspaper, what do you call it if I'm on page 8

.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

23 year old leggy blonde barmaid

Ah Con to be 23 again, to cultivate busty blonde barmaid discussing philosophy and logic. Or perhaps The Brew. As Recording Secretary of the Greater Southwest Beer-Tasting Society I am yours as [email protected]

0 Replies

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

the fact it's a phrase doesn't mean it can't have a synonym.

Yes it does. A synonym is a single word which means the same (in a given context) as another single word. That is what 'synonym' means. It comes from the Greek synonymon - "word having the same sense as another".

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

A synonym is a single word

"A word or an expression that serves as a figurative or symbolic substitute for another."

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/synonym

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Quote:
A synonym is a single word
"A word or an expression that serves as a figurative or symbolic substitute for another."

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/synonym

Despite what that great academic source, the Yahoo Dictionary says, I stand firm on the view that synonyms are single words, and I am certain that I can find more dictionaries to support my view than you can find to support yours.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

I can find more dictionaries to support my view than you can find to support yours.

Surely Con you're kidding

If not however, would you consider Webster's New Collegiate as sufficiently academic

0 Replies

Well, I suppose it is possible that some modern dictionaries allow that the older meaning of 'synonym' has spread a bit to include whole phrases.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Con would you then consider a 1953 Webster as modern

1 Reply

Does "vitriol" here mean "abusive or venomous language"?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know