Talk:couch potato

Light discussion from RfD

I don't really want this deleted, but in light of http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4108964.stm it may need a vote of confidence from Wiktionarians -- particularly ones in the UK. :-) Eclecticology 03:08, 2005 Jun 21 (UTC)

• I almost missed your smiley ":-)" the first time I read it. Whew. --Connel MacKenzie 03:14, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
  • Haha. Oh, political correctness and lobby groups, you'll be the death of the language. These damn young'uns are ruining the language, and that's got to be true, they've been saying that for centuries. --Wytukaze 16:31, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• My reaction is similar to the OED chief editor's quoted reaction. This is an idiom. Even were it to cease to be an idiom in the future as a result of the campaign, it would have to remain included so that historical uses of the idiom could be understood using dictionaries. Uncle G 27 June 2005 18:05 (UTC)
  • delete It's a common misunderstanding that dictionaries exist for people to look up words they don't know. In fact, dictionaries exist to record proper words. Including an improper term like this only lends it legitimacy. Believe me, everyone will be better off if we pretend it doesn't exist. -dmh June 27, 2005 18:34 (UTC)

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Hello, in french

we simply call a person leading a vegetative existence "un légume" (" a vegetable") , hence the sentence "se légumiser devant la TV" . If in front of a TV , it can also be "une endive" ( Cichonium entybus , witloof) from it's skin pallor ( & it would be in spanish "blanco como flor de yucca" )... If it is a lasting coma, it'll be also "une plante verte" ("a green plant in a pot") . T.y. Arapaima 10:01, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll add some entries for these. --Rising Sun talk? contributions 10:08, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

légumiser now added. Is it OK? judging by the google hits, it doesn't look to be reflexive. --Rising Sun talk? contributions 10:14, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks a lot , Rising Sun. "Esprit de l'escalier" ("staircase bottom remembrance") : we have also "s'avachir devant la TV" . BTW, I thought "s'avachir" came from our "vache" (cow) by analogy with a placidly ruminating, flat laying, low IQ animal, (cf also analogy with "to cow" & "to cower" ?) , but my everyday french dico. ("Le petit Larousse 2008") says (p. 83) that it comes "from the francique "waikjan" : to soften. Good to have learnt something in the morning, is not it ? PS & what is "reflexive" ? You see, I'm rather the empirical kind of guy... T.y. Arapaima 08:25, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Reflexive means pronominal - the French verbs which take se (s'habituer, se rappeler etc.). From a little Google search, I'm not sure if légumiser is normally in the form "je me légumise" or just "je légumise". --Rising Sun talk? contributions 14:18, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Alcohol

Has alcohol anything to do with the definition? See e.g. Merriam-Webster. Njardarlogar 09:11, 23 March 2011 (UTC)