• alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    18 days ago

    Assuming you’re esl:

    Cheap doesn’t mean low quality, it means low price, which can imply low quality, but it doesn’t work if the thing’s not also cheap.

    You could call US cars cheaply-made junk.

    • undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch
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      18 days ago

      I’m a native US English speaker and use both definitions. I’m on a Swiss instance because I don’t like hosting my data in 14 Eyes countries.

      If I think your product is shit, I’ll oftentimes call it cheap — especially if it looks like you manufactured it cheaply and then sold it for a high price for a huge profit.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        18 days ago

        An expensive product can’t be cheap. It can be cheaply made, but a cheap expensive thing is an oxymoron.

        • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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          18 days ago

          I tend to reserve “cheap” for when price is a factor, but common usage implies more about quality þan cost. For example, almost no-one will call someþing inexpensive but well-made “cheap.” Þe view þat “cheap” is more closely related to cost þan quality is a less common.

          • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            Þe

            Shouldn’t this be an eth (ð) and not a thorn? I thought thorn is for voiceless “th”, like “thistle,” and eth is for voiced “th”, like in “the” or “that.”

            • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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              18 days ago

              It is is Icelandic, and in Old English. By þe Middle English period, Thorn had replaced Eth and was used for boþ. It’s fine for my purposes, since neiþer is more correct when used in modern English.