These are not synonyms (why should we care?)

Definitions of 'ignorant'; take your pick:

tinyurl.com/j4t3fgd

I wouldn't use it in a derogatory sense when describing people who lack knowledge. It's a factual description. People can't help being ignorant. But I can't quite understand why it is thought better to let them go on being ignorant rather than to enlighten them.

I'd never heard it being used in the sense of 'bad mannered' until I moved to Yorkshire from Essex. It puzzled me a great deal at first until I realised it was probably a shortened version of 'ignorant of good manners'.

MaizieD I see that thatbags has changed to fatbags in one of your posts..... I had to laugh.

I'm ignorant about a lot of things. Even polymaths are ignorant about some things.

Whenever i see the term "ignorant" used here, it comes across to me as a derogatory remark, as that it is what I hear it used as in the main. I am cautious about posting on these threads for fear of making a fool of myself.

Would you say the way I used the word ignorant of myself was a derogatory way, gand? Or the way I used it of polymaths?

In any case, I didn't. I used it straightforwardly as meaning not knowing something or some things. There is nothing to be ashamed of in not knowing something, including words like mendacity and audacity. Those are not everyday words in most people's lives. Of course plenty of people won't know them, or might have come across them but not fully understand their meaning, and so might use them wrongly.

If you've never come across a word, you are ignorant of it. If you've never come across a certain wild animal, you are ignorant about that. If you've never heard of a certain artist, you are ignorant about that artist. Ignorance is not always derogatory. Most of it is simply not knowing. We are all ignorant to some extent.

If someone uses ignorant as an insult, they are just being a git.

I am not looking for an argument, simply stating the way the word comes over to me.

I'm not arguing with your perception of the word. I agree it can be, and sometimes is, used like that. I'm just interested to know if you think I used it derogatively on this thread?

Well, I must be really old, as must the rest of the local population, as the local paper has an article where we could find out whether our decendents were fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain

Hooray, Maizie D., I agree with you wholeheartedly! It's a question of using words with care and discrimination. We can easily accommodate new words, and even changes to old words where there is justification for them - such as 'wireless' and 'video' - and still choose the right word or expression to say exactly what we mean.

Agreed vintage and maizie, if we are well-educated/well-read. Not everyone is. A lot of word misuse is down to ignorance, as maizie said, i.e. not knowing

Not knowing (that is, ignorance) cannot always be blamed on the person who is ignorant.

Thanks for the explanation. Feel much better now that I know I am not ignorant, just poorly educated.

BUT, it's not my fault, so it's OK (smile)

We're all poorly educated on some (probably a lot of) subjects, gand.

Even people who are experts in their field are ignorant (don't know much) in other fields.

However, if you are determined to think ignorance is always to be taken as slightly insulting, then I suppose I'm wasting my time trying to reassure you. Hey ho.

My whole argument has been in defence of people using the wrong word or phrase, not an attack. The attacks came from elsewhere. I have been suggesting that such attacks can be unreasonable and unfair.

Some more words which are often confused: 'compliment' and 'complement', and of course 'alternative' and 'alternate'. An advert boasted 'complimentary mineral water' on cruises - does it tell you how wonderful you are? What's wrong with 'mineral water included'??
And rather off-topic - the over-use of 'cutting-edge'. Who wants a 'cutting-edge bathroom'? That was from an estate agent's blurb. It sounds thoroughly dangerous!! Incidentally, that house was on the market for a long time, so perhaps other people agreed with me!!
Rant over.

I don't have a problem with "cutting edge" I know exactly what they mean.

Another gripe: confusing "flaunt" and "flout".

One I'm not sure of is "foment" and "ferment". Not that I've ever used them!

Something else: why do we say tonne these days? What's wrong with ton? Am I missing something?

At school we learnt "ton" for imperial and "tonne" for metric. I've always used them like that since.

As with "programme" for something like a TV programme or a concert, theatre or conference, and "program" for a computer program.

Thanks jacky. Question: if 20 cwt = a ton, how is a tonne made up?.

1 tonne = 1000 kg (approx 2,204.6 lb rather than the 2240 lb in an imperial ton)

Hallo, GandTea, I do know what is meant by 'cutting edge', used figuratively - it's just that the literal meaning makes the phrase absurd when applied to bathrooms. Incidentally, regarding 'tonnes' and 'tons' - we are in rather a mess with the metric and imperial systems. Perhaps 'tons' is acceptable if the amount isn't precise and we're not talking about EU usage - say 'tons of gravel' or '600 tonnes of wheat.' Am not sure about this.

And sending "tons of love" to the DGC !

Images of that "nice Alan Titchmarsh" , black masses or sacrilege do not sit happily together, so when I read in the Sunday Telegraph's "Living" section of the desecration of St Mary-at-Lambeth in the early 70's I was understandably surprised.
On reflection, I sincerely hope the otherwise reverent and respectful AT meant deconsecrated