[ExI] abandoning hope

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Sun Oct 28 19:59:46 UTC 2007


> >Abandon hope all ye who enter here
>
>No, damn it!
>
>"Abandon ALL hope, ye who enter here."
>
>Actually, it is "*any* hope".
>
>Stefano Vaj

That's not really the point, which is that in popular 
English-language [mis]usage (taking a rather restricted value of 
"popular"), the error is to universalize the "ye who enter" rather 
than the "hope"--which weakens the absolute terror of the 
inscription. "All" and "any" are effectively synonymous in this context.

Damien Broderick




More information about the extropy-chat mailing list