/lit/ - Literature

>>17670870
Who're you referring to with this shitty post?

The Greeks thought OP is a fag.

>>17670870
>subsisted
You ought to learn what words mean before you use them, it's less embarrassing than learning afterward.

>>17670870
>subsisted

>>17670909
"To continually exist"

>>17670870
based

>>17670975
It’s not the right word dude

>>17670909
>>17670912
words have the meaning we assigned them. by giving it it's own meaning, OP is forcing you to accept his definition of subsisted. he is essentially subjugating your tight little bitch brain with his BLC (big linguistic cock)
OP does not used the definitions other men have assigned to the language because he is a TRUE ALPHA MALE.
this is the final redpill of linguistics

>>17672815
not him but what is the right word

Tfw haven’t read the greeks

>>17673144
Flourish I guess. Subsist means to break even. Barely survive. It’s a word you use in business and farming

>>17674326
Thanks

>>17674326
w0t
Subsist primarily means continue existing.

>>17670870
Even if your right, you're wrong

>>17674700
no, that's what the word exist is for.
he's right, that's why the 'sub' prefix is used esl-san

>>17670909
imagine the sight of this guy's shriveled little raisen penis

>>17672909
Then why wouldn't he understand that the Greeks is just a general term?

>>17674700
It's not "wrong" but it's not right.

>>17674863
to subsist means to continue existing through time

>>17674908
yes you fucking retard but it has a negative connotation because of the prefix. "Survive" also means to exist through time, so does 'live', but if someone uses the word 'survive' instead of 'live', then you can assume that there was some difficulty because survival implies an amount of struggle. Similarly, 'subsist' implies a meager existence because of the 'sub' prefix which connotes lesserness. To imply this connotation is literally why the word exists in the first place, otherwise you'd just use the word 'exist'. dweeb bitch

>>17670870
Why can't autists understand turns of phrase?

>>17674945
epic fail
I exist -> I exist right now, in the present
I subsist --> I continue existing through time

>>17672909
based

>>17675001
you just made this up right now with no basis in reality whatsoever, feel free to source your claims tho big boy

>>17675001
what the fuck am i reading lmao
okay so what about persist? am i persisting in or out of time bro lol

>>17675001
Like I said, it's not technically wrong to use subsist here, but it's not common usage of the word, and after all, language is use. That anon is giving you a free English lesson.

>>17670879
Damn... OP must be pretty gay if the greeks think this

>>17670870
>NOOOOOOOOOOO you used a word wrong
what is this bizarre derailment? are you guys fucking retarded?

>>17675097
embrace the chaos

>>17675097
>someone makes mistake
>someone corrects mistake
>someone disagrees
UHM WTF THIS IS SO BIZARRE LOL
glassyeyed fishhead motherfucker

Subsist means "exist dependent on something else". It's quite simple. e.g. a person subsists on food, without food they would die and cease to exist

you should all feel bad for this thread

>>17675001
esl retard kys

>>17674831
even if my right what?

>>17672909
The fact that you had to spell out what BLC means, even though it was perfectly clear from the context, means you yourself have a SLC

>>17674890
It’s a weak synonym v strong synonym issue: while technically they may have subsisted, this conveys the hardship of life where it is unnecessary. Even flourish is a bit much— I’d just say “lived” it’s not a complicated concept, no need to make it one

>>17670870
The Greeks is a turn of phrase in academic circles used to refer to a period and group in philosophy. Like many words, it is defined by regular and public usage, context. It's okay OP, you'll learn about context more when you read all the way up to post-modernism. You are studying philosophy, right OP? You're not some kind of retard who just reads books and pretends to understand them despite not reading the other books too which they're responding to? Right?

>>17675001
>>17674908
>>17674700
>>17673144
It's like you have zero concept of connotation. It's very troubling.

Its la greaca or der greich get ur genders together fuckwit

Ask me how I know you type words "x" in to Google, add synonym after and find a more pretentious substitute among the results.

>>17675044
I agree that OP was wrong to use the word in this specific context, but the fact that neither you or 'him' are willing to concede that the primary meaning of subsist means continue to exist only serves to highlight your illiteracy.

>>17675009
just open a dictionary you fucking idiot

>>17678988
>calling someone else illiterate
Oh no

>>17678516
that doesn't even make sense. x isn't a word. it's a letter.

>>17679010
Since you didn't even attempt to deny what I said I assume you finally opened a dictionary and read what the primary meaning of subsist is. That wasn't so hard, was it?

>>17675034
you persist in being illiterate

>>17679030
Listen, I’m pretty sure you’re ESL, since no native English speaker would ever be confused about when and why to use the word subsist. We have already told you. Why not just say “thanks for the English lesson”? Imagine if I tried to tell you what the words in your language mean, and after you and others corrected me, I kept insisting I knew better about your language. Don’t you think you’d be nonplussed?

>>17679083
he's right. your preference in word choice doesn't make him wrong. seethe.

>>17679083
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/subsist
>subsist
>1. to exist; continue in existence.
You could have saved yourself all that embarrassment by just googling the word

>>17679184
>>17679165
NGMI ESLbros

>>17675001
10/10 bait

>>17679197
he already has.

>>17679235
There’s nothing more I can say. Maybe read the full dictionary definition to get a fuller image of how the word is used. But that’s already been explained ITT. This is terrible hubris on your part. I couldn’t imagine doing this with a language I didn’t speak.

>>17679251
>There’s nothing more I can say.
because you are wrong

>>17675001
ESL retards rise up, if English becomes lingua franca we will turn it into an international pidgin of Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and French, welcome to the Neo-Anglo-Koiné.

>>17674863
>>17678168
>>17679083
>>17679197
ESL, especially on a literature board, is a term of endearment. it basically means the poster in question isn't an anglo, and thus is fully human

>>17679165
It’s not about preference, it’s about conveying a clear message. If you tell someone “the Greeks subsisted” they will think “the Greeks eked out a living” “the Greeks barely survived”. No one will think “the Greeks continued to exist” because we have better and more appropriate words to say that. You can’t just look up one section of a dictionary definition and say “yup that’s what it means, all the time”. Language is use and I’m telling you you’re using the word wrong. It’s not dictionary-wrong, it’s communication-wrong. It betrays the message you are attempting to convey.

>>17679376
Additionally you can’t just find a synonym in the thesaurus and substitute any of them. The reason why English has so many words is because there is a specific word for many different situations. Subsist has specific uses and this is not one of them. You want to tell someone the Greeks spread wide their culture and colonies and you describe it with the word “subsist”? See me after class

>>17679376
>If you tell someone “the Greeks subsisted” they will think “the Greeks eked out a living”
that's what you would think. stop projecting.

>>17679451
Let me put it this way: if subsist were the correct word, this thread never would have been derailed. And no, I didn’t begin the derailment. It was always going to come.

>>17679477
the thread derailed because people wanted to force their preferences. no one misunderstood the op.

>>17679477
the thread was derailed by pedantic autism
>It was always going to come.
what are you, a fucking fortune teller? pseud pseud pseud pseud pseud

>>17679498
The thread was derailed because there are many pedantic native English speakers on this board. I was the third one to correct Op. if I had been earlier I’d have been the second, if I had been later I’d be the fourth. Use the proper word next time and it won’t happen, I guarantee it.

people who think how other people think aren't thinking

>>17672909
Based

>>17679555
>The thread was derailed because there are many pedantic native English speakers on this board.
then the pedants are the ones to blame and not op.

>>17679652
It’s unavoidable, this is 4chan. Let this be a lesson. I’ve never had this happen to one of my threads because I’m a native English speaker. Heed my advice and your threads will thrive. Or they might subsist..heheheheh

>>17679083
>>17679184
>>17679197
>>17679251
>>17679376
OP here. No, I did not look up 'subsist' in a thesaurus. It came to me because the phrase 'self-subsistent' came to my mind first , which to me was synonymous with 'self-existing'. It also sounds nice because of alliteration. The OED has multiple entries which mean more or less 'to continually exist.' I'll give a few examples.
1. "The murders of the inquisition subsisted for centuries'
2. 'The custom of eating their prisoners of war still subsists in the central parts of the island of Celebes.'
3. 'The term for which copyright shall lsubsist shall... be the life of the author and a period of fifty years after his death.'
4. "The best possibme understandj g seems to have subsisted between them."
5. "Matter abstractly considered cannot have subsisted eternally."
6. "So long as braine and heart have facultie by nature to subsist."
7. "The souls of men are capable of subsisting after death."
8. "His regard for her... has subsisted through all the knowledge of fear Marianne's unhappy prepossession for that worthless young man!"
9. "Which charter subsists to this day and is called Magna Charta."
10. "The central arch.. yet subsists"

So, there are generally three meanings of the word "subsist": to maintain or provide sustenance for someone, to consist or lie in some specified thing, circumstance or fact, and... wait for it... to continually exist. The last meaning is used by authors such as Shakespeare, Shelley, Stillingfleet, Lord Chesterfield, Austen, and Gladstone.

>but what about the 'sub' prefix?
It's already present in the Latin verb from which it is derived, subsistēre, which means to stand still or firm. Frankly, that does not seem far off from the meaning "to continually exist." Have a good one.

>>17679679
this thread is thriving specifically because he went against the grain. there's no telling how it would have went without it.

>>17675001
sub + sistere
below + stand

It means stand below in the sense of a support (like a column under a roof) and all its metaphorical meaning stem from this notion, so no it doesn't have the meaning you intend, exist comes from the same verb (sisto and sto meaning stand or exist) whereas the ex prefix gives it a more metaphorical meaning - (from) remaining/standing a thing exists

The Latin prefix for some kind of continuous action through time would be per-, so that's why persist (remaining through time) would be the word you probably mean to say

>>17680982
Proven false by usage. It's not an either/or thing. Words can have multiple meanings, y'know?

>>17681128
I consider any English word that has diverted from its literal Latin meaning to be a perversion and therefore being used incorrectly, even if the mistake has PERSISTED for centuries

>>17681184
Lewis and Short take your meaning to be subordinate to the original meaning of 'to stand still, firm.'

>>17670870
>he hasn't read The Ancient City

Yes, I do know how the greeks thought and I speak authoritatively on the matter

>>17681231
Would just depend on the context, it's either in the sense of sub as a strengthening prefix, the 'stand still, stand firm', or in a literal sense of placing something beneath something else, supporting it. I do however concede that OP's meaning of subsist is valid when considering that sub could be used in that sense of a strengthening prefix of standing firm, and hence lasting for a long time, which I hadn't considered

>>17679680
Based Op, those anons are kvetching now and refuse to reply.

>>17681337
>>17681347
It is settled, dear anons.

>>17670870
>from Spain to Syria.
forced bait