• Zron@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    God, I hope it doesn’t spread, because then people will keep saying global pandemic.

    Pandemic already means global.

    It’s like saying Mariachi Band, or ATM Machine.

    • bruce965@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      For what it’s worth, I always prefer being redundant if it makes the meaning clearer to a non-native speaker audience.

      For instance I didn’t know “pandemic” implicitly meant “global”. In my ignorance I thought you could have a localized pandemic. But by saying “global pandemic” it makes it more obvious to everyone, including those who, like me, didn’t know.

      Also I’ll personally keep saying “my phone had an LCD display” because it feels smoother than “my phone has a LCD”.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        This is an important hint around all the jargon that anglos grew up repeating; and I only sometimes realize how deeply it pervades our speech.

        “So I had to hit the ATM for a PATH ticket to get to SoHo and venmo a new LCD for my s20 instead of hopping the turnstile but I found some susy-Bs in my 505s so I was mint” could make perfect sense to an anglo (living in Jersey City) but to an Icelander there’s not much context to help dereference all the jargon.

        Saying “‘ATM’ machine”, with the jargon explained a bit, could definitely help. I gotta be less of a pedantic dick.

      • DinosaurSr@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Even for native speakers! If I told my parents to get a new LCD they’d think I was telling them to buy drugs.

    • explore_broaden@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      (of a disease) existing in almost all of an area or in almost all of a group of people, animals, or plants

      “An area” could be a country, a Canadian pandemic is possible just as a global pandemic is.