• @AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    6
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Also: “a ruler in an oligarchy” isn’t exactly a helpful definition. “Hmm, yes. This floor is made out of floor.”

    Actually, dictionaries do this all the damn time. They always use the business end of a word in the definition of said word, without actually explaining what it means.

    • Vegafjord eo
      link
      fedilink
      12 years ago

      Often times dictionaries doesnt define every word. Instead they use recursive definitions. So since they mention, oligarchy, Id look that up in the next step.

    • Ephera
      link
      fedilink
      02 years ago

      I guess, the number of descriptions they would have to write would explode exponentially, if they didn’t do that.

      But yeah, really annoys me, too. When I write a definition I avoid similar words, even if I assume everyone knows that word, because it provides more information and is clearer when I use a synonym instead.
      And dictionaries, whose only job is to provide definitions, frequently settle for these shitty definitions.

      • @AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        -1
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Like, why not just say “ruler in an oligarchy” and then in the next sentence, actually explain what an oligarchy is?

        If I’m searching up oligarch, I’m probably not confused on the suffixes, I don’t know what the first part of the word means.

  • @Aarkon@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    32 years ago

    Though you have to admit that there actually is a difference in the way business and politics are entwined in Russia and in “the West”.

  • @southerntofu@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    22 years ago

    I think the US translation you’re looking for is robber baron not “entrepeneur”… but then the stereotypical meme about all US people being 100% pro-capitalism wouldn’t work :s

    • Halce
      link
      fedilink
      12 years ago

      The problem is, although the term exists in English, it’s never used in popular discourse, unlike oligarch.