Okay normally I’m on the side of “words mean whatever we need them to mean”.
but guys, I don’t like the suggestion that it’s what is happening here. Being unfamiliar with the term, and guessing its meaning based on vibes, doesn’t mean you have equal authority on whether it’s “correct” with the community who actively use this word in a technical sense.
please do consider that if you haven’t been exposed to the word in the context it’s used in, “both are correct” and “you can interpret it differently” and “there is no right or wrong answer” and “it feels like it SHOULD be X” cannot be a fully realised take. Sure, linguistics recognises there are rules in which meaning changes - but “laypeople being unfamiliar with the word, and liking vibes better” isn’t one of them.
You can do that with most words, especially slang, and shape them to the needs of the majority, but this isn’t like… a fanfiction word, invented for fanfic and, like, solely used for injured hockey players where it doesn’t matter if the injured limb swaps sides 4 times in a sex scene and phases through a stomach. It is, in its context, a bit more load-bearing (ha) than that.
It’s fine to be unfamiliar with the context, and it’s fine for words to change, but do just take a quick second to hear it in a native sentence!
One of the most common ways of using this word is to assess four-legged animals. “Favouring” is a specific grouping of behaviour - a hesitancy in gait, stiffness, reluctance to put weight on a limb. It’s often inconsistent, as the animal tries to compensate or conceal the pain. It may not be a full limp or obvious lameness, since prey animals especially will actively try to conceal this; favouring is a subtle reluctance, and a useful word for a very specific recognisable behaviour that the animal is usually trying to lie about. (That’s probably why it’s used in romance fiction, as it’s an interestingly romantic and stoic way to react to pain, and doesn’t mean the limb is inconveniently disabled. A fictional character favouring a wounded leg can wince attractively when it’s jostled, but it doesn’t matter too much if the author forgets and has them run to the door suddenly - “favouring” isn’t incompatible with “running” in horses either.)
The sentence “Favouring the off hind” is equestrian jargon: it means “pain behaviour on the back right leg.” It does not mean “opposite-pain in the not-on deer” and is not confusing in its professional register.
If you’ve only vaguely heard of “myeloma”, and most people in a poll are guessing it’s a skin cancer, that doesn’t mean that myeloma and melanoma can now readily collapse into the same word - they’re under active use in their native contexts, where the people frequently using them do need to communicate the difference between skin and blood cancer.
A poll of laypeople misunderstanding “myeloma,” or non-horse-people misunderstanding “favouring,” isn’t quite enough to indicate a full semantic shift and change of meaning of the term. The community that uses the term “favouring” in the context of “limb injury” - vets, farriers, farmers, commentators, equestrians - knows what it means and uses it consistently in the same way. They’re not confused. because to them, it isn’t a vibesy, sex-scene-hand waving word. It’s a cluster of pain signals.
If you aren’t familiar with that usage, then that’s really more about your own lack of familiarity. Not all interpretations DO carry equal authority, especially when one is just confusion/unfamiliarity. You just haven’t met it before, and that’s fine.
Tl;dr: I’m all for words changing meanings, but we shouldn’t be too quick to declare that when it’s based entirely on unfamiliarity and vibes-based readings.
i mean. this [above sentiment] but also the same for non-horse situations. Doctors will use this term for people, i use this term working with dogs, people use this term in fictional books and want you to know what they are saying. It is not an “either way is valid” situation. To favor a leg is to give it extra care, i.e. limping or being protective of it. Full stop.
Sorry if you thought it meant “favorite” like “wanting to use it more than the other leg” or something, i totally get why you might think that, but that is simply not what it actually means.
some of you are painfully unaware that part of the whole reason many kinksters are like “what happens in my or someone else’s bedroom is no one else’s business”
is because people have been arrested and put in fucking PRISON just for having gay sex in the privacy of their own homes. in the United States. this millennium.
if you think i’m joking, look up Lawrence v. Texas (2003). 14 out of the 50 US States STILL had laws on the books criminalizing sodomy–and yes, you could be imprisoned for multiple years and sometimes even life for repeat offenses.
in the years directly leading up to the landmark case, enforcement even in those 14 states varied, but it was absolutely weaponized against queer people, especially when stacked on top of other offenses to make up a longer sentence.
um so anyway, what happens between two or more consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes is none of my OR YOUR business, and i’m not fucking kidding!
^^^ This. The COMBINED population of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) is only about 2.6 million. That’s not small town numbers, sure, but compared to NYC (20.1 million in the metropolitan area)? LA? (12.9 million “”)?
Minneapolis is being made an example of because they’re the most bitesized target, and if you’re doing a shock and awe campaign like this you need to not choke on national tv.
(And they’re still having to fight for it. Minneapolis isn’t taking this laying down, and more power to them for their courage.)
Everyone has their assumptions about who the batkids’ favourite siblings are. But what if it’s all just Jason? Like, everyone just assumes Dick’s favourite is Damian. That’s his Robin. But he can’t get over the soft spot for Jason, who never got to properly grow old. He’s with them again, but he can’t help mourn the loss of those years with his first little brother. Dick is assumed to be Damian’s favourite, obviously, but not many other people know what he went through with the League of Assassins. They don’t know the bad AND the good he had. Jason does though. Damian loves telling people that’s his little brother, no matter how many times Jason tries telling him age doesn’t reset in the pit. Tim just loves that he can crash out at Jason and Jason just lets him get what he needs to off his chest. Cass is so used to reading body language, that it’s just sometimes refreshing to be around the most emotional bat that doesn’t hide what he’s feeling as much as the others do.
love how much of Aragorn’s initial interactions with the hobbits is just telling them not to say things
aragorn: could you stop casually invoking the dread name of the ancient and terrible evil that even now follows at our very heels for FIVE MINUTES
aragorn: hey I gotta take a breather can you take over the hobbit duties for a bit
gandalf: no worries got you covered
Aragorn’s given up
elrond: hey you can’t say that here
gandalf: you can’t tell me what to say, do I look like a hobbit to you
The film repositions this for comedy, but in Return of the King, there’s this scene:
Gandalf, outside the door: oh hang on, just a sec. for reasons I won’t explain; this is about to get super geopolitical. Try not to spill too many beans in front of Denethor.
Pippin: Do I have that many of them?
Denethor: right, you ignorant child! Under my skilled interrogation I shall force you to spill the beans.
Pippin: I know three things about beans and will share them (under skilled interrogation, discourses for a full hour on beans, the preparation thereof, the cultivation thereof, and the Shire’s various thoughts on beans in general)
Gandalf: (pretends to be annoyed) denethor if you wanted SENSIBLE discourse on geopolitical beans I am RIGHT HERE
Denethor, fascinated: no! I already know everything you’re about to say and I’m NOT accepting criticism at this time. And I genuinelyhave no idea what this guy’s going to say next - do you have ANY idea how fun that is for me
Pippin: now the classic market share of baked beans inna tin belongs to Heinz, but I myself am a Branston man, because - referencing my previous statements - if you want beans, you do NOT need to faff about with a tin opener. The decision to retain the pop-top -
Gandalf: this is unbelievable. denethor, can we -
Denethor: BZT! ✋ let him cook
(Later)
Pippin: are you mad at me for talking about beans for an hour
Gandalf: it was, in a weird way, the best move on the chessboard, and so politically savvy that it furthered three of my agendas, and was also really funny to listen to. Denethor has the long sight; he is accustomed to reading the minds and hearts of men at a long distance, these long years. Actually, maybe this has jaded him as much as anything else. To meet a mind whose umwelt, whose very nature, he has not already fully plumbed is not just an act of political obfuscation on our part; for Denethor himself, could such fresh provocation burst his stagnant social bubble, and save him from being so terminally fucking online? Might we have uncovered the potential of a Theoden thematic parallel? Much to ponder. The only unfortunate bit was that you kept freezing up and looking guilty when Denethor asked you about containers
Pippin: you said not to spill any beans and I was worried he’d trip me up
Gandalf: it is, as ever, like talking to a fucking genie with you people
ALT
