Englishman Learning English

by Englishman 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  Englishman

  I can't believe this! What a gaping great mental hole has been sat there for the last 40-odd years.

  I thought that I would have a crack at YK, You Know (Ha ha!) what I mean, c'mon, YK, you ain't particularly discreet for a member of the FDS, that sort of thing.

  Well, better check in the dictionary and see exactly what 'discreet' means. Hmm, here it is: discreet adj: 1.showing caution and good judgement. 2. unobtrusive. Ha! Got 'im!

  Well, er, no actually because, then I see: discrete adj: separate, individually distinct; discontinuous. Oops.

  So, for all these years I have thought that the FDS was meant to be polite and curteous. You Know, discreet, not discrete!

  Mind you, the New English Bible calls the FDS the "Faithful and trusty servant". I can't see anything there that is intended to mean remotely discreet or discrete. Course its then complicated by the word 'discretion' being the noun to discreet.

  I think I need a drink...

  Englishman.

  Bring on the dancing girls!
• 

  Will Power

  Oh, Oh, what about the word servant? doesn't that get in the way?
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  zerubberballs

  G'day English,

  I think the WBTS uses the word discreet to excuse and entrench the idea of cautionary secrecy within the Organization and its operational/judgicial systems. It is discreet the way adulerous lovers are asked to be in newspaper adds. How often do Elders and thier flunkies coin phrases like: "Mums the word, loose lips sink ships" and other such bollocks.

  cheers unclebruce (pulling rank - see i was registered way before you lol.
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  Simon

  Just do what I do ... claim English is a second language but admit, if pressed, that's it's the only one you know.
• 

  Englishman

  Ha Ha, but:

  Is the slave meant to be discrete or discreet?

  There is, after all, quite a difference between the 2. Lets be honest here, who really thought about which it was?

  Englisshman.

  Bring on the dancing girls!