Pet peeve of the day: Pride vs. Admiration

[narcimund 0]

I hate hearing people say "I'm proud of you for ...." You can't be proud of someone else or their accomplishments. You can admire them of course, but pride is a state that's directed inward. The proper phrase is, "I admire you for ...."

I suppose a shaky exception might be when you've contributed to the other person's accomplishment such as when a teacher instructs a student. The teacher can justifiably show pride in the student's accomplishment to the extent they participated: "I'm proud of my student who learned their lesson so well." (But even then what the teacher is really saying is, "I'm proud of myself for training my student so well and admire him for learning.")

But aside from cases with that very close connection, the proper phrase is, "I admire you for..."

That's my pet peeve of the day.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[livendive 8]

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I hate hearing people say "I'm proud of you for ...." You can't be proud of someone else or their accomplishments. You can admire them of course, but pride is a state that's directed inward. The proper phrase is, "I admire you for ...."

I suppose a shaky exception might be when you've contributed to the other person's accomplishment such as when a teacher instructs a student. The teacher can justifiably show pride in the student's accomplishment to the extent they participated: "I'm proud of my student who learned their lesson so well." (But even then what the teacher is really saying is, "I'm proud of myself for training my student so well and admire him for learning.")

But aside from cases with that very close connection, the proper phrase is, "I admire you for..."

That's my pet peeve of the day.

I mostly agree with you, but consider the exception a bit less shaky. Some of my students make me proud, as does my daughter, but that's about it. On a related note, I don't get the whole pride in one's heritage thing. We can't control where or to whom we're born, so what logical justification would there be for pride in such details? I'm happy that I'm an American, and I respect the lineage that produced my mostly Polish ass. But I'm not "proud" of either...it just wouldn't make sense to me.

Edit to add for relevance and humor: "Gay pride" could at least involve an action. While I see no point in being proud of who you're attracted to, I can see someone being proud of how they meet the criteria. I can be proud of how I eat pussy, and see no reason a gay man couldn't take pride in similar skill-based activities.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[turtlespeed 226]

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I can be proud of how I eat pussy, and see no reason a gay man couldn't take pride in similar skill-based activities.

Blues,
Dave

You mean you're not proud your skills?

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[narcimund 0]

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"Gay pride" could at least involve an action. While I see no point in being proud of who you're attracted to, I can see someone being proud of how they meet the criteria.

That's really funny. I never thought of Gay Pride as referring to one's cocksucking skills.

To be more serious, I always thought it could conceivably refer to pride in overcoming the adversities of being gay in an oppressive society. Same for Black Pride or others.

But I know a lot of people disagree with my view. I happen to think it's the most generous interpretation, but it's still largely fictional.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[JohnRich 4]

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I hate hearing people say "I'm proud of you for ...." You can't be proud of someone else or their accomplishments. You can admire them of course, but pride is a state that's directed inward.

The dictionary does not agree with your definition of "proud":
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/proud

[karenmeal 0]

The point of a language is to communicate. When someone says that they are "proud" of someone, when really the "proper" word to use is "admire", who cares? The point is effectively conveyed by the word "proud", and to the masses (myself included) it may even be more effectively communicated by using the "wrong" word.


Does this stuff actually bug you or was that just a random musing that you had about language?

And more importantly, are you French?

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

[Zenister 0]

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The point of a language is to communicate. When someone says that they are "proud" of someone, when really the "proper" word to use is "admire", who cares? The point is effectively conveyed by the word "proud", and to the masses (myself included) it may even be more effectively communicated by using the "wrong" word.

which is exactly the point i make in every spelling and grammar rant that appears...

humans are not machines, those who quibble over 'parsing' miss the point entirely and allow their prejudice to interfere with the communication process.

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[DFWAJG 4]

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I hate hearing people say "I'm proud of you for ...." You can't be proud of someone else or their accomplishments. You can admire them of course, but pride is a state that's directed inward. The proper phrase is, "I admire you for ...."

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=pride&word2=admiration

sorry, I couldn't help myself