But not just anyone can influence popular usage - there are authorities, in the literal sense, behind the fads and changes. As well as in front of the curbing of them. There are people, and they are found in all walks of life, that everyone just seems to accept as being right about words.
Why not? It's an adverb. "Indeed" by itself is a one-word sentence expressing agreement with and reinforcement of what was just said. I didn't say that "replete" was "more complete;" I said that it was "more than complete." A Lada has everything a car needs in order to function as transportation, so it is complete. But a top-end Mercedes is replete with luxuries. BTW, Ladas are not available in the USA; apparently our authorities do not consider them complete automobiles after all. We can buy the SmartCar, a Mercedes with training wheels.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Sure. (An adjective pressed into service as an adverb, another one-word sentence expressing agreement with what was just said, but stopping short of reinforcement.) People mimic the speech of Winston Churchill and Jay-Z. But atrocities like "snuck," "dove" and "between you and I" prove that hoi polloi also have influence in aggregate.
I think you missed post 17 though Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Anyway, couldn't one also say "That Mercedes is complete with luxuries" ? Perhaps it's just that we (the Dutch) don't have a word for it.. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Haha Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Well that was just my off-the-cuff term for the concept. Nonetheless as a lifetime owner of five Mercedes I can attest to their accomodations going beyond mere completeness. My 1979 300SD was a gigantic road yacht ostensibly in a class with Cadillacs, yet it had a turning radius equivalent to many subcompacts, making it easy to navigate cramped European parking lots designed for Fiats. But how many luxuries constitute completeness? The Toyota Lexus is classified as a "luxury car" but it falls short of the Rolls Royce standard. (No bud vase.)
I think this may be due to language differences.. In Dutch we say: "Kompleet met [whatever] (complete with [whatever])," which means it's complete plus additional [whatever]. I don't think we have a word that means the same as 'replete'.
-=- Replete is complete except that it deals with whatever is specified while complete covers everything related regardless of whether they're mentioned. I may say Mr X is replete with bullshit, meaning he is full of it or that Mr X is a complete moron, meaning he has all the qualities or ingredients which constitute a moron.
-=- Replete concerns only the thing mentioned. Overflowing goes beyond the thing mentioned. Leaf Bay is replete with catfish. Leaf bay overflowed & destroyed 11 cabins.
Your model sentence should be: "This car is replete with extra features." The point is that replete implies qualities, functions, components, etc., that are not required for the subject to be complete, but increase its value or desirability over that of one that is merely complete. A car that doesn't have a heater or an air conditioner (at this latitude) is not complete. But a car that has heated seats to warm you up quickly on a winter night, and leather seats that won't burn your skin after being parked outside on a hot summer day, is replete with comfortable accessories.
Fraggle, I understand what you're saying. But I'm afraid I'm a lost cause with this Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Thanks for the explanations though Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The definition of replete has nothing at all to do with value or desirability being increased or decreased. The subjective conclusion could be either or neither. There isn't even any absurd common connotation of it. Cars do not require heaters or airconditioners to be complete. Heated seats would decrease desirability.
Because only high school children start sentences with indeed. I have never seen indeed in a memo or report.
They do in the United States and in any country with what we consider a First-World per-capita GDP. We all have heaters and/or air conditioners in our homes and we're not about to get into a car, which can be much colder or hotter, as the case may be, that doesn't have one. In most of the country we need both, although in the California redwood forest there is no need for air conditioning in homes or cars and in the extreme southern parts of Texas or Florida they don't need heaters. But no one could live without heat in Eureka and they would not live without air conditioning in Corpus Christi or Miami. Houses have only the appliances they need, but all cars marketed in America have both. I had a perfectly nice 1980 Mercedes here in Washington that ran great but the heater and air conditioning failed irreparably. I had to sell it for parts. My new Mercedes has them and they're worth the money on one of our 18-degree (-7C) winter nights. My friend has them in her Buick and that's hardly a "top-end" car.
The first heated seats I ever saw were in an old Saab - and the first thing I thought was, why in hell don't American cars come with them. But then I remembered not everyone lives in Minnesota or Sweden. No car is complete without a heating or other device that prevents ice buildup on the windshield wipers. Which is to say that no car I have ever ridden in is complete. Nevertheless, many are replete with adornments, fuzzy dice being merely an introduction to the panoply.
