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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2204 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 8, 2026

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My perplexity is in learning that "hot drinks" is interpreted by those it affects in a way that includes certain cold drinks and precludes certain hot drinks. That's all. It's such a simple rule with such low stakes that I find it difficult to think of how it became contentious.

Well again, in 1830s America, it was well understood that hot beverages colloquially referred to tea and coffee as opposed to yerba mate. It is a whole-to-part synecdoche, a colloquial irregularity that appears in every spoken language.

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