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submitted 2 months ago by over_clox@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

Like, in real life, execute doesn't mean to start, it means to stop...

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[-] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/execute

"Execute" primarily means "carry out", not "kill". The latter definition is an adaption from the person designated to carry out the act of killing people for violating the law, which presumably at one point was done directly by the hereditary executive.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world -2 points 2 months ago

So, if there was any actual consistency to the English language, giving birth would mean the same as executing a new person..?

[-] WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 7 points 2 months ago

It used to be both definitions before modern morals and medical practices.

[-] paequ2@lemmy.today 21 points 2 months ago

execute doesn’t mean to start, it means to stop…

No?

First Known Use 14th century, in the meaning "to carry (something) out fully : to put (something) completely into effect"

[-] Drbreen@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago

You ever heard the phrase: "Worked well in theory not execution"?

[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The original usage was to carry out (a command). In that original sense it was the sentence, rather than the prisoner, who was executed; but the meaning got transferred over time.

[-] Drbreen@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

Poorly executed doesn't mean they had to slowly hack through someone's head because the guillotine was blunt lol

[-] kbal@fedia.io 7 points 2 months ago

In earlier days of computing people first became accustomed to computers "executing" the "instructions" they'd been programmed with. By the time anything resembling today's software executables came along that was the established word for the thing computers did.

[-] CapnClenchJaw@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

The first definition of 'execute' on Merrium Webster is this:

To put into effect; carry out.

Which seems very in keeping with running a software command.

[-] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 months ago

Got to consider context. Whatever you do, do not look up the definition of "set", or "run".

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I couldn't help myself, and now I can't figure out how numbers play volleyball and why applications need to jog.

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago

Transitive verb

  1. To put into effect; carry out.
  2. To perform; do: synonym: perform.
[-] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Wiktionary

  1. (transitivecomputing) To start, launch or run

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world -3 points 2 months ago

So to execute a program is to start as execute a human is to...? 🤔

[-] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Even if you don't accept the transference of a meaning from a euphemism to its own verb, you're surely not confused by other verbs that have multiple meanings.

When I "order" a hamburger, I'm not telling it to do anything.

Some words even mean the opposite of themselves sometimes.

It is what it is.

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

I ordered my last hamburger to stop choking me.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

When it comes to word salads, I tent to tell everyone the same thing...

"I have the right to wipe my ass with a pinecone, but that doesn't mean its the right thing to do."

[-] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Can you try that again? I have no idea what you're trying to say.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world -2 points 2 months ago

I don't know any other way to say that, perhaps read over my quote a few times and think about it a bit.. 🤷

💩🍍

[-] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Oh, I get it. Reading comprehension issue on your end.

Let me slow it down for you, champ, and then I'm out of this conversation, since you decided to turn dick about it.

YOU NO GET BIG CONFUSE WHEN OTHER WORD MEAN TWO THING.

ORDER MEAN TELL SOMEONE DO SOMETHING, AND ALSO REQUEST BUY SOMETHING!

CONTRONYM LIKE SANCTION MEAN APPROVE AND DISAPPROVE AT SAME TIME!

Hope that helped. Respond if you want, but you're talking to yourself from here on out, buddy.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

NO HABLA JIBBERISH!

Haha, have a good day mah dude 👍

[-] original_reader@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago
[-] spittingimage@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Is to carry out a death sentence.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago
[-] A_A@lemmy.world -5 points 2 months ago

You have to understand the impact of euphemism, hypocrisy and modesty to language.

Example : at one point it was seen as obscene to talk about copulation, coit and fornication. So, for the houses where the king approved fornication, they simply created a modest acronym F.U.C.K. (short for : Fornication Under King's Consent) that later became itself seen as (of course) obscene.
Similarly at one point, long ago in history, it was seen as rude to tell a guard// servant// soldier to kill someone else and the euphemism chosen at the time was to say "execute" meaning "carry on" without saying what was to be carried on.
This word "execution" is being increasingly seen with that later "capital punishment" meaning ... this might be telling something of our preoccupations and/or obsessions.

[-] spittingimage@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Example : at one point it was seen as obscene to talk about copulation, coit and fornication. So, for the houses where the king approved fornication, they simply created a modest acronym F.U.C.K. (short for : Fornication Under King’s Consent) that later became itself seen as (of course) obscene.

I believe that theory has been debunked and 'fuck' is from low German, meaning 'to strike'.

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 2 months ago

Next you'll tell me "kangaroo" isn't an aboriginal word for "I don't understand."

[-] A_A@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Maybe you are right about the origin of fuck. Yet, I do believe language tend to be modified over time in the way I (tried to) described above.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Yeah that acronym for fuck has no basis in any historical record

this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
5 points (57.1% liked)

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