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[-] user1234@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 2 years ago

On DS9, they usually used the correct term inertial dampers. Whereas on TNG they couldn't keep the two terms straight.

[-] interolivary@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Ha, I never actually paid attention to that. I think the fact that I'm not a native English speaker could be why "dampener" never sounded weird to me.

Although looks like the Oxford English Dictionary says both have the meaning "thing or person that has a restraining or subduing effect", so I guess they'd both be correct in that sense?

[-] user1234@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 2 years ago

Through idiomatic usage, dampener has taken the same meaning as damper, but as my dynamics professor was fond of saying, one of them terms means to slow motion, the other means to get something wet.

[-] interolivary@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Heh, unfortunately there's no fighting linguistic evolution. I'm a descriptivist so I can happily skip those battles – ie. I think a language is defined by a description of how it's used, compared to prescriptivists who think that eg. grammars and vocabularies prescribe how a language should be used.

[-] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 2 points 2 years ago

The inertial dampeners are only used when someone puts their sonic shower in "wet" mode.

this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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