On 2019-12-09 07:00, Elizabeth Mattijsen wrote: >> For some odd reason, some folks thought I was calling >> him an actual dog (canine). Would you have been >> similarly offended if I had called him a "gatekeeper"? > If you call someone a dog I did not. It is a figure of speech. Please stop twisting my words. figure of speech: https://www.wordnik.com/words/figure%20of%20speech noun: An expression that uses language in a nonliteral way, such as a metaphor or synecdoche, or in a structured or unusual way, such as anaphora or chiasmus, or that employs sounds, such as alliteration or assonance, to achieve a rhetorical effect. noun: idiomatic A word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. noun: language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense For those of your that do not love dogs, as we Yanks do, when JJ said if he was a dog, he'd be a "Peanutbutter Lab", he just describes himself as a sweet and loving spirit, not a actual dog. That is why I teased him back about being a Junkyard dog (look it up). Again, neither one of us were callign anyone an actual dog. Both of us were using Figures of Speech. And now that you know I was not insulting him (believe me, if I tented to, you would know it), would you please desist in accusing me of doing such? >> Is English your first language? > No, is it yours? Yes, and I should remember that when writing to this group. Not everyone understands Yanks figures of speech. And not everyone first language is American English. Thank you for your forbearance (I did not just call you a bear). -TThread Previous | Thread Next