"DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'A COUPLE' AND 'A FEW'?"

[KhirasHY]

*The other disorder is rather commonly stigmatized so please don't ask.

It's ok, people have become much more accepting of wizards in recent years. Well, most of us.

/We're on to you!

[emax4]

You could have whipped out the Dictionary app in your iPad while reading the definition out loud to him.

[Shyla]

I think it's more a regional thing. In some places, a couple is exactly two. In other places, a couple is more like some.

[Seshat]

You could have whipped out the Dictionary app in your iPad while reading the definition out loud to him.

Ah, but of the three dictionaries I looked 'couple' up in, for my post upthread, only one defined 'couple' as 'an indefinite small number'. And even then, that was an alternate definition.
The primary definition in Merriam-Webster, and the definition in both reference.com and Oxford, was that a 'couple' specifically refers to '2'.

Using the dictionary would have had a good chance of only reinforcing the ass. Er, sorry, the SC. Because regardless of the specific meaning of 'couple', the OP had done nothing to warrant the SC's behaviour.


... that said, I recommend trying to use 'couple' to always mean '2' when you're providing outbound communication (ie, you're the speaker, writer, txter, etc); but understanding that in inbound communication (you're the listener, reader, etc) the other person may mean 'an indefinite small number'.
Best way to avoid confusion, and to avoid getting people angry at you over nothing important.

[minchazo]

... after reading this thread, I will forever have a different reaction when somebody says, "Look at that cute couple over there."

[MoonCat]

Hey Ralerin! Been wondering where you were! Hope you're feeling better now....that guy was an idiot. Who cares whether it's 2 or 3? Couldn't he look around and count? Geez...what a jerk.

[notalwaysright]

... that said, I recommend trying to use 'couple' to always mean '2' when you're providing outbound communication (ie, you're the speaker, writer, txter, etc); but understanding that in inbound communication (you're the listener, reader, etc) the other person may mean 'an indefinite small number'.

That's how my mind works. If I say a couple, I mean two, but I don't assume other people mean the same. And in that particular situation, it doesn't really matter how many people are ahead in line, because the time each person will take could be way different. Maybe it takes 5 minutes for one person, and 15 for the next. People need to stop overreacting over every flipping thing. I mean, can you imagine? Screaming over the definition of a word? I can't...

[thehuckster]

For me it's:

Couple: 2
Few: 3-5
Several: 6-10
"About" a dozen: 11-17
Many: 17+

Of course, that's for truly countable concepts. In other contexts, those definitions go out the wayside. Sometimes, like if I'm on a highway, I might say "there's only a couple cars out" meaning it's extremely sparse and almost nobody is out, but that doesn't mean I literally only see two cars... and if I say there's "many" cars on the highway, then it would almost certainly mean way more than 17.

[sms001]

In such an informal setting (waiting for a rep instead of giant ass airplanes filled with jet fuel to wait for before taxiing) I'd certainly take "a couple" very loosely. I thought to myself as I read the op that I do indeed mean two when I say it... but I was wrong. I use "a couple of minutes" all the time to mean the indefinite. I suspect the hint of an accent came first, and then the nit-picking about formal definitions, cause you know, he had to WAIT and everything, so there has to be a scapegoat.

[ralerin]

Thanks for the support guys. It's good to be back. 16 months of job hunting did not help my mental situation at ALL.

On my ipad at the moment so quoting can be a right bitch (and not using Tapatalk because I'm stubborn *shake fist*) so I'll post more in depth replies when I'm home from work.