Eldraeic Phrase of the Day: Tramorán an-Enlét

[avatar (Alistair Young)]

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@Michael A Hutson <mikehutson@q.com> on 2018-10-23 15:03:00 wrote

Or any number of fairy tales where someone is given a magic gift with the stern warning NOT to misuse it; and of course they (or someone they know) misuses it.

@Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2018-10-23 15:38:48 wrote

Remember, though, it only counts if it’s intentional.

@R.C. <richardjacole84@hotmail.com> on 2018-10-23 15:28:12 wrote

Presumably civilization-uplift consultants like Worlds’ Rim Development could help mitigate situations like the example given, assuming the leaders of those planetary societies are far-sighted enough to hire them.

@specialist290 <carpentereli@outlook.com> on 2018-10-23 16:10:36 wrote

So would, say, (knowingly) buying a free drink for a recovering alcoholic to get them liquored up for a deal you know they wouldn’t take sober count in the small scale?

(I’m guessing this also counts as the long-delayed answer to my “white elephant” query from ages ago.)

@Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2018-10-24 02:03:48 wrote

One could debate that, depending on where you sit on the ability of recovering alcoholics to use a drink in a wise and beneficial way, but it’s not really in the spirit of the concept.

Also, that’s not a white elephant - a thing of great cost of ownership far exceeding its actual usefulness. You want tratracíör traäesfrú eshanat (“spun-sugar palace”).

@Specialist290 <carpentereli@outlook.com> on 2018-10-24 18:19:06 wrote

I was thinking more along the connotation of “a gift given with the intent of ruining the recipient.”

@Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2018-10-24 18:24:37 wrote

Well, it’s not that either, strictly speaking, because this is a gift given to let the recipient ruin themselves through sufficient unwisdom. If it’s not possible for the recipient to act wisely with it and for this (positive change on the part of the recipient) to satisfy you as an alternative outcome, it’s not a tramorán an-enlét.

@Specialist290 <carpentereli@outlook.com> on 2018-10-24 19:38:08 wrote

I do want to note that the two are not as mutually exclusive as you may be implying – but since the explanation of that relies on a little of the nitpickery you have professed to dislike, I’ll forbear from doing so except by express request.