ignorance or...ignorance?

nomdeboardie

From a thread in a forum far away:

..."Folk reckon there is a high percentage of drivers not knowing how to use a roundabout, I'd tend to disagree with that. It's down to pure utter ignorance..."

Huh?? Is it just me, or does it seem that the words "ignorance" or "ignorant" are often used in this country to mean anything but, i.e. bad attitude, selfishness etc. I'm not sure if this is intentionally ironic, or was at one time, or, er, just ignorance... Gibber

FarmerGreen

Wrong end of the stick there mate.
In England 'ignorance' can mean you just dont know.
An ignorant b*stard is someone who is stupid and doesnt care.

I worked with an Irish bloke for a couple of years, and his meanings of words and mine didnt exactly match.

Its hilarious, like Puckoon, but you get the hang of it eventually.

nomdeboardie

(Just to clarify, I'm Irish but have lived in the UK & US for long stretches also)

FarmerGreen

'utter ignorance' = cant be bothered to learn, I'd guess. Not Stupid.

nomdeboardie

FarmerGreen wrote: »

'utter ignorance' = cant be bothered to learn, I'd guess. Not Stupid.

Perhaps. Wikipaedia "Ignorance is the state in which one lacks knowledge, is unaware of something or chooses to subjectively ignore information." Maybe this usage really is based on the latter meaning.
(OK, I have too much time on my hands; my post was more of a micro-rant really, and I was too chicken to put it in Ranting and Raving or After Hours!)

The Raven.

One can be ignorant of a fact, meaning that one is unaware of the fact, or one can remain in ignorance, meaning unaware of something.

To say that a person is just ignorant usually means that they are simply uneducated. However, this can also mean socially uneducated due to bad upbringing. This is generally what a lot of people mean, which can include antisocial behaviour such as a display of selfishness.

That is my understanding of the use of the term.

FlutterinBantam

nomdeboardie wrote: »

From a thread in a forum far away:

..."Folk reckon there is a high percentage of drivers not knowing how to use a roundabout, I'd tend to disagree with that. It's down to pure utter ignorance..."

Huh?? Is it just me, or does it seem that the words "ignorance" or "ignorant" are often used in this country to mean anything but, i.e. bad attitude, selfishness etc. I'm not sure if this is intentionally ironic, or was at one time, or, er, just ignorance... Gibber

The punter who wrote that sentence has a lot to answer for.

Not on topic I know, but that badboy deserved a bit of a slap.:cool:

deman

nomdeboardie wrote: »

From a thread in a forum far away:

..."Folk reckon there is a high percentage of drivers not knowing how to use a roundabout, I'd tend to disagree with that. It's down to pure utter ignorance..."

Nice one. I'd guess the guy who originally posted this is pretty ignorant

blorg

It's a particularly Irish use of the term. This definition is from TP Dolan, author of A Dictionary of Hiberno-English:

TP Dolan wrote:

ignorant adj. unmannerly, crude in behaviour < E. 'He's from an ignorant family', 'Don't be so ignorant and behave yourself'.

In this context the original sentence does make sense.

nomdeboardie

blorg wrote: »

It's a particularly Irish use of the term. This definition is from TP Dolan, author of A Dictionary of Hiberno-English

Thanks - useful publication there. +The Raven describes this nicely above.

blorg wrote: »

In this context the original sentence does make sense.

Yes, although given the ambiguity of the word, it makes for an amusing contradiction if the reader thinks of the more general meaning of the word first!

(By the way, if original poster of the statement sees this thread - I was not meaning to mock or anything )