Comments on: Severely artistic

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:25:17 +0000

Note that Hadfield is from Canada, where one of the most famous rock groups is The Tragically Hip. The name has a similar pattern to "sever[e]ly artistic", a negative word modifying a positive adjective. Possibly this influenced his word choice. ;)

By: This Week’s Language Blog Roundup: presidents’ words, dialect controversy, fairy tales | Wordnik

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:02:01 +0000

[…] Language Log, Mark Liberman was severely positive. At Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda swang and missed, Allan Metcalf explained the grammar of newspaper […]

By: Jamie Salcedo

Jamie Salcedo — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:33:15 +0000

Hadfield's AMA was great. I instantly followed his tumblr when I saw some on other sites, and I almost wanted to ask him about if he used any photo equipment (filters, a light meter , etc.) to get them to come out so great.

By: ken lakritz

ken lakritz — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:09:04 +0000

I've seen any number of narcissistic characters in 'high IQ community' describe themselves as 'severely gifted.'

By: hector

hector — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:06:59 +0000

I'm in my sixties, and I find "severely artistic" unremarkable, so I'm surprised at all the resistance to it. As Dan Lufkin pointed out, it's consistent with the dictionary definition of "severe." Perhaps the "austere simplicity" sense of "severe" went out of use for a generation, and I'm just an old codger who remembers it?

By: Terry Cullen

Terry Cullen — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:51:23 +0000

I think Robert is right - I'm not sure of this astronaut's age, but I can easily imagine people my age (20s) using "severely" as a synonym of "seriously" with the same positive connotation. Uncommon, to be sure, but not unheard of.

By: Linda Seebach

Linda Seebach — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:11:39 +0000

When my son was in first grade, his teacher referred him for evaluation (because he couldn't tie his shoelaces and didn't make many friends) and the psychologist who did the evaluation wrote that he was "severely gifted," and I took that to reflect the school's concern that he was going to cost them extra money for accommodation. Not that any was ever provided.

By: Robert Coren

Robert Coren — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:45:43 +0000

I wonder if there's some influence from "seriously", which is often used colloquially as an intensifier, positive or negative or neutral.

By: chris

chris — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:17:07 +0000

If "bad" and "wicked" can be positive, I don't see why any word can't be, in the right context.

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:56:25 +0000

The NP "severe art" has some relevant Google Books hits; the corresponding AdjP might be "severely artistic".

- It is a severe art retaining some morbid traces of Mannerism, such as the figure of the meditative monarch, the melancholy Philip II, enamored of hermetic philosophy and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.

- Called De Stijl (pronounced duh STEHL), which means "The Style," this movement of artists and architects advocated a severe art of pure geometry.

- confidence in the eternal order of the Byzantine world, symbolized in the Macedonian era (867–1081) by a strong, if not severe, art style

- St Bernard, advocate of a terse and severe art without images

- his nomination has confirmed Boucher in a ruinous addiction to gallant rococo scenes and voluptuousness that runs counter to the "severe art" needed for artistic regeneration.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:48:31 +0000

@Jonathan Lundell: A search for "severe clear weather" returned > 38m hits. Most of the page 1 references were to the weather on 9/11. This is typical: http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/10/terrorism-anniversary-pentagon-oped-cx_db_0911burlingame.html

@Jeroen: I agree. I like the juxtaposition of a traditionally negative intensifier with something positive. However, I think that in some cases - "severely beautiful" comes to mind - the image would be not just intensified but intensified in a very specific way.

By: Jeroen Mostert

Jeroen Mostert — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:19:59 +0000

@David: your point seems austerely misguided.

I for one applaud attempts to get "severely" to come out of the generic negative intensifier corner it's standing in and dance for a bit. The base "severe" has a richer bouquet of meaning than "austere", and "severely" quite readily lends itself to constructions where the tone is not completely negative.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:19:46 +0000

Another agreement with Ellen K.
Googling "severely beautiful" yields many hits including geographical contexts.

By: Martha

Martha — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:28:45 +0000

I agree with GeorgeW. For me, the outback can't be "artistic" unless the guy was suggesting the outback was creating its own beauty.

By: HP

HP — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:31:42 +0000

I've been following Chris Hadfield's career in space for a few years now, and he's probably the most remarkably esthetic and observational astronaut in the history of manned space exploration. His photography is astonishing, and his ability to communicate the joy and wonder of space to us earthbound humans is unparalleled, and a marked counterpoint to the bland military understatement of the pioneering veterans of the US and Soviet missions of the 60s and 70s. I wouldn't put it past him to make a fully conscious, improvised rhetorical figure in an off-the-cuff interview.