• CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Traditionally yes. It has taken on new meaning over time. I’ve had many conversations with all sorts of people high and low where the double-entendre is clear if not explicit.

    Edit: I should add that its within the context of corporate, civil and military disaster management planning. The public remains largely unaware, ignorant while many insiders throughout various institutions know how bad and how quickly things can get. Those who know often want to make their moves, before the public catches on, therefore like to muddy the message.

    Classic example are investors talking their book. By the time you read about an opportunity in the G&M, FT etc, the insiders have already made the trades and the public is now their exit strategy.

    In the UK, in the context of climate change, look up LifeBoat Ethics. You’ll see where this new usage of an old idiom is going.

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      8 hours ago

      I’m still absorbing literally to mean figuratively and continue to use adverbial forms. Jonathan Swift wrote a story about me.

        • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 hours ago

          That, too, but I was thinking of a story about a country where people live a thousand years and nobody can understand the seniors because their language is aniquated and they can’t understand younger generations.