Now of course, anyone who has owned a computer since 1995 is probably probably used to the word "Uninstall". But here's the thing, Nielsen has been putting boxes on people's TVs since before the home PCs were common. Nielsen's use of "Deinstall" may well predate the computer term.
Now personally, both words sound bad to my ears when I really think about it. The opposite of "install" should be something like "outstall" or "unstall". Do you say indoors and unindoors? Inside and uninside? Inner space and uninner space? No, it's outdoors, outside, and outer space. Granted, I don't know the etymology of "install", so maybe "uninstall" is perfectly grammatically correct, though I doubt it. In any event, I've gotten used to uninstall, and it would be hard to start using a different word at this point.
That's the thing about words. It's not about what is correct, it's about what you're used to saying. This can be annoying, because apparently I've been surrounded by people who say everything wrong my entire life. Here's a few I wanted to rant about.
Let's start early. Back in elementary school, it was standard procedure for budding physicians to inoculate each other against the most sinister of maladies. Of course I'm referring to Cooties. Our tried-and-true method had a 100% success rate: "Circle, circle, dot dot dot... now you've got your Cooties shot." You administered this vaccine by using your finger to draw a face on your patient. After drawing the outer circle, you drew three dots to represent the eyes and mouth. Or maybe that third dot was a nose? I don't know, I never completed my medical degree.
But during my discussions with colleagues as an adult, I've found that in the majority of the Cootie-inoculating world, they skip the third dot. Skip the third dot? Come on! How's it supposed to look like a face with only two dots? Besides, our method makes for a better rhythm:
Circle circle (4 syllables)
Dot dot dot (3 syllables)
Now you've got your (4 syllables)
Cooties shot (3 syllables)
Doesn't that make the rhyme work better? Look, I realize our method might not be the most preferred, but you can't argue with the results. We never had a Cooties outbreak that entire year, so those two-dot plebeians can suck it.
Here's another one that kind of threw me for a loop. How do you pronounce the second syllable of "Experiment"? I swear I've said "spear" all my life, and that's what it sounded like other people were saying as well. But apparently most people say "spare"? That might just be an accent thing, but I'm still surprised that I didn't notice other people were saying "spare" until it was specifically pointed out to me. Now that's all I hear.
You know the phrase, "You've got another thing coming?" Or is it, "You've got another think coming?" I've always said the former; I just recently heard the latter. Or did I? Have people been saying "think" all my life, and I didn't notice because they sound so similar? It's just as well. "Think" sounds just awful, and if I'd actually heard someone say that version in my presence, I probably would have set them on fire.
So, how do you pronounce GIF? Hard G (because it stands for graphic) or soft G (as the creators intended)? I've heard so many people argue about this one, attempting to use actual grammatical evidence. You know what? Those arguments are dumb - there are no actual "Rules of Grammar", just a bunch of precedents set by classist snobs. In any event, show me any "Rule of Grammar" that is consistently applied and I'll be shocked.
This is the only rule that applies here: When you create a new word, you have a responsibility to make the pronunciation known before people get used to pronouncing it a certain way. If you choose to sit on your thumbs instead, you're not allowed to get mad later. The GIF guys had their chance, and now they have to live with the consequences.
It's kind of like the "mice vs mouses" thing. Back in the 80s, before the average citizen owned a computer with a mouse, I read an article about the peripheral in a computer magazine. It said that when referring to a computer mouse, the plural is "mouses" instead of mice. And then, as far as I can tell, nobody ever mentioned it again anywhere. I hope the creators of the mouse aren't as picky as the GIF guys, because they made absolutely no effort to get people to say "mouses", and now that ship has long sailed.
Honestly I think most people are willing to learn, they're just not willing to relearn. Just look at me. When I type, I still put two spaces after every period. I know better, but this is how I was taught, and I have no intention of changing. If they didn't want us to type this way, they shouldn't have taught this way. Yes I know it's an obsolete holdover from typewriter days, but so what? Lots of things are obsolete but still popular, just look at the Republican Party.
This is why most people become more conservative as they get older. The human brain becomes more rigid as it ages, and less open to new ideas. I'm not immune to this. My eyes roll just as much as yours when kids start putting down "Friends" for not being as progressive as more recent TV shows. I recognize that a lot of 80s movies are "problematic" now, but that doesn't make me like them any less.
But I also reject a lot of the "older is better" crowd. People who prefer music on vinyl because it sounds "warmer". No, you just get nostalgic feelings because the scratchiness reminds you of how music sounded in your youth. VHS is coming back into fashion for the same reasons. How in the world are we supposed to explain modern concepts like "gender fluid non-binary trans masc" to people who think VHS is superior to Blu Ray? Most of the time it's easier to just explain it to their children, and wait for the older generation to die off.
Anyway, I believe I've lost track of the original point of this blog, which I think was something about words, but I'm too lazy to scroll upwards and find out. Peace out.
