Words That Lose Their Meaning

[sensei8]

We use words of the martial arts like...

>Technique(s)

>Knowledge

>Effective/Effectiveness

>Experience...

So much, we lose 'its' meaning.

What other words are used so often and so lackadaisical that they begin to lose their meaning?

Any thoughts?

[MasterPain]

Feel- As in a combination of cognition of sensory stimuli and intuition based on prior experience. That along with the awareness of breath in and out of your belly(I know it's your lungs, but you should breathe in your belly).

[shadowspawn]

Martial. In the world "martial art" people forget the definition of the word itself. Literally, it is an art of war. When you go to war, you don't pick up your rifle and expect to "subdue an attacker". When someone starts shooting at you, you shoot back without giving a second thought as to whether you can get in close enough to disarm them or not. The same extends to martial arts. When someone is threatening your life, the first thing people should do, as martial artists, is fight back and fight back hard with the intent of killing their opponent. That's why it scares me that parents are sending their kids off to martial arts dojos as if it were some kind of summer camp or day care.

[MasterPain]

Martial. In the world "martial art" people forget the definition of the word itself. Literally, it is an art of war. When you go to war, you don't pick up your rifle and expect to "subdue an attacker". When someone starts shooting at you, you shoot back without giving a second thought as to whether you can get in close enough to disarm them or not. The same extends to martial arts. When someone is threatening your life, the first thing people should do, as martial artists, is fight back and fight back hard with the intent of killing their opponent. That's why it scares me that parents are sending their kids off to martial arts dojos as if it were some kind of summer camp or day care.

I highly suggest reading the law on self defense in your state. Killing someone you could have spanked is murder. Killing someone you could have escaped is murder. Martial implies military, but most of us train for civilian defense. It is a very rare case where killing is necessary to be safe. Even when escalating to lethal force, the idea is not to kill, but to stop an attack. When someone resists arrest, a cop doesn't just put 2 in his chest and 1 in his head. I was once threatened by a guy for talking to his girlfriend. I did not prison-style shank him. Either of those would have had lifelong repercussions.

[Dobbersky]

Reliability is one, some students feel they can just coast through their gradings turn up for a few lessons here and there and feel it it their God givene right to get the grade even if they've not put the time or commitment in.

I think that Martial Arts are not treated in the same way anymore. People feel that its just a bit of keep fit, they want a "black belt" (another word that's lost its meaning) but are not willing to put the time etc in!

Who's to blame - the Instructors for allowing this to happen!!!

[wagnerk]

Martial. In the world "martial art" people forget the definition of the word itself. Literally, it is an art of war. When you go to war, you don't pick up your rifle and expect to "subdue an attacker". When someone starts shooting at you, you shoot back without giving a second thought as to whether you can get in close enough to disarm them or not. The same extends to martial arts. When someone is threatening your life, the first thing people should do, as martial artists, is fight back and fight back hard with the intent of killing their opponent. That's why it scares me that parents are sending their kids off to martial arts dojos as if it were some kind of summer camp or day care.

Martial arts maybe the art of war, but your explanation only shows only one way of dealing with things.

This character (武) means martial and is also associated with bravery.

It is made up of the radicals (止), to stop, and (戈), halberd/spear, thus meaning "to stop the spear" (we're just talking about the martial arts in general, not specific arts).

Violence should only be used as a last resort and martial artists should be considering non-violent actions first, because it means stopping the violence before it happens.

[bushido_man96]

Martial. In the world "martial art" people forget the definition of the word itself. Literally, it is an art of war. When you go to war, you don't pick up your rifle and expect to "subdue an attacker". When someone starts shooting at you, you shoot back without giving a second thought as to whether you can get in close enough to disarm them or not. The same extends to martial arts. When someone is threatening your life, the first thing people should do, as martial artists, is fight back and fight back hard with the intent of killing their opponent. That's why it scares me that parents are sending their kids off to martial arts dojos as if it were some kind of summer camp or day care.

I highly suggest reading the law on self defense in your state. Killing someone you could have spanked is murder. Killing someone you could have escaped is murder. Martial implies military, but most of us train for civilian defense. It is a very rare case where killing is necessary to be safe. Even when escalating to lethal force, the idea is not to kill, but to stop an attack. When someone resists arrest, a cop doesn't just put 2 in his chest and 1 in his head. I was once threatened by a guy for talking to his girlfriend. I did not prison-style shank him. Either of those would have had lifelong repercussions.

"Losing" the meaning is one thing. At times, we may not realize we don't even know the meaning. Very good post, Master Pain.

This character (武) means martial and is also associated with bravery.

It is made up of the radicals (止), to stop, and (戈), halberd/spear, thus meaning "to stop the spear" (we're just talking about the martial arts in general, not specific arts).

Violence should only be used as a last resort and martial artists should be considering non-violent actions first, because it means stopping the violence before it happens.

The only issue I have with your illustration here is that you point out its use in regards to how it translates from another language. I don't think we should bind ourselves to the translation of another language in defining a word we use in our native tongue (whichever that may be).

I think non-violence is a great thing. However, it shouldn't always be the first answer.

Here's my word of choice tossed into the mix: "traditional." I was just telling the class I was teaching the other day how I hated that word. I think it tends to get overused, misused, and abused.

[DWx]

Cool topic sensei8

Kinda like semantic satiation... when you hear a word so many times it loses it's meaning.

I don't think we see the word that much here on KF, but people using the word "master" irritates me to no end. Or in a similar sense "expert". Nowadays everyone is a Karate master or Karate expert if they've had a bit of training.

[evergrey]

Cool topic sensei8

Kinda like semantic satiation... when you hear a word so many times it loses it's meaning.

I don't think we see the word that much here on KF, but people using the word "master" irritates me to no end. Or in a similar sense "expert". Nowadays everyone is a Karate master or Karate expert if they've had a bit of training.

Hey man, don't front Master Ken! AMERI-DO-TE!!!!!!!

[evergrey]

Sometimes when I'm engaged in extremely intense and heated kumite, "yame" loses it's meaning. Haha, there has been at least one time when it has slowly encroached on my consciousness, as my head instructor has shouted it while advancing on me, and looked up from my Sensei and I pummeling one another to see that everyone else was standing lined up in formation, looking at us, haha!

Nothing like freezing with one hand on my instructor's throat, and his knee in my gut, and saying "oh... I think they want us to stop."

Not what you meant?