How do you interpret the word, "etcetera"?
I use this word all the time, if you listen to me, and I use it as a shortcut, assuming that to some extent that whoever I'm speaking with has heard me talk about things, and so they don't necessarily need their time wasted with me reiterating it. Or I'll use it when I assume that they're with me in the conversation and they've made similar connections and there's no need to spell them out
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:25
Hey, Christina, this just jumped off of my phone. I was going to do something else and then you distracted me. But I want to say that I never say etc ever. Like I don't think I've ever said that word aside from now. Like it's just in my not in my vocabulary orally. But I use it all the time when I write and I use it specifically be to shortcut like something that's becoming obvious
Farika B Redux
@FarikaB_Redux · 2:16
It. Whenever I think of the word, et cetera, I always reference in my head, even if I use it or don't or just hear someone else use it, I always reference the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. So the original one, right? And he's reading through that list of rules that nobody ever heard until he breaks this page out, and it's a scroll, actually
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Farika B Redux
@FarikaB_Redux · 1:48
And how someone got that is because they felt maybe that maybe someone had a superior thought to them, and they thought, like, oh, you just think you know something, you're just trying to make me feel like you know more. To me, I don't know. That was real petty. That's a real petty definition or real petty way of describing people who use the word et cetera because it doesn't even come across as that
Christina you know what else is something I do that I think is silly is that I remember many, many times being told that when people don't understand or they have a question, they'll ask you. Do you know how rare that is that people actually do that? But I still operate under that thinking. And so I just assume that if I do use the word etc. And somebody doesn't know that, they'll ask me
It's true because it's always like, whatever the reason the speaker chose to use it is not necessarily how it's received. That's always an interesting thing. Anyway, I'm relieved that this is not necessarily a common interpretation because I would hate to make people feel that way, but also it's made me reevaluate where and when I use it. Unless, of course, we're taking the Gene Wilder approach, et cetera, et cetera
It. At this point, I think we just need to rewrite the dictionary. I mean, how many more words are we going to complain about before we decide that this the entire dictionary needs to be rewritten or it just needs our version? In fact, that's better. Leave those dictionaries as is. We make our own version. That's my vote
There you go. Can you imagine, though, there'd still be upheaval over a new dictionary and then like, which words go into it and which words will have which definitions, especially when there's like some words have a ridiculous number of definitions and some of those definitions contradict each other. Oh, my goodness. There was a language that someone told me about a few years ago that's super simplistic and basically strips the language of all complexity and nuance
Pasju Kubert
@PasjuRelatively · 4:16
And for example, like in Carson McCullough McCullough's Ballot of the Sad Cafe. Great, beautiful, long descriptions of things. And it's like if they had gone through that and then she had revisited the scene and said and, you know, there was the table and the chair and the things were the same, all of them were placed, et cetera. The table and the chair were the same, and everything well, et cetera. I don't know
It's sort of a synergistic thing that happens between two people. We may share who's using the paintbrush when or who's doing the movement when, but it's a back and forth process in order to reach some sort of understanding. Right? So, for example, you were talking about the way that you use ideas or words and how they might seem just a little off when they're side by side, but then when you think about it, somehow or another, it creates a different understanding
Jordan Tepper
@JordanTepper · 1:05
I have a habit of just my brain is working faster than my mouth, so even when I'm making these, sometimes I have to, like, pause so I can think of and get out the words I'm trying to say. I say yada, yada, yada all the time. This and that and whatnot and whatnot. I think it's just like, for me, it's a pause
Farika B Redux
@FarikaB_Redux · 2:04
You know, the funny thing is though, that every year Webster's Dictionary redefines words and actually brings them to the more modernized definition of words that we already know and have existed, as well as the colloquials, as well as introduction of new words because of society or social reasons like weeding due to Twitter, right? And texting, because technically there was no word as texting. That's not how you use the word text
So if I say et cetera, et cetera, it's interpreted as sort of I've run out of words, but I still want to keep talking. I'm just sort of making filler noise. I suppose it's a step up from I had to think about the word um for a second. Anyway, this is funny. This is very interesting
Okay. You made me laugh when you were like you thought maybe it was only for writing and then punctuated it with et cetera, et cetera. Too funny. Part of me like, I have no faces to say this, but part of me has this maybe vague recollection that you're probably right about it being only for writing. I wonder when and how part of spoken language. Do I wonder enough to look it up? Probably not. And am I going to stop using it? No
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 3:56
But, yeah, I enjoyed this discussion, and great job as well, Christina, for finding one of these words or finding an example of one of these words that can be used in a way some people perceived as, like, hostile. You know, they they see it as, like a word that could be weaponized. But anyway, I appreciate this. Well
Pasju Kubert
@PasjuRelatively · 4:44
Christina? I love reading this piece. It's so crazy. It's so crazy. It's just wonderful. If you have a chance, if I have a chance, if I figure out how to get it to everybody, I would love to share this. It's Alice B. Tokley who is Gertrude's lover? And she does a reading of The Making of Americans from ages ago
Glenn Mann
@GlennPriceMann · 0:39
Hello. This is such a great topic and I had no idea that someone there could be anything offending about the term et cetera. I just thought of it as a term that you use when you just don't want to waste time explaining something that you figure someone out already knows about or is alluded to. So the classy way of saying yada yada yada where you don't want to bore anyone with unnecessary details. So the idea that someone could be offended by it I guess they could but et cetera
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 1:24
So for me, et cetera, it's just like you said, you don't have to explain no more because you just said well, let's say I'm going to give you example. Well, I'm headed to work today. It's a typical day. I've got to go and I have a few interviews and I had to get prepared for the whiteboard and then I had to make sure everybody's on task, et cetera
I wish I could take credit for finding a word that could be weaponized, but I had no clue. It's kind of like there was an article last year sometime someone posted that some people really interpret certain emojis to be passive aggressive or to be aggressive. And I was just like, what? Like, for example, apparently some generations think that older generations that use the thumbs up emoji that somehow it's I don't even know
More power to you. Pasju I did not see the same value in the piece that you read that you find in it. But this wasn't what I was asking about when I asked for an example, because I get it when an author does it. I get it when we're talking about a pattern or a series of things, a series of colors or attributes, et cetera
And then I was thinking, okay, well, if I was out of the loop on that one, then maybe I'm out of the loop on this particular word. The more I hear, although there are these different ways people use it, it definitely seems that it was just that person's interpretation. It's rather interesting
Dewuan made a great point that sometimes people don't want to look stupid. But I respect people who ask questions and are willing to look stupid. You know, it's more authentic. Anyway, it's so strange the way people will inject meaning that has nothing to do with the word into a word
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 0:46
Actually, that was a hospital pump, because I was about to but, yeah, the blind spot sounds sort of similar. I never thought about it's
Adriane
@Royalcapability · 1:47
And then when I go into snacks such as chips, cake, ice cream, et cetera, et cetera, which means somewhat of the similar or somewhat of the same, et cetera is used for somewhat of the same. Instead of going on and on with the different types of snacks, you say cake, ice cream, cookies, et cetera, et cetera. I hope I explain that right. But that's how I would typically use it
Adriane
@Royalcapability · 0:20
Them. Also, if I'm not mistaken, whenever you're writing something and you put dot, dot, dot, that's also an insinuation for, et cetera. Don't quote me on that. But I do believe that is true
Uhoh, what does that say when I use the dot dot, dot all the time, too? I use it, though, to sort of insert a pause a little longer than what a comma might do, just to sort of insert a pregnant pause, if you will. Now, I'm like going to think extra a bit more, let's say, each time I use the dot, dot, dot or the et cetera, either in written form or spoken
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 3:22
And of course, you have my experience, my background, my, you know, what interactions I'm speaking of and referencing. You have my reference points. Therefore, you must know based on some of the commonalities we have, and that could be making an assumption, oh, we're both American. Oh, and we're both women. Oh, and we're both American women and oh, we are because we are women
And so then how much do I explain and how much do I not of my thinking so that we can be on the same page, I refer to, et cetera, sort of as a default, maybe. And hoping, assuming that if somebody doesn't understand, they're going to ask. Unfortunately that this doesn't happen that often. I think to Duan's point, maybe people are afraid of being vulnerable or making mistakes or perceiving as being perceived as quote unquote stupid or something