Tweet of the Day, I Feel That The Situation Was More Dire Than They Wanted To Admit edition.

Call it a hunch.

Moe Lane

PS: With regard to the title: apparently, nobody’s really sure if it’s supposed to be ‘more dire’ or ‘direr.’ So I picked one and moved on.

7 thoughts on “Tweet of the Day, I Feel That The Situation Was More Dire Than They Wanted To Admit edition.”

  1. I’d put up with a bit of radioactivity in exchange for a toilet I didn’t have to pour a bucket of water down on a regular basis.

  3. “Direr” is an existing comparative adjective, and so is generally preferred to the more complex* construction “more dire.” However, “more dire” is also a correct construction, and so is not technically wrong.
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    Ultimately, I think, the choice should be guided by the rhetorical effect one is trying to achieve. In this case, you appear to be going for a dry humor, by way of understatement. Since “the X is more Y” can be a common element of such constructions, you appear to have made the better selection for this context.
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    Thank you for tuning in. I’m your friendly neighborhood Grammar Pedant, and this has been “Word Choice Corner.” Coming up next, guest conductor Paul Reubens guides the San Bernardino Philharmonic during their four-hour concert of Schoenberg’s best-known works. Featured performers include a hologram of Michael Jackson and a pregnant cat giving birth.
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    * “More complex” and “most complex” are unquestionably correct when discussing comparative adjectives involving complexity, however. There are no such words** as “complexer” or “complexest.”
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    ** Yet.

    1. A troll with a Master’s in English Lit.

      But when done like this it is pure delight.

      I’ve waded rather deeply into the swamps of complexity. The problem is that the definition varies from field to field – linguistics, computational complexity, information theory, molecular biology, quantum theory…

      The lexicon is ripe for expansion. I suggest that the generic term be “complexitylikethingy”.

  4. I’m pretty sure I saw a documentary where Airman Adrian Cronauer used “more dire.” Authoritative enough for me.

  5. A handful of constipated grad students nearly irradiate most of north Florida, and we’re arguing over grammar. Welcome to the internet.

    1. The internet – where people go when their dog won’t talk to them anymore.

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