words: angry, mad, pissed off
Dec. 11th, 2005 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethongoing vague puzzlement at the way words mean things
like, angry. perfectly good word. you say you are angry, everyone knows what you mean.
but then there's 'mad' and 'pissed off'
for why do they get used to mean angry?
mad implies that the emotion anger is irrational, insane, albeit (one hopes) temporarily. People get mad and do things. Mad seems to me to be an excuse word, like, oops, hit you because I was mad. Like an insanity plea in court.
pissed off sounds, well, messier. possibly like something that you just get rid of, but can make a stinky mess in the wrong place. but I can't see it sounding like an excuse.
and then there's pissed as means drunk. quite entirely different from angry. drunks can be angry and angry people can be drunk (and is there a word like 'angries?' not that I can think of. people can be 'drunks' but they can't be 'angries'. What's with that? Both temporary conditions.) But not all drunks are angry, or angry people drunk. Though I suppose a sufficient degree of feeling can be a bit like intoxication, in that both alter ones behaviour on a short term basis in ways one's rational mind might not approve.
I guess pissed-as-intoxicated and pissed-as-angry have in common with 'mad' that altered state connotation.
words are weird
like, angry. perfectly good word. you say you are angry, everyone knows what you mean.
but then there's 'mad' and 'pissed off'
for why do they get used to mean angry?
mad implies that the emotion anger is irrational, insane, albeit (one hopes) temporarily. People get mad and do things. Mad seems to me to be an excuse word, like, oops, hit you because I was mad. Like an insanity plea in court.
pissed off sounds, well, messier. possibly like something that you just get rid of, but can make a stinky mess in the wrong place. but I can't see it sounding like an excuse.
and then there's pissed as means drunk. quite entirely different from angry. drunks can be angry and angry people can be drunk (and is there a word like 'angries?' not that I can think of. people can be 'drunks' but they can't be 'angries'. What's with that? Both temporary conditions.) But not all drunks are angry, or angry people drunk. Though I suppose a sufficient degree of feeling can be a bit like intoxication, in that both alter ones behaviour on a short term basis in ways one's rational mind might not approve.
I guess pissed-as-intoxicated and pissed-as-angry have in common with 'mad' that altered state connotation.
words are weird
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-11 09:43 pm (UTC)"Pissed" has no alcohol-related connotations over here. Just crude slang for angry -- anywhere from irritated to enraged, though I suppose I think of it toward the milder end or middle of the spectrum.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-11 09:48 pm (UTC)the internet is my primary means of interaction and communication, and I'm ending up sort of mid Atlantic. Or possibly just not sounding quite right anywhere ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 07:09 am (UTC)was browsing the net and came across your journal. Is the symbol you are using as your current userpic the Watcher symbol in Highlaner: The Series ?
This is how i landed here: I coulnd't sleep and decided to check out some music on itunes. A Battlestar galactica banner was front and center when I logged into the i-tunes music store - which led me to remember I went to school with stu witwer (was a friend of my brothers) who i heard had moved into the movie biz and got a part in battlestar galactica (sorry for the totally boring thread of events here!)...so I was googling him and came across your site, and then realized that I recognized the circular symbol of your userpic and said "hey - isn't that the watcher tatoo?"
So there you have it! :) Sorry for the random post ! Meg
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 07:11 am (UTC)hmmmm. interesting that. ;) Meg