Our dishwasher can be reluctant to reset itself (we have to turn it off and wait several seconds) when it refused to start just now I complained β€œo for crying out loud!” which was unusually restrained of me
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then it occurred to me that β€œfor crying out loud” is the swear equivalent of saying β€œLOL”, ie describing your exclamation instead of just exclaiming the thing
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except my grandparents would not have said LOL
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there’s probably an erudite linguistic word to describe the act of describing the act instead of acting
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Replying to @fanf
something akin to 'onomatopoeic phrasing' perhaps?

Mar 23, 2021 Β· 2:28 PM UTC

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Replying to @dsilverstone
Dunno? searchengineering suggests that isn’t quite the same thing is it like kids yelling β€œbang!” when pretending to shoot each other, or Ewan McGregor making lightsabre noises on set? like describing an act that you can’t do, instead of substituting for one you can
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mmm, yeah, important distinction. At least you haven't been reduced to shouting 'oh very very rude word' yet
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