Talk:humanity

In case it's worth mentioning, the interjection comes from an announcer's confused cry at the Hindenberg disaster. It wouldn't really make sense on its own. Equinox ◑ 20:59, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

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humanity

Purported interjection, defined as: used to express despair when something terrible or inhumane happens, but frequently used ironically nowadays in frustration at far more minor things.

20,000 people died that year. Oh, the humanity!

We've run out of orange juice! The humanity!

In neither usage example is humanity itself used as an interjection. "O, our house" is an expression that serves to convey an emotion if the house is burning down, but "house" is not an interjection. The point of this is to try to memorialize allusion to "Oh, the humanity", memorably used during a famous radio broadcast of the disastrous destruction of the Hindenburg in the 1930s. I didn't think allusions and catchphrases per se met CFI and I see no good reason for inclusion. DCDuring TALK 04:23, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Delete the interjection POS per User:DCDuring. · 05:01, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Agreed! Delete. DAVilla 05:12, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

But it does need to be covered somewhere, per Ruakh below. Can we agree that it refers to the human condition?

Only then delete. DAVilla 03:56, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Keep and fix POS. The usage warrants coverage. —Ruakh_TALK 13:18, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

What would that PoS be? It might make a lovely usage example. It also makes a good "See also" item (w:Herbert_Morrison_(announcer)#"O,_the_humanity"). DCDuring TALK 13:54, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Given the "the", I suspect the POS is ===Noun===, just like the other senses. —Ruakh_TALK 19:37, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

I was thinking of adding a similar sense to baby, which would be attestable in "my baby!". DCDuring TALK 20:25, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

And what would you (Ruakh) say it means, other than "mankind, human beings as a group" (which is one of our existing senses)?​—msh210℠ (talk) 20:45, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

I really have no idea. To me it's always been an idiomatic use. I don't see how it can possibly mean "mankind, human beings as a group", and I'm very disappointed to learn that it doesn't have any more coherent meaning! —Ruakh_TALK 11:20, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Delete; this is a quotation from the destruction of the Hindenberg, not a novel definition of the word. It is possible that "Oh, the humanity!" has become a catchphrase in its own right, but that would be placed on a separate page. Sometimes a famous quotation will stick, but more often it's just a quotation. --EncycloPetey 20:00, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

There might even be a morphological snowclone built on rhymes for "humanity", like "humidity", though it requires some atypical stress patterns - "stagey" intonation. DCDuring TALK 20:25, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Keep/Delete: Keep "Oh, the humanity!" as an example of the usage of the noun, delete the interjection. Ruakh, msh210: perhaps "oh, the human condition" is a better interpretation than "oh, human beings as a group"? (If we can't figure out precisely where to put it, put it under a Quotations header...) - -sche (discuss) 22:59, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Delete from here because "Humanity!" is not the interjection. Equinox ◑ 14:05, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Delete, not an interjection. --Mglovesfun (talk) 16:38, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

deleted -- Liliana • 07:41, 12 October 2011 (UTC)