alt Hacker NewsWe Dutch solve this problem by having a single word for "poison", "venom and "toxin"¹. Everybody still knows what you mean and nobody gets to be pedantic.
¹ and "badly compressed looping animation"
Replies
OptionOfT • yesterday at 2:23 AM
Vergif.
I don't know how you get from 'ver' to badly compressed.
(And I'm a native Flemish speaker, but living in the USA for 8+ years, so I barely, if ever speak it).
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samlinnfer • yesterday at 1:43 AM
Same in Chinese (毒). But it is a better solution just not to give pedants the time of the day.
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gambiting • yesterday at 12:21 AM
Same in Polish. You'd just call both of these "trucizna".
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Same in Portuguese, veneno.
Although there are plenty of other opportunities for pedantry, especially when we take regionalisms, and other Portuguese speaking countries into account.