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6 votes
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No meaning without justification
6 votes -
From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words
8 votes -
How ‘The Monster with 21 Faces’ terrorized Japan during the harrowing Glico Morinaga candy incident
10 votes -
Our ladies of the perpetual high
9 votes -
Christianity hasn’t failed in India. Conversion isn’t its only goal
3 votes -
A child calling Santa reached NORAD instead. Christmas Eve was never the same.
8 votes -
The illogic of logical positivism
4 votes -
The most powerful computers you've never heard of
6 votes -
The hubris of big data
4 votes -
Toxoplasma of rage
6 votes -
The bulldozer vs vetocracy political axis
4 votes -
Denmark says it will take measures to protect teachers' freedom of expression and prevent the risks of self-censorship
8 votes -
On communicating accurately with Americans
11 votes -
The Gävle goat
9 votes -
The rise and fall of rationality in language
7 votes -
This wealthy Dallas church owns the most clergy homes in Texas — and it costs taxpayers six figures a year
11 votes -
Twitter, the intimacy machine
7 votes -
On progress and historical change
5 votes -
Supreme Court weighs mandating public funds for religious schools in Maine
8 votes -
Taming the Beast: The Inner Battle for Control
3 votes -
Tenement Museum virtual tour
7 votes -
Recycled Russian warheads fuel US power plants (2013)
6 votes -
Avenging Varus - The Roman Germanic Wars
2 votes -
Dancing mania
5 votes -
What to do when the KKK shoots and other lessons from Houston’s underground paper
2 votes -
Little-known Black history comes to light in new documentary series
2 votes -
The Eighteenth Elephant
6 votes -
Violence and protest
6 votes -
100 years of whatever this will be
12 votes -
Beware the fallacy bully
7 votes -
The town where holding fireworks over your head is a tradition
6 votes -
The melancholy decline of the semicolon
17 votes -
Pompeii still has buried secrets - The first major excavations in decades shed light on how ordinary citizens shopped and snacked—and where slaves slept
6 votes -
The surprisingly strange history of Thanksgiving (and other turkey day trivia)
4 votes -
How a New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears
26 votes -
Disney’s FastPass: A complicated history
14 votes -
Longstanding discourse w/ my SO about the phrase "a couple of..."
#couple Defined as: noun: couple; plural noun: couples 1. two individuals of the same sort considered together. "a couple of girls were playing marbles" a pair of partners in a dance or game....
#couple
Defined as:noun:
couple;
plural noun: couples
1.
two individuals of the same sort considered together.
"a couple of girls were playing marbles"a pair of partners in a dance or game.
MECHANICS
a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, and tending to cause rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane containing them.
2.
two people who are married, engaged, or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually.
"in three weeks the couple fell in love and became engaged"3.
INFORMAL
an indefinite small number.
"he hoped she'd be better in a couple of days"
verb:
couple;
3rd person present:
couples
past tense:
coupled
past participle:
coupled
gerund or present participle:
coupling
1.
combine."a sense of hope is coupled with a palpable sense of loss"
join to form a pair.
"the beetles may couple up to form a pair"2.
mate or have sexual intercourse.
"as middle-class youth grew more tolerant of sex, they started to couple more often"
#Discourse of the use of the word/phrase in this particular case
You
"how many would you like?"
Them
"just a couple."
When someone requests 'a couple of...' I respond with something similar to: 'How many do you want specifically?', which leads to the discourse of, 'A couple is two, a few is >2, several is <x' and so on.
I agree with the first two clearly stated definitions of 'couple', but in the informal use of a couple (eg. a depiction of a quantity) is not specifically two...nor is 'a few' three. How many specifically is several..?
I understand the semantics within the conversation. But, the expectation of understanding that two, and only two, is implied in the use of the phrase 'a couple' in a request; is ambiguously stating what one party desires. I'm the asshole now, just tell me how many you want.
And now...your thoughts, please.
12 votes -
Where the humanities aren't in crisis
3 votes -
The ancient origins of glass
4 votes -
The Varangian Guard | Units of History
5 votes -
America's forgotten vampire panic
7 votes -
Search for Jimmy Hoffa leads the FBI to Jersey City landfill
8 votes -
Machine learning for moral judgments
3 votes -
The jet that terrified the West: The MiG-25 Foxbat
7 votes -
The name for Britain comes from our ancient love of tattoos
6 votes -
Liberal hypocrisy is fueling American inequality. Here’s how.
15 votes -
Music and Connection -- Yo-Yo Ma
4 votes -
How many people have Q Clearance?
10 votes -
The ingenious ancient technology concealed in the shallows
7 votes