Quick terminology question

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evan le'garde

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See, we started off with the perfectly splended description which normally applies to fruit mostly. People love ripe fruit. It's a way of describing fresh ready to eat produce.

If when you hear the word ripe it conjures up images of a rotten corpse it wouldn't be when you are in the supermarket looking at ripe fruit.

Generally, the word "ripe" is used for this porpose. It's a perfectly appropriate, acceptable term. In the context of consumable produce it wouldn't be tainted with any other negative understanding of the word, it never is.

Ask somebody, what do you think of when you here the word ripe ?.

And again, the term "mute" or "muted" refers to sound, the lack of it ". The definition does not, in any way, suggest flavour or taste !, or the lack of it !. So how did this happen ?. Forgive me for saying so, but the individual who got that ball rolling is some kind of an idiot. Sorry !, but it's true. Can you imagine what those who aren't part of the vaping community think when they here or read this word being used to describe a lack of flavour ?. It makes the vaping community look like it doesn't know what it's talking about. That it doesn't understand the basic definitions of words. They think "The vaping community uses the word "muted" to describe a lack of flavour, are they completely stupid or what ?".

From the start the way to descibe a "lack of flavour" would have been to use the term "insipid". That's what a person with a reasonable level of intelligence would have done.
 
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Falconeer

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I beg leave to disagree about the usage of "muted" - in British English it has been used to describe flavours since the 1970s, with particular reference to wine flavours. That I do know, since it was used in books in wine making and then I was big into that.

Word usage does change over time - that is the nature of language. It's also why there are footnotes explaining Shakepeare's jokes, which do not seem funny to people nowadays as language and indeed pronunciation has changed over the centuries.

When last in Spain my wife and I used muted when discussing the ordinary DYC whisky ( a Spanish domestic brand ) as opposed to the 8 year old variety.

Finally on a recent visit to a gin distillery it was explained by the guide that unless the correct amount and blend of botanicals was added to the alcohol the flavour would be muted.
 

Falconeer

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From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam -

"And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel,
And robb'd me of my Robe of Honour—well,
I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the Goods they sell."

Cheers and here's lookin' atcha Evan!

158.jpg
 

evan le'garde

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From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam -

"And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel,
And robb'd me of my Robe of Honour—well,
I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the Goods they sell."

Cheers and here's lookin' atcha Evan!

View attachment 855147

Someone get me an evidence bag.
 

DeloresRose

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Yes but does not fruit ripen and do not glowing fields of grain also ripen, nay are not the young ripe for love or adventure ... if I remember aright do not Churches even celebrate the ripe harvest when the grain has been garnered in an all and all?

Okay, but not all flavors are fruits. So perhaps for bakery, we should say “proof” or as they say on Great British Baking Show “prove?”

“My juice is ripe” or “I need to ripen my juice” just sounds way TMI, something one ought to keep to themselves and do, if one must, behind closed doors.
 

Falconeer

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Therein lies but one of the Great Mysteries of 'uman nature - how words can mean different things to different people, and how simple discussions can evoke strong emotions.

Humour of course, as I need to keep reminding myself, does not always travel and my attempts at levity have clearly failed; woe is me and thrice woe even!

Meanwhile it being our anniversary and also St Andrew's Day, my wife and I will puzzle over whether we shall have Cava or Prosecco with our dinner tonight ... and so I shall "leave the Wise to wrangle" as Old Omar put it.

Have a great day all!
 

440BB

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Okay, but not all flavors are fruits. So perhaps for bakery, we should say “proof” or as they say on Great British Baking Show “prove?”

“My juice is ripe” or “I need to ripen my juice” just sounds way TMI, something one ought to keep to themselves and do, if one must, behind closed doors.
Ecf members are steeped in suggestions that one should ripen their juice in a dark place.
:eek:

I see what you mean.:D
 
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ScottP

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From the start the way to descibe a "lack of flavour" would have been to use the term "insipid". That's what a person with a reasonable level of intelligence would have done.

Another word that could apply is "attenuated", which means reduced or weakened in amount or degree. However, attenuated can also mean to reduce the amplitude of sound waves (aka muted). I actually think this overlap between attenuate and mute could be how people arrived at using muted to describe anything (including flavor) that has been reduced. So yes it is a bit of slang to use mute this way but I see it as acceptable.

If you (you in the general sense, not even specifically) are adamantly opposed to using mute this way, then perhaps you should also look at other slang in your life. For instance, if you ever use "cool" to describe something you like, that's slang. You should probably stop using it as well.
 

evan le'garde

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Insipid is used specifically to describe flavours. It's the general term. Attenuated has a very broad definition and can be used in many different contexts.

It's the vaping wine tasters who did this !:). They brought muted into vaping.

Have you ever even had to listen to the whole world of BS wine tasters warble on about. They're all drunk don't you know !. hmm ?....

The general public en masse are going to start using the term. If people liked it they'd use it. they don't though. They reject it the same way i do. Can you imagine a crowd of rowdy beer drinkers standing around a bar all agreeing that the beer they are drinking has:

"a slightly muted taste, maybe a little oaky, and i'm sensing incredibly sexy nose of smoke, toasty wood, no hard edges, beautifully integrated acidity and tannin, multi-dimensional and stunningly aromatic spectacular beer that must be tasted to be believed"

No !. Regular people don't talk such a load of old crap. And those guys in that bar will laugh at it. And so do new vapers. Those who use such terms alienate others because the others won't use them, because they are afraid of sounding stupid to their peers.

It isn't happening, and it isn't going to start. God knows what new users must think when they read some of the members here going on like that.

Regular people aren't going to adopt these terms. So for regular people, more acceptable terms need to be used. Terms like "ripe". Because people understand that. It's a standard regularly used word.
 
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ScottP

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Insipid is used specifically to describe flavours. It's the general term. Attenuated has a very broad definition and can be used in many different contexts.

It's the vaping wine tasters who did this !:). They brought muted into vaping.

Have you ever even had to listen to the whole world of BS wine tasters warble on about. They're all drunk don't you know !. hmm ?....

The general public en masse are going to start using the term. If people liked it they'd use it. they don't though. They reject it the same way i do. Can you imagine a crowd of rowdy beer drinkers standing around a bar all agreeing that the beer they are drinking has:

"a slightly muted taste, maybe a little oaky, and i'm sensing incredibly sexy nose of smoke, toasty wood, no hard edges, beautifully integrated acidity and tannin, multi-dimensional and stunningly aromatic spectacular beer that must be tasted to be believed"

No !. Regular people don't talk such a load of old crap. And those guys in that bar will laugh at it. And so do new vapers. Those who use such terms alienate others because the others won't use them, because they are afraid of sounding stupid to their peers.

It isn't happening, and it isn't going to start. God knows what new users must think when they read some of the members here going on like that.

Regular people aren't going to adopt these terms. So for regular people, more acceptable terms need to be used. Terms like "ripe". Because people understand that. It's a standard regularly used word.

I am not saying that insipid is the wrong word to use, however given the current state of our society you might be hard pressed to to find 20 people that know what it means. It's just not a commonly used word and a lot of US citizens have relatively small vocabularies.
 
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