Thread by @AlexandraErin

LRT: Please, please don't embarrass me by replying to those tweets to explain what you think the definition of those words is or should be, or what problems you have with them.

Here's the thing: a lot of people have a chosen/accepted version of bisexual that does a very specific dance to wank the working definition around to the point that there's a reference to "two" in it.

But I don't care. It doesn't need "two" in it. Why does it need "two" in it?

"Bisexual doesn't need to mean 'two'. Etymology isn't destiny or definition."

"I was told that it does, it's 'genders like mine and genders different from mine'."

And who cares? It still doesn't need to.

Your phone has a camera mode? No, it doesn't, because "camera" is short for "camera obscura", or "dark room". If there's no actual chamber involved then you can't call something a cam...

Just kidding! Etymology is where words come from, not where they live today.

"Okay but if bisexual doesn't implicitly mean 'two' then how do we define it in a way that makes it explicitly distinct from pansexual?"

I'll do you one better: WHY do we define it in a way that makes it explicitly distinct from pansexual? Who cares?

It's not that the words "bisexual" and "pansexual" don't mean anything, it's that meaning isn't what you think it is.

And note I didn't say the meanings of those words aren't what you think they are; I said meaning ITSELF isn't what you think it is.

Tens of thousands of years of linguistic evolution has not occurred by people settling on a definition for a word so they know how to use it; outside of constructed languages, people start using a word, and eventually someone tries to pin down a definition, summing up its usage.

Muting this thread and once again requesting Twitter give us a default setting for allowing replies so I can turn off replies from strangers by default.

Absolutely. There's tremendous value in this, in exactly the same way that there's value to mice in tying a bell to the cat so they know it will be around. How would you get people to agree on such definitions as standard, and would it be worth the effort?

https://twitter.com/penwing/status/1402352479573098497

My point here is not that bisexual and pansexual should be treated as 100% redundant and interchangeable, nor that there's no use in contrasting them in some way.

I identify as bisexual and I don't identify as pansexual. I can tell you what those words mean *to me* and -- to a very small extent -- why bisexual resonates with me and pansexual doesn't.

But none of that matters outside my head.

Outside my head, the only justification I need is data_rebuking_pulaski_dot_jpeg: the difference between bisexual and pansexual, as it relates to which one I identify with, is that one is the thing I am, and the other is not.

"But that's circular!"

Welcome to words. I told you "meaning" doesn't mean what you think it does. There is no categorical definition of parameters for sandwich that can't be improved by tagging "and is a sandwich" on the end.

Or rather, "and/or is a sandwich".

As in, a sandwich is any arrangement of food toppings in between bread that is a sandwich, or else any other food that is also a sandwich.

This is why so many dictionary definitions include heavily qualified word like "usually" or "primarily".

For example: if we define "sandwich" as "A dish that usually takes the form of thin slices of food, spreads, or condiments between two pieces of bread."...

...we are not taking a position on whether or not hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, open-faced sandwiches, or pizzas are sandwiches, nor asserting you can make anything into a sandwich by arranging it to a formula.

Such a definition is functionally useless for definitively dividing the universe into two piles, labeled "sandwich" and "not sandwich"... but that's not what definitions are for.

Ultimately classifying something as a sandwich or not depends on having the cultural knowledge of *what things are sandwiches*, not the academic knowledge of *what 'sandwich' means*, and that knowledge will differ regionally and even familially.

This right here. "Sandwichness is not a quality arrived at via application of a test."

Definitions of words are not hypotheses for falsifying inherent thinginess or programmatical instructions for arriving at thinginess.

https://twitter.com/Cybren/status/1402355060500279296

I'm fine with saying my personal definition for bisexual is someone attracted to several genders, but like the definition of sandwich only applies to things that are sandwiches, it only applies to people who are bisexual.

Circular? Again, welcome to words.