First, brevity is not your strength.
Second, you argue like a law student.
Third, you have yet to point to a single example outside of your own head that refutes the notion that "Yurp" is a silly word. Subjectivity in the extreme.
In other words, I think you are full of #badword# on this.
But perhaps I am wrong. Why don't we put it to a vote? Get a community sampling from the good ole WHAB. I vote silly. Seriously, I often tune out and quit reading your posts after I see the word, because I think it is juvenile -- like Gayturd and Ole Piss. It detracts from your message and makes you look ridiculous. But maybe it is just me. Let's find out.
on the one hand, you wish to tell me that its a silly and futile effort for me to ignore history and context for words with history and context......to insist on my own definitions as it were. Then you turn 180 degrees and try to impose your interpretation "silly" on a term with almost no history....ie to insist on your own definition though you claim you are not via attempting to link it to things (Green Acres or yawning/belching) which you know it has nothing to do with-talk about a humpty dumpty dance. I've never taken the term "Yank" to be an insult nor do I automatically take other national nicknames to be insults. They are part of the common parlance.....whether that makes a sale with you or not. The EU is a relatively new entity and there are many in Europe who wish to identify themselves as pan-European rather than by their national identities. Its hardly surprising that there were be a new term to describe this entity and the people who comprise it.
You claim you are not deciding anything but the only sources you can cite are sources which have nothing to do with the term in question....ie. as standing for Continental Europeans. Therefore the sources you cite are either completely and utterly irrelevant to the term at hand.....or this is merely an exercise in intellectual dishonesty. You were right however when you said this was somewhat an exercise in subjectivity.....almost all political terms are somewhat subjective so to that extent, I agree.
I certainly did decry the resort to the ad hominem in the public discourse in this country by people who try to resort to this fallacy as a means to discredit others who disagree with them rather than addressing the substance of their arguments. That is not inconsistent with the use of a nickname which I do not consider to be any more silly than other national nicknames....most of which seem to pass without comment or being taken as an insult by the clear majority of people. You labelling it "silly" does not make it so.
Would I use the term "Yurp" when talking with a business associate from Europe? It would depend greatly on how formal the situation and how formal I determined that person to be. If national nicknames seemed appropriate and were used, then yes, I would not hesitate to use it just as I would any other. I have used the term to my recollection with a business associate from the UK while in Europe....so there goes your theory that I would have already told you had I done so.
