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The way of the monk
(lemmy.world)
Loosing is almost never the word anyone is looking for.
loosening?
The right word is "losing", one O, not two. They have different meanings
can you not loosen the ties?
That usage is akin to “unleashing” which is almost the opposite of the intended meaning.
Release the hounds!
Loosen ties means to make cords or ties less tight. It's a physical thing. For example, with your shoestrings, you can loosen these ties if they happen to be too tight. You can also lose your shoestrings, meaning you lost them and don't know where they are anymore.
You don't talk about emotional or social ties like that. You can lose social ties though, in the sense of loss. But you don't loose social ties, it doesn't make sense. That's the difference between the two words.
thx
I disagree:
The phrase 'tight-knit community' exists, and is fairly commonly used.
A 'loose-knit community' would have... less direct ties, less overlapping ties between everyone to everyone, would be more... islands of people connected by a few inter-island connections... maybe less frequent interactions between members...
A social network is often mathematically/academically/professional ly described as a bunch of points, clustered, with connections between them.
Even the very word 'network' is etymylogically derived from a net, an interwoven mesh.
You very much can literally loosen or tighten a net, make one that is more pourous or more dense in terms of threads in any given surface area.
Hey there ya go, even Threads is an actual name for a social network.
I think the metaphor or analogy of social networks being described by other terms that literally apply to an actual net or fabric is... actually incredibly common.
... You've never heard a person being described as having 'loose ties to (other person/group)?
Have you never watched any kind of detective show, a 'stop the terrorists' political action thriller?
We're discussing the use of lose and loose in particular, not other words; and in the specific context of the text in this meme. Just because you can think of plenty of examples of social networks that have loose structures (and so can I, and most people) doesn't mean it's okay to use the word any way you feel is right for you.
Or in other words, a sentence can be structurally sound but be invalid in terms of cultural convention and language use. And in such a case, it's still deemed to be grammatically incorrect - whether it's misspelling or misusing of the word.
But you have the right to disagree all you want.
I disagree:
The phrase 'tight-knit community' exists, and is fairly commonly used.
We were not discussing 'tight-knit'
A 'loose-knit community' would have...
Yes, would have. I've never heard the term, perhaps it exists. But it's used as an adjective here, not a verb as in our case. Point irrelevant.
A social network is often mathematically/academically/professionally described as a bunch of points, clustered, with connections between them.
Even the very word 'network' is etymylogically derived from a net, an interwoven mesh.
You very much can literally loosen or tighten a net, make one that is more pourous or more dense in terms of threads in any given surface area.
Hey there ya go, even Threads is an actual name for a social network.
I think the metaphor or analogy of social networks being described by other terms that literally apply to an actual net or fabric is... actually incredibly common.
All this is irrelevant. Of course you can describe loose networks. Or meshes. Or nets. Note loose is an adjective in all of these cases, again. Not the usage we were originally discussing.
... You've never heard a person being described as having 'loose ties to (other person/group)?
Yeah I've heard. Adjective again.
Have you never watched any kind of detective show, a 'stop the terrorists' political action thriller?
Yes, I have. Irrelevant though.
Ok then, if you're unwilling to be just ever so slighlty more flexible with idioms and general examples of the flexibility of loose in English, and a brief overview of the etymology of the evolution of 'loose'...
...let me be more direct and precise:
...
Loose is a verb, in addition to being an adjective.
Loosing is when that verb is formulated into the present tense.
Loosing as a verb has multiple meanings, including:
- Expelling something away from you physically.
The archer is loosing an arrow.
- Letting something escape from you, or move away from you, either temporarily or permanently.
Tom is loosing his dog.
- Unleashing something from within you, outward, often speech or emotions, but it could be something physically tangible.
Shush! Anna is loosing her real feelings on John right now.
- Allowing something to affect the world in a broader sense, scope, or scale.
ChatGPT is loosing upon the world a dark age of widespread illiteracy.
- Making a connection, a binding, a tether, etc, constrain something in a less restrictive manner.
By loosing the knot around the cleat, I am loosing the boat from the dock, but only slightly.
...
I really don't see how it is really that much of a stretch to take some of these uses of 'loosing' as a verb, and see that either one, or multiple simultaneous of these definitions, and interpret the phrase 'loosing my social connections' into something that essentially means... 'letting them slip away'.
I do not really think it is thus 'grammatically incorrect'.
I will give you that usage of loose or loosing as a verb is nowadays fairly uncommon, to the point of possibly being considered archaic...
But then if that is the case, as it is with many words and phrases from 100+ years ago or w/e...
...well then you'd be doing a bit of extra interpretive work anyway, not really that distinct from just being a bit more idiomatically flexible with the range of current meanings of 'loose/loosing.'
...
Perhaps I am simply older than you, and/or have read more older books, watched older visual/audio media where 'loose' is more commonly used as a verb.
Ok sealion. We are gonna use loose as a verb the way you want it, not the way English speakers want it. You win. Go loose your social ties if it makes sense to you
So basically you don't commonly use loose as a verb, I do, and always have, and this makes apparently me a sealion.
Dialects exist within English.
You are evidently not American, as in USAmerican.
I am.
Where I come from, using loose as a verb is fairly common.
Stop being an intolerant ass.
No.
A compelling argument.
If you were talking about neckties, maybe. Loosening social ties doesn't sound natural, at least to me.
Lol, then that's a you problem.
That exact phrase is how it would be used, and has been used, in print, for decades
Loose is also plenty useful. However neither of those are the word "loosing".
So you can reject calls with ease as it's only robocalls for sure.
Does one loose social ties with a catapult? A trebuchet? Are social ties loosed as one would arrows from a bow? Personally I loosen my ties by pulling down on the knot, away from the neck
There's a tension joke in there.
i do both for good measure
"loosing"
He loosed them unto the bowels of hell
Not having any social connections, never have to use Do Not Disturb mode.
Remember: Lose has 1 'O' because it lost the other one.
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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