Hacker News Reader

Comment by _qwfv | Hacker News Reader

I'll try to explain with an example: I am able bodied, I can walk and run easily. When I visit a store or bus depot or whatever, I can navigate it with ease. This is privilege, and I am not a bad person for being able bodied.

I shouldn't feel guilt because I can walk. But it's important to recognize that my experiences and my abilities might be different than others.

An architect designing a public building with only stairs or narrow doors, or a traffic planner optimizing crossing times for an average pedestrian are cases of failing to recognize their privilege in being able bodied. If, after being made aware of their privilege, they continue to design for themselves then they may be considered immoral by some people.

View on HN

It's the wrong word then. The etymology of privilege:

Middle English: via Old French from Latin privilegium ‘bill or law affecting an individual’, from privus ‘private’ + lex, leg- ‘law’.

In fact, in France privilèges have been abolished during the revolution. And it's not just the wrong word, it's kind of opposite; privilege generally meant the benefit of a minority, but here it's used to describe when the majority benefits, because they are the majority.

Unfortunately, that's not how language works. Words get adopted to mean things independent of their etymology all the time. I find it confusing a lot of the time. (eg "literally" used to mean "figuratively").

That's actually how language works. We use the common, dictionary definition of words, not whatever some academic with an agenda made up.

Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Whose made up agenda is behind this and what is it?

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1576/

And at least according to makers of the OED, it does not define words, it describes them: https://languages.oup.com/about-us/how-we-create-language-co...

You believe that language is prescriptive -- that there are 'correct' usages of words. [1] I believe that language is descriptive -- that dictionaries follow common usage rather than define the usage. Depending on your cultural heritage, one or the other may be more common.

Descriptivism allows for expressions like, "To boldly go where no man has gone before!" which is a split infinitive, and an 'incorrect' use of language. If a native speaker would say a thing in speaking, then it's valid. Native English speakers use language in all sorts of ways that would be 'incorrect' -- from jive to rhyming slang to 1337 sp34k to adoptions from queer culture like 'shade' or 'yass'.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription

Reply on news.ycombinator.com