@hipsterelectron

jonny (good kind)

@hipsterelectron
@aud
Whats the deal with numeracy in the word "ex." /ks/ doesnt really have the word ending /s/ problems that makes like "ess's" hard to say. Whenever else you say "my {singular noun}" it refers to a singular referent, or an abstract but still singular collection. but for some reason at least in my English region I most commonly hear "my ex" to mean "any one of my exes" instead of using "an ex" or the awkward "one of my ex's" what other words have that one among multiple quality?

If im referring to something one of my friends said, I say it like that. If I say "my friend said" I feel the need to particularize it - "my friend said once." or else have some reason to be referring to one person in particular - someone tells you a story, and "that happened to my friend too" because what you mean is "the only friend that had that happen to and I will shortly qualify further, eg. If they told me about or I saw them recently..."

Is it a linguistic imprint by monogamy or something? You go hang out with multiple friends at a time, but because you're supposed to only have one recent ex at a time, rather than breaking up with a group or god forbid vice versa, there is always "the most recent ex of mine" as a default where friends there is no ordinality that is obvious

jonny (good kind)

@hipsterelectron
@aud
Also it could just be thats an only me pattern of phrasing and everyone else says it a different way and I have invented my own vocabulary mythology

Asta [AMP]

@[email protected] @[email protected] I definitely say “my ex”; I usually do this when I am specifically trying to not give extra information though, interestingly enough. Sometimes I will differentiate if context requires it but usually I’ll just leave it vague as to which one I am referring to.

So I feel like I’m specifically leaning in to the property it has, which, I hadn’t thought about before.

jonny (good kind)

@aud
@hipsterelectron
I have the same privacy instinct there too, like you know too much about them that you dont know what anyone else doesnt know so you have no scale for discretion and default to 0

Asta [AMP]

@[email protected] @[email protected] ooooh. I hadn’t considered that before as a potential reason; I usually assumed that it was just about my privacy and not wanting to get into details, but in truth, you’re right; I could certainly name them or talk about the context (date, place, etc) but I just leave it all vague because I don’t want anyone to know who I’m talking about, not really. It’s as much for my protection as it is theirs; I could say things that make an ex look very bad, for instance, and while I may or may not be justified in doing so (look! I’m doing the discretion RIGHT NOW!), I don’t want anything to come of it; I’m just telling an anecdote and don’t want anyone to go on a lil witch hunt.

interestingly enough, now that I think about it, I may have that instinct specifically because my ex would take offhand comments like that and would literally stalk people based on if. hah.