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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Ignorance is bliss but what is the act of ignoring?



I’ll just jump right into the problem without a sophisticated introduction:

“I walked right past her but she barely lifted her head. I admit - her act of ignoring was justified.”


Act of ignoring is not really a good way to express the sence that I'm trying to convey to you since I'm not trying to express an act per se, but rather a mental state or a mood. Hopefully you get the point, though. I’ve been long wondering if there is a single word that I could use in this case instead of the clumsy italic expression. I’m not saying that there aren’t other ways to express the idea but, to me, it seems that ignorance has deprived the verb to ignore of its logical noun form. Also, the word indifference seems a bit too general since it doesn’t have that connotation ignoring does: to ignore someone versus to be indifferent about someone.

Or does it?

-Tony
  

Top answer

Hi, How about simply saying 'Her ignoring (of) me was justified' ? That seems less clumsy to me. And it still seems to reflect the 'vigour' of the verb.

— Clive

  • Hi, How about simply saying 'Her ignoring (of) me was justified' ?
  • That seems less clumsy to me.
  • And it still seems to reflect the 'vigour' of the verb.
  • Best wishes, Clive
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3 Answers
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Hi,

How about simply saying 'Her ignoring (of) me was justified'? That seems less clumsy to me. And it still seems to reflect the 'vigour' of the verb.

Best wishes, Clive
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When you ignore a person, it's called "snubbing" or "slighting."

She snubbed me, but it was justified. Her slight of me was justified.
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disregard, negligence, inattention, unconcern, iciness, lukewarmness, apathy, thoughtlessness???

CJ
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