It’s the verbal equivalent of quotation marks done as a hand gesture.
Why do people say "quote unquote something" and not "quote something unquote" ?
Submitted 5 months ago by red_pigeon@lemm.ee to [deleted]
Comments
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah—I think the canonical usage is to hold up your fingers as you say “quote unquote”, then lower your hands when the quote is complete.
swab148@lemm.ee 5 months ago
One hand for quote, the other for unquote
shasta@lemm.ee 5 months ago
They are just doing the autocomplete verbally, like when you type an opening quote and the end quote goes in automatically but the next thing you type goes inside the quotes
donuts@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Plausible for programmers, at least
Cycadophyta@lemmy.cafe 5 months ago
This is a solid take
toynbee@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I hate this functionality.
EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Wait, it’s “quote unquote”? I have always been saying “quote on quote” my whole life.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Bone apple tea
DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 5 months ago
France is bacon
Kayday@lemmy.world 5 months ago
That’s your two sense, anyway
Sidyctism2@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
truly a doggy dog world
FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Professors and engineers, in my experience, tend to say “quote… the thing… end quote”. Regular people on the other hand, are lazy, inconsistent and generally oblivious to whether or not they’re being ambiguous.
SatyrSack@feddit.org 5 months ago
Regular people on the other hand, are lazy, inconsistent and generally oblivious to whether or not they’re being ambiguous.
me_irl
FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world 5 months ago
o7
8000gnat@reddthat.com 5 months ago
this is one of those things that I have wondered about for so long that I forgot to wonder about it
And009@reddthat.com 5 months ago
Like would I know where the quote ended
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’ve heard it said both ways.
For example.
When the statement you’re quoting is going to be quote, short or simple, unquote.
Or, if it’s going to stand on its own and be quote, unquote, some long citation that would make famous Russian authors jealous.
Incandemon@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
I think I’ve most often heard quote unsuited used sarcastically, like scare quotes in writing. When someone’s quoting something seriously I usually hear the quote something unsuited, or a and I quote something.
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Indeed. With very slowly pronounced “bunny ear finger quotes” as you say it to emphasize the sarcasm.
fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 5 months ago
Usually I hear this as “quote something end quote”
JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 months ago
Because “quite unquote” is done for a laugh typically and “quite unquote” sounds funnier and more pleasing to the ear.
Eww@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This is considered quote unquote “Lazy”
TokenEffort@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Unrelated but until a month ago I’ve been saying “quote ON quote” until I saw it actually written 😂🤣
nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
When I was younger I said quote END quote.
modifier@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
As a homeschooled kid, I usually had the opposite problem. Mispronounced so much shit.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 months ago
Archipelago.
Redacted@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Tangential, but I don’t understand why in American English you feel the need to say the word quote at all. In UK English we just use intenation.
Pixel@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
Can I quote you on that?
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
I’m from the UK and I feel like I’ve heard enough UK English speakers saying “quote” that I had never thought of it as an American thing. That isn’t to say that the distinction you make doesn’t exist though, just that it may be variable across demographics or contexts.
otp@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
It’s useful for when you’re quoting someone who happens to use the exact same intonation as you!
Trollivier@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
You’ll hear it sometimes in French.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Because it would be pretty silly to verbally say “quote” “the thing” and them finish of with “unquote” at the end, like some kind of robot.
The whole point of saying it is to clarify that you’re quoting something.
Pixel@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
I think because one gets the point across easily while the other is pedantic
lath@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s “quote unquote something” because most people who "quote something often forget to unquote afterwards.
cleverusername@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I see what you did there… 🤣
sxan@midwest.social 5 months ago
And that breaks the processor and you have to reboot your listener and it’s such a paaaaaiin.
FierySpectre@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Broke my brain, had to read 4 times to understand