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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009cleansing or cleaning?
Hi there, I recently found the words "cleansing gel" on some kind of cosmetics which I thought to be a spelling error. Is it? If not, what is the difference? Does "cleansing" refer to cosmetics and "cleaning" to detergens? Gruß Jens Jens Kleinschmidt <newsgroups@centermail.biz>'s wild thoughts were released on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:37:13 +0100 bearing the following fruit: >Hi there, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >Does "cleansing" refer to cosmetics >and "cleaning" to detergens? No it means that the gel can be used for cleaning. If you brush your teeth you are cleaing them. The tooth paste is the cleansing agent. -- Jan Hyde (VB MVP) https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde > Hi there, > I recently found the words "cleansing gel" > on some kind of cosmetics which I thought > to be a spelling error. > Is it? > If not, what is the difference? > Does "cleansing" refer to cosmetics > and "cleaning" to detergens? In my opinion they mean exactly the same. There seems to be an inevitable tendency to add superfluous syllables to perfectly good words. With best wishes, Peter.  SignaturePeter Young, (BrE), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004. (US equivalent: Attending Anesthesiologist) Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired. >> Hi there, > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >inevitable tendency to add superfluous syllables to perfectly good >words. Sliding past the point that "cleaning" and "cleaning" each have two syllables, I see that the Oxford English Dictionary says that "cleanse" is the original form: cleanse, v. 1. trans. To make clean, purify, free from dirt or filth (Johnson says by washing or rubbing). Formerly the ordinary word; but in mod. times to clean has largely taken its place in every-day use, and cleanse remains a more elevated word, having less immediate association with dirt, and more available for fig. and transf. uses. Some products sold in the UK: Window Cleaner (fluid in a trigger spray bottle) Floor Cleaner (ditto) Kitchen Cleaner (ditto) for use on the human body: Deep Cleanse Shampoo Baby Cleansing Wipes Face Cleanser Skin Brightening Deep Clean Gel SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <mail@peterduncanson.net>'s wild thoughts were released on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:17:34 +0000 bearing the following fruit: >>> Hi there, >> [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > Face Cleanser > Skin Brightening Deep Clean Gel I do love cosmetic adverts. New <product>, now with with essence of bluchloride eliptidides. With *what* now? I'm sure they have random word generators ;-) -- Jan Hyde (VB MVP) https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde >>Sliding past the point that "cleaning" and "cleaning" each have two syllables, That would have been more to the point as: ""cleansing" and "cleaning" each have two syllables". SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <mail@peterduncanson.net>'s wild thoughts were released on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:44:01 +0000 bearing the following fruit: >On Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:04:53 +0000, "Jan Hyde (VB MVP)" Correction ><StellaDrinker@REMOVE.ME.uboot.com> wrote: <StellaDrinker@REMOVE.ME.uboot.com> did not write: >>>Sliding past the point that "cleaning" and "cleaning" each have two syllables, >That would have been more to the point as: ""cleansing" and "cleaning" each >have two syllables". -- Jan Hyde (VB MVP) https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde >"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <mail@peterduncanson.net>'s wild >thoughts were released on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:17:34 +0000 [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] >With *what* now? I'm sure they have random word generators >;-) But they then need temas of deeply creative people, focus groups, consumer panels, etc. to decide which random word to use. There are also those harmless drudges working by candlelight trawling foreign language dictionaries to check that an apparently harmless word does not cause offence or hilarity, or give totally the wrong impression in another language. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) Thanks to all for your help. I think I got the idea. Gruß Jens On Jan 2, 12:46 pm, Jens Kleinschmidt <newsgro...@centermail.biz> wrote: > Thanks to all for your help. > I think I got the idea. > > Gruß > Jens It's good ol' ad-speak. >> Hi there, > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >> If not, what is the difference? Advertisers think that cleansing sounds better. >> Does "cleansing" refer to cosmetics >> and "cleaning" to detergens? And yes, advertisers have relegated cleaning to cleaning something otehr than a human body, but there's no reason you or I have to do that. >In my opinion they mean exactly the same. There seems to be an >inevitable tendency to add superfluous syllables to perfectly good >words. Like medicine and medication. Or prolate, prolifate, and proliferate. OK. I just made that one up. >With best wishes, > >Peter. SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I have lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 10 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years >>> Hi there, >> [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Advertisers think that cleansing sounds better. Oh, yeah. Like "Colon cleanse". Of course, ages and ages ago, my mother used a scouring powder called Old Dutch Cleanser.Oh, and I just checked my cleaning supplies": Comet with bleach, "disinfectant cleanser". When I see things like this, I avoid things like Colon Cleanse. Vegetables, vegetables, vegatables. . .prunes! >Hi there, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >Does "cleansing" refer to cosmetics >and "cleaning" to detergens? Off topic, but what's really amazing is that Milosovich or someone engageed in the destruction of other people's homes, the intimidation of them to make them leave their chosen place of living, and in the murder of some of them, came up with the term "ethnic cleansing" to try to put a "clean" sound on the war crimes he was committing, -- well that's not amazing but then, not only did the press and others use the lying phrase he had come up with for his crimes, but they continue a decade later to apply it to lots of situations far from Yugoslavia. >Gruß >Jens SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I have lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 10 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years >Off topic, but what's really amazing is that Milosovich or someone >engageed in the destruction of other people's homes, the intimidation [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >continue a decade later to apply it to lots of situations far from >Yugoslavia. Apparently the term "ethnic cleansing" had been in use long before Milosevic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing Origins of the term .... Carnegie Endowment report for the Balkan Wars in 1914 points out that village-burning and ethnic cleansing have traditionally accompanied Balkan wars, regardless of ethnicities involved. In probably the earliest attestation of the term, Vuk Karadic'[1] makes use of the word cleanse to describe what happened to the Turks in the Belgrade when the city was captured by the Karadjordje's forces in 1806. [1] Vuk Karadic', 1787 - 1864 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuk_Karad%C5%BEi%C4%87 SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) |
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