this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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The way of the monk (lemmynsfw.com)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Ok then, if you're unwilling to be just ever so slighlty more flexible with idioms and general examples of the flexibility of loose in English, and a brief overview of the etymology of the evolution of 'loose'...

...let me be more direct and precise:

...

Loose is a verb, in addition to being an adjective.

Loosing is when that verb is formulated into the present tense.

Loosing as a verb has multiple meanings, including:

  1. Expelling something away from you physically.

The archer is loosing an arrow.

  1. Letting something escape from you, or move away from you, either temporarily or permanently.

Tom is loosing his dog.

  1. Unleashing something from within you, outward, often speech or emotions, but it could be something physically tangible.

Shush! Anna is loosing her real feelings on John right now.

  1. Allowing something to affect the world in a broader sense, scope, or scale.

ChatGPT is loosing upon the world a dark age of widespread illiteracy.

  1. Making a connection, a binding, a tether, etc, constrain something in a less restrictive manner.

By loosing the knot around the cleat, I am loosing the boat from the dock, but only slightly.

...

I really don't see how it is really that much of a stretch to take some of these uses of 'loosing' as a verb, and see that either one, or multiple simultaneous of these definitions, and interpret the phrase 'loosing my social connections' into something that essentially means... 'letting them slip away'.

I do not really think it is thus 'grammatically incorrect'.

I will give you that usage of loose or loosing as a verb is nowadays fairly uncommon, to the point of possibly being considered archaic...

But then if that is the case, as it is with many words and phrases from 100+ years ago or w/e...

...well then you'd be doing a bit of extra interpretive work anyway, not really that distinct from just being a bit more idiomatically flexible with the range of current meanings of 'loose/loosing.'

...

Perhaps I am simply older than you, and/or have read more older books, watched older visual/audio media where 'loose' is more commonly used as a verb.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Ok sealion. We are gonna use loose as a verb the way you want it, not the way English speakers want it. You win. Go loose your social ties if it makes sense to you

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

So basically you don't commonly use loose as a verb, I do, and always have, and this makes apparently me a sealion.

Dialects exist within English.

You are evidently not American, as in USAmerican.

I am.

Where I come from, using loose as a verb is fairly common.

Stop being an intolerant ass.