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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PsyzhranV2" data-source="post: 8204444" data-attributes="member: 7015332">I don't give a rat's ass what it originally meant and how it was used in context in Classical Latin. In modern English, it's used to describe an argument that attacks the opponent's character while ignoring the actual content of their argument. Newsflash: words can and do change meaning over time, as they enter different contexts, and if they get poached by other languages. To try and dismiss the usage of a word by dissecting the etymology of its original language is either not understanding linguistics or just being a total pedant.Non-English example: テンション is a Japanese word meaning excitement or hype. In a sentence: 「今日、テンションが高いんだけど、どうしたの？」Translates to "You seem pretty excited today. Whats going on?"Except that テンション is literally just the English word "tension" transliterated into katakana. Tension in English can be used to describe a heightened emotional state, but in English it usually has a much more negative connotation. Alternatively, it can mean "The condition of being held in a state between two or more <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/forces" target="_blank">forces</a>, which are acting in <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/opposition" target="_blank">opposition</a> to each other", or "Force transmitted through a rope, string, cable, or similar object." Not how テンション is used in Japanese at all; the word itself was borrowed from English but its meaning and context changed.Just one example. There's many more examples, usually either from English borrowing words wholesale from another language, or vice versa; and in both scenarios sometimes the meanings of the word are different between the original language and the language that borrowed it.</blockquote>

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