• starman2112
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        1 month ago

        That’s true. I shouldn’t have included that detail in my already 100% correct comment. Redacting it, but pasting it here for posterity:

        The word “wet” comes from a PIE word meaning water

      • starman2112
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        1 month ago

        But if you define wet as ‘made of liquid or moisture’, as some do, then water and all other liquids can be considered wet.

        Thank you for providing another source in my favor. In a scientific context, wet might have a very particular meaning. But we’re not in a damn lab right now, we’re talking. Go ask a linguist instead of a scientist.

          • starman2112
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            1 month ago

            Irrelevant. No word has one single universally accepted definition, no one dictionary can lay claim over the English language, and the way that most people actually use the word includes things that consist of liquids. There’s a reason that the phrase “water is wet” is ubiquitous.

            • zarkanian
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              1 month ago

              You used a dictionary to prove your point, but now you’re saying that dictionaries don’t matter. Good grief.

              Dictionary definitions come from usages.

              • starman2112
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                1 month ago

                I used a dictionary to demonstrate that that is a way that people use the word. I never said they don’t matter, I said it’s irrelevant that some dictionaries don’t include my definition.

                • nyctre@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  So if enough people start saying that the earth is flat does it automatically become true? Is usage what determines facts now?

                  • starman2112
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                    1 month ago

                    No, and it takes a profound level of disingenuousness to bring the argument to this point. You must understand that the meanings of words are socially constructed, not aspects of physical reality. Usage is literally what determines the definitions of words.

    • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Counter source 2:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetting

      Wetting is the ability of a liquid to displace gas to maintain contact with a solid surface, resulting from intermolecular interactions when the two are brought together.[1] These interactions occur in the presence of either a gaseous phase or another liquid phase not miscible with the wetting liquid.

      • starman2112
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        1 month ago

        How is that a counter source? It’s just another definition of the word. Words can mean multiple things.