Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower
Calling someone shrill is like saying they are hysterical. It suggests they are like a woman -- high-pitched, overly emotional, etc. -- and that their arguments can therefore be dismissed, in the same way that a real man dismisses the shrewish nagging of his wife.
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It’s effective. It works. There are few adjectives left with any bite these days, given hyperbole is now the baseline for discourse. From a linguistic perspective, shrill is an impressive little hand grenade. Kind of a cockroach after a nuclear war. Where almost nothing has any sting anymore, shrill retains one.
