Editing 798: Adjectives

{{comic
| number    = 798
| date      = September 27, 2010
| title     = Adjectives
| image     = adjectives.png
| titletext = 'Fucking ineffable' sounds like someone remembering how to do self-censorship halfway through a phrase.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a {{w|Plot_(graphics)|plot graph}} comparing how often certain adjectives are used alone versus in the phrases ''"fucking [adjective]"'' and ''"[adjective] as shit"''. Plot data is based on Google search engine result count, or ''hits''. The graph's formula uses the {{w|natural logarithm}} of the hits for the obscene phrase divided by the hits for the adjective alone.

It's a social observation of linguistics pointing out that the use of swear words as intensifiers is more common with everyday words (''eg. annoying, pissed, stupid'') than it is with more arcane words (''eg. piquant, fungible''). Two words are used as examples in a sentence shown to the right. These sentences are not something you would be likely to overhear. In the case of ''fucking fungible'' it is also a way to justify its relatively high occurrence online. Of course given the log scale, it is still very rarely used like this.

The only word included in the graph that's never found in either obscene phrase is ''[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peristeronic peristeronic]''. Its definition ''("Of or pertaining to pigeons")'' is included due to its extreme obscurity. (The words was used again later as a [[1572:_xkcd_Survey#Difficult_words| difficult word]] in the survey part of comic [[1572: xkcd Survey]].

The title text mocks the use of the word ''fucking'' in combination with ''[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ineffable ineffable]'' since the colloquialism ''effing'' or ''F-ing'' is a way of censoring "the F-word", ''fuck''. The two used together resembles someone partially self-censoring the phrase "fucking unfuckable."

==Meanings of lesser known words==

'''Prosaic''' - lacking originality/creativity

'''Ambivalent''' - having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone

'''Evanescent''' - which disappears very quickly, transient/ephemeral

'''Piquant''' - which has a tangy, appetizing taste

'''Jejune''' - naive, simplistic

'''Kafkaesque''' - nightmarishly bizarre and surreal, read more about it [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#.22Kafkaesque.22 here]

'''Stochastic''' - random and unpredictable, most often used in a technical sense

'''Fungible''' - things that are interchangeable and equivalent substitutes for each other - e.g. different cans of diet coke are fungible with each other

==Transcript==
:Frequency with which various adjectives are intensified with obscenities (based on Google hits)
:[The legend above the plot reads:]
:Red marker: "fucking ____"
:Blue marker: "____ as shit"
:[Mathematical formula for scale next to the legend:]
:Scale: ln(hits for intensified phrase/hits for adjective alone)
:[The plot itself lists a series of adjectives in approximately descending order.  Each has a red and a blue marker corresponding to the scale described.]
:[Horizontal axis starts with none, then has a vertical dashed line, then 'rarely' at -17, increasing to 'often' at -5.]
:[Each adjective is listed with approximate red and blue values, in that order.]
:Annoying -5 -5
:Pissed -5 -6
:Stupid -5 -8
:Bored -6 -6
:Sexy -5.5 -6.5
:Adorable -6.5 -9.5
:Disgusting -6.5 -12.5
:Calm -7 -10
:Delicious -8 -13
:Obscene -6 -14 
:Prosaic -10 -13.5
:Bemused -8.5 -14
:Apropos -10.5 -16
:Ambivalent -12 -17
:Improper -12.5 -18
:Evanescent -14 -14.5
:Piquant -9.5 never
:Jejune -9 never
:Kafkaesque -10 never
:Stochastic -14 never
:Fungible -12 never
:Peristeronic ("Of or pertaining to pigeons") never never
:[There are two small scenes in the bottom right of the plot. The first shows a pair of women holding wine glasses.]
:Megan: Yes, the Cabernet is piquant as shit this time of year.
:[The second shows Cueball sitting at a computer desk.]
:Cueball: Whoa, these commodities are fucking fungible!

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