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Audiophile

Pretty much this. Add in a collection of maybe 20 CDs that sound stunning due to hifi being totally tuned to those particular disks.

I got a laugh out of this.

And it reminded me of an experience I had in a stereo store. The owner was demoing an amp/speaker combo that was _very_ expensive. I was not enjoying it, as it was making the CD I was listening to sound _very_ bad (Bob Marley & The Wailers). The owner said "But you really should hear it on female vocals. Let me go get some." At that point I cut the demo short. I don't have anything against female vocals -- in fact I had several CDs with me that featured female vocals. But I do have something against systems that do only one thing well.

Also, I had a feeling that when the guy demoing the equipment said "female vocals" he meant "Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, and their many imitators." He would probably not have included the Patti Smith CD I had brought along.
 
Audiophile
1: Any person who has a deep affection or appreciation for audio or sound quality.
2: A connoisseur of audio. Common phrase, "audiophile-grade" meaning higher-end components capable of meeting an audiophile’s expectations.
 
Audiophile does not carry the same stigma in the French language as it does in English. Unlike in French, all words in English that carry the ~ophile suffix carry with it a negative connotation.

In French, the suffix means simply to like something. In English it means to like something a bit too much or in a perverse way.
 
Audiophile does not carry the same stigma in the French language as it does in English. Unlike in French, all words in English that carry the ~ophile suffix carry with it a negative connotation.

In French, the suffix means simply to like something. In English it means to like something a bit too much or in a perverse way.


Agree with Sideshowbob; Francophile is still opposite to Francophobe; one likes and t'other doesn't.

I rather think that the word 'paedophile', which has been bandied around a lot of late, is to blame for any negative connotations. Probably an inapt name for child abusers.

The Greek suffix (= fondness or loving) is unchanged in implication AFAIK
 
Unfortunately the English are generally less aware of the etymology of the word ~phile suffix and its meaning in isolation and are often equally unaware that it has ~phobe as its opposite in meaning.

In English we seem to associate ~phile with a particular prefix that also serves to change slightly its meaning and load it with perverse connotations.

I stand by what I wrote above.

Audiophile does sound like something nobody wants to own up to being. ~phile in the context and juxtaposed with audio implies some kind of obsession, perhaps at the exclusion of its original intended purpose, hence the straw man that audiophiles are not music lovers.

An English hi-fi brand would not carry the word 'Audiophile,' yet in France....
 
It's not a question of etymology, it's a question of meaning. In English, the -phile suffix indicates approval. So, bibliophile, for example, means a lover of books, with no implication whatsoever of anything negative. The same is true in French. Whereas a bibliophobe is the opposite, exactly as in French.

You may stand by what you wrote, but it's drivel. There is no negative connotation in most uses of -phile in English.
 
It's not a question of etymology, it's a question of meaning. In English, the -phile suffix indicates approval. So, bibliophile, for example, means a lover of books, with no implication whatsoever of anything negative. The same is true in French. Whereas a bibliophobe is the opposite, exactly as in French.

You may stand by what you wrote, but it's drivel. There is no negative connotation in most uses of -phile in English.

waiting for the comeback? more nonsense?
 
It's not a question of etymology, it's a question of meaning. In English, the -phile suffix indicates approval. So, bibliophile, for example, means a lover of books, with no implication whatsoever of anything negative. The same is true in French. Whereas a bibliophobe is the opposite, exactly as in French.

You may stand by what you wrote, but it's drivel. There is no negative connotation in most uses of -phile in English.

You are applying a prescriptive dictionary interpretation of meaning. I am applying a more descriptive linguistic approach.
 
I rather think that the word 'paedophile', which has been bandied around a lot of late, is to blame for any negative connotations.

I think this is probably right. Of course, this word has exactly the same negative connotations in French as well.

-phile is love or like of something, whatever it is suffixed to. Not all loves and likes are socially acceptable, so, inevitably, some -philes are reviled. But the suffix itself does not carry any negative suggestion.
 
I think this is probably right. Of course, this word has exactly the same negative connotations in French as well.

-phile is love or like of something, whatever it is suffixed to. Not all loves and likes are socially acceptable, so, inevitably, some -philes are reviled. But the suffix itself does not carry any negative suggestion.

Do those negative connotations derived from 'paedophile' spread over into other words with the ~phile suffix equally or less in French?
 
Equally. Unless either the French or the English have more socially unacceptable -phile behaviours, which seems unlikely. Necrophilia, gerontophilia, paedophilia, etc, none of these are treated differently by the majority in either country, I suspect. I can't think of a single -philia that is approved of in the UK but not in France, or vice versa, apart from a few culinary differences.
 
Equally. Unless either the French or the English have more socially unacceptable -phile behaviours, which seems unlikely. Necrophilia, gerontophilia, paedophilia, etc, none of these are treated differently by the majority in either country, I suspect.

This is the exact point on which we differ. Fair enough.
 
Audiophile does sound like something nobody wants to own up to being. ~phile in the context and juxtaposed with audio implies some kind of obsession, perhaps at the exclusion of its original intended purpose.

I think this is an example of mauvaise foi.
 


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