Reply #29: Well, you are correct...I haven't looked them up [View All]

[TallahasseeGrannie]

I was just going with the definitions as commonly used. I will get to dict.online.

I do think you can be makeshift, improvised and VERY organized, as in the Viet Cong.

I can certainly see how you would be a wordsmith, given your vocation (especially) and your avocation.

I think your statement "I've been on the "Use The Right Words, Dammit" bandwagon" gave me the impression there are very specific words you think we should all use.

However, I think that arguing the meaning of words is really a positive way to frame one's position, so I'm okay with that.

ADDENDUM: I'm back from my trip to the dictionary. Here's what I found for "improvised."
To invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation.

To play or sing (music) extemporaneously, especially by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies in accordance with a set progression of chords.

To make or provide from available materials: improvised a dinner from what I found in the refrigerator.



Now, I think the third definition, making something from available materials is what I had in mind. Because with the occupation they can't really go purchase the ordinances legally, or the materials, so wouldn't they use what they could come up with? That said, you know what? I have no idea, really, how they do it!


and here if "makeshift."
n.
A temporary or expedient substitute for something else.

adj.
Suitable as a temporary or expedient substitute: used a rock as a makeshift hammer.



I guess I'd put forth the same argument for makeshift as above.

Perhaps the problem is in the way we view these words. I am under the impression you feel the use of them paints the insurgents as novices, ineffectual, etc. But I see the words as hearkening back to concepts like the American Revolution when we used what was at hand. (No, freepers, I'm not calling the insurgents patriots so don't bother to copy this thread, it isn't my point.)