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Climate records tumble, leaving Earth in uncharted territory - scientists (www.bbc.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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[–] 33 points 3 years ago (2 children)

This is the second time in a week someone has used "tumble" to mean "occur rapidly" instead of "fall". Is this a new colloquialism or had"tumble" always had a second definition as "occur rapidly"?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    If a condition is worsening (a "fall") "tumble" applies just fine. Indeed, "tumble" is just a way to say "falling rapidly" in this context.

    The reason "tumble" (and its notion of "fall") is applicable is because the situation is worsening. If it was rapidly improving, nobody would say "tumble"; it's not simply that it is occurring rapidly.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    In this case, one could assume tumbling is related to the temperature and not the situation, leading to an observation that the situation is improving. It is a poor choice of words for this headline.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago*

    No, as I realized and clarified in a comment of mine down this thread a bit,

    Climate records tumble,

    Here, "climate records" is the object of the verb "tumble". That is, the thing that is "tumbling" are "climate records".

    I agree it's a poor choice of wording for a headline but it is clear what is doing the tumbling on subsequent reads.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Taking a tumble referring to something that is worsening is another common definition that I've read countless times in reference to something problematically decreasing, I've never heard or read "tumble" used until very recently to describe a situation in which something is rising. Have you?

    "falling rapidly" would make perfect sense in many other situations. "Food storage tumbles, democracy tumbles, winter temperatures tumble", etc. But nothing is falling, all of the temperature records are rising.

    Summer temperatures are so high they tumble?

    This is a genuine grammatical question. I'm not trying to detract from your answer or the article itself.

    I'm just very confused by this usage of the word "tumble" that I've seen at least twice now to refer to rising temperatures.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    But nothing is falling, all of the temperature records are rising.

    I see what you're saying. I had taken the use to mean the situation is tumbling, not the temperatures. But upon a closer reading (of the title specifically) it seems a more reasonable interpretation of the word tumble is:

    Climate records tumble,

    The object of the verb 'tumble' is "climate records". That is, the climate records are tumbling. A tumbling record is one which has fallen over and been surpassed. So what they're saying by using the word "tumble" is: previous climate records have fallen over and been surpassed.

    I do agree it's a weird word choice, but I don't think it's wrong or even playing on a potential uncommon secondary definition. It's not saying temperatures have tumbled, but rather records have tumbled.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Oh. That must be where it's from, the records specifically tumbling. As you say, weird, but not really wrong

    Thank you. I believe the other headline was also talking about the heat. Maybe they were also talking about records.

    It's been tickling my brain for several days now and when I saw the used this way again I was like "Well that's not going away until I get an answer" haha.

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