Humpty Dumptyism
See also: Humpty-Dumptyism
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom the fictional character Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking-Glass, who, when asked what he meant by "glory", replies "I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'". Alice protests that this isn't the meaning of "glory" and Humpty Dumpty replies "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
editHumpty Dumptyism (uncountable)
- (idiomatic) The practice of insisting that a word means whatever one wishes it to.
- 2003, J. A. Keats, Norman Cliff, Ordinal Measurement in the Behavioral Sciences, page 31:
- "It seems to be saying one or both of two things. One is that any score that comes out of any procedure that purports to measure intelligence is a value of the scale, intelligence. If so, this would be Humpty Dumptyism."
References
edit- Humptydumptyism on the Consumerium Development Wiki.