Talk:upshot
Latest comment: 9 months ago by JMGN in topic No plural
- I've just discovered that no major dictionary publishes a definition of upshot with a strong positive connotation. Apparently this meaning has never been significantly documented. I am unsure if or how to establish the prevalence of this meaning to the point of inclusion on wiktionary. https://theamericanscholar.org/when-the-upshot-is-a-downer/ Sparr (talk) 17:22, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
- @Sparr I believe I've heard it used as a synonym of upside (sense 2, "a favourable aspect of something that also has an unfavourable aspect"), but maybe that's just confusion on my part due to their similar pronunciation and spelling. - excarnateSojourner (talk | contrib) 05:32, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
- @ExcarnateSojourner I’ve also always assumed it had a positive meaning and I was confused by a crossword clue that suggested it had a neutral or negative meaning. I forget the exact clue but my confusion as to how it worked is what led me to look up upshot in GoogleBooks and afterwards add the earliest possible citation to this entry (the 1818 one, which defines the word in neutral terms). Perhaps I’ve also been influenced semantically by this word’s resemblance to upside too, I hadn’t considered that. Overlordnat1 (talk) 07:17, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
- I made the same mistake once, when I heard a reporter somewhere saying, "The upshot of Verizon's new plan would be higher prices for consumers," but I got the impression that this was considered good from the speaker's point of view because it would also have meant higher profits for investors. Nowadays I realize that people wouldnt be so brazen even if they really were hoping for higher prices, so Im convinced I made a mistake. It reminds me a bit of dreamchild, which I think is just a mishearing of brainchild, but if it's in common usage, we can document it as such. —Soap— 05:21, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
No plural[edit]
Although countable, upshot has no plural form. https://www.eltconcourse.com/training/inservice/functions/cause_effect.html JMGN (talk) 12:16, 11 August 2023 (UTC)