Quote from: Zenda on July 23, 2011, 10:39:19 PM
Kia Ora Kate,
Please explain BS .... does it mean "Beyond Science" ? 
Metta Zenda 
I keep forgetting that in the distant states sometimes use differen slangs. BS, stands for:
"Bull", meaning nonsense, dates from the 17th century,[1] while the term "bull
>-bleeped-<" has been used as early as 1915 in American slang,[2] and came into popular usage only during World War II. The word "bull" itself may have derived from the Old French boul meaning "fraud, deceit" (Oxford English Dictionary).[2] The term "horse
>-bleeped-<" is a near synonym. Worthy of note is the South African English equivalent "bull dust". Few corresponding terms exist in other languages, with the significant exception of German Bockmist, literally "billy-goat
>-bleeped-<".
"Bull
>-bleeped-<" does not necessarily have to be a complete fabrication; with only basic knowledge about a topic, bull
>-bleeped-< is often used to make the audience believe that one knows far more about the topic by feigning total certainty or making probable predictions. It may also merely be "filler" or nonsense that, by virtue of its style or wording, gives the impression that it actually means something.
In his essay on the subject, William G. Perry called bull[
>-bleeped-<] "relevancies, however relevant, without data" and gave a definition of the verb "to bull[
>-bleeped-<]" as follows:
To discourse upon the contexts, frames of reference and points of observation which would determine the origin, nature, and meaning of data if one had any. To present evidence of an understanding of form in the hope that the reader may be deceived into supposing a familiarity with content.[6]
The bull
>-bleeped-<ter generally either knows the statements are likely false, exaggerated, and in other ways misleading or has no interest in their factual accuracy one way or the other. "Talking bull
>-bleeped-<" is thus a lesser form of lying, and is likely to elicit a correspondingly weaker emotional response: whereas an obvious liar may be greeted with derision, outrage, or anger, an exponent of bull
>-bleeped-< tends to be dismissed with an indifferent sneer.
Kate D
