There's that, yeah. I wonder if it's the whole etymology about it that just annoys me, because it just screams "started out as someone writing porn without having mastered basic spelling". (and then of course I needed to google it and now I know that it's older than TV. Welp.)
Or it could just be the pronounciation that throws me off every time it shows up. Is it supposed to be a homophone of "come" or not? Gah.
I would have to say a homophone, because I cannot make my brain hear it as a long u. (Solution: umlauts?)
Plus, "essence" at least has that somewhat sinister Dr. Strangelove feel to it. Not quite "precious bodily fluids," but close enough -- I could see it being used in a deliberately creepy way, though if it's being played straight it's a bit bodice-ripper (heh heh, there's the Dr. Strangelove allusion I was looking for) to me.
That disconnect between spelling and pronounciation that allows for this BS is probably my biggest issue with the English language. You just can't know for sure when running across new words in print.
"Essence" never bothered me until I recently ran across it in a fic so purpleprosy that I ended up incapable of overlooking all the weird adjectives. When "wine" is an acceptable description of someone's eyes, I had reached the point where I started wondering just what meaning of "essence" was the correct reference.
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Date: 2017-05-18 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-19 08:50 pm (UTC)Or it could just be the pronounciation that throws me off every time it shows up. Is it supposed to be a homophone of "come" or not? Gah.
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Date: 2017-05-19 10:43 pm (UTC)Plus, "essence" at least has that somewhat sinister Dr. Strangelove feel to it. Not quite "precious bodily fluids," but close enough -- I could see it being used in a deliberately creepy way, though if it's being played straight it's a bit bodice-ripper (heh heh, there's the Dr. Strangelove allusion I was looking for) to me.
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Date: 2017-05-20 09:40 pm (UTC)"Essence" never bothered me until I recently ran across it in a fic so purpleprosy that I ended up incapable of overlooking all the weird adjectives. When "wine" is an acceptable description of someone's eyes, I had reached the point where I started wondering just what meaning of "essence" was the correct reference.