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Oh hey I almost missed your reply. So yes, correct, the etymology of the words steal and theft, in addition to accepted common usage and modern dictionaries, all unanimously support the notion that an idea can be “stolen”, in direct contradiction to @stcg’s claim 5 comments up. You initially made an incorrect assumption that the word or phrase has to imply that you’re depriving someone of their idea, but that’s not what the definition nor the etymology nor the current usage of the word steal implies. Perhaps that’s the same assumption that @stcg was making, but it’s a bit of a straw man because there is a different valid definition of steal in common usage that does not insist that the thing stolen is also taken away from someone, nor that it’s even “theft” in any legal sense at all. You may have temporariliy forgotten about poetic usage, such as “she stole my heart.” That common usage is hundreds or thousands of years old and obviously doesn’t refer to depriving me of my actual organs. It’s important to remember that etymology is a tool to understand history, and is not the arbiter of word meaning. In fact, it’s extremely common for the etymological historical roots of words to have very different meanings from what they are now, and to have meanings that are no longer accepted or correct. Often with English, word roots come from different languages, and the etymology has little bearing on today’s usage or accepted dictionary definitions. The arbiter of word meaning is common usage, period. Language is not prescriptive, not defined by dictionaries or etymologies, those are just tools to help us document common usage over time. Language is defined by how it’s used, and when a lot of people say “he stole my idea”, it necessarily becomes correct usage, regardless of what the historical documents say about the word steal. This is one of the most fun aspects of language, but easily misunderstood and often forgotten, especially in forum discussions. > So respectfully, I disagree with you on this topic, the way contracts and copyrights are being used is harming our society. How on earth did you arrive at the idea that I said anything at all about copyrights or contracts in this thread? What exactly are you disagreeing with?? I’m so confused by this. It is a wild and completely non-sequitur detour from my perspective. |