From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?

I've just come across it in a book, and I recall coming across it in a
book I was editing a couple of years ago. I made enquiries at the
time, and thought I had made a not ofn it, but could not find my note.

A websearch only brought up somthing about the square root of -1, and
the contexts in which I have encountered it are not mathematical.

It seems to be related to concept, conception, construction and
similar terms, and I would like to know how it differs from them in
its precise meaning.

What would be the difference between, for example:

Concepts like X
and
Imaginaries like X

???
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

On 2026-08-01, Steve Hayes wrote:

Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?

I've just come across it in a book, and I recall coming across it in a
book I was editing a couple of years ago. I made enquiries at the
time, and thought I had made a not ofn it, but could not find my note.

A websearch only brought up somthing about the square root of -1, and
the contexts in which I have encountered it are not mathematical.

It seems to be related to concept, conception, construction and
similar terms, and I would like to know how it differs from them in
its precise meaning.

What would be the difference between, for example:

Concepts like X
and
Imaginaries like X

What's the book, and can you give more context? (I'm intrigued.)
--
We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives
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From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:

Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?

Dear Steve, PLEASE don't start new newsgroups.

On some servers, whatever you add to the Newsgroups: header
gets included in the full group list,
in this case the non-existent group

alt.usage.english.neologisms

There really is no need for it.
Keeping AUE alive (without subgroups to divert posting volume)
is the best we can hope for at present,

Jan

PS Fortunately Adam Funk the good sense, in replying to you,
to add a Follow-Up To: alt.english.usage
to kill off more postings to it.



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From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

On 2026-08-01, J. J. Lodder wrote:

PS Fortunately Adam Funk the good sense, in replying to you,
to add a Follow-Up To: alt.english.usage
to kill off more postings to it.

To be fair, slrn reminds me to do that before sending the post ---
otherwise, I'd probably forget.
--
Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each
one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of
being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better,
grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any
other spot. --Emma Goldman
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From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

On 8/1/2026 5:15 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?

Night vision? Ghosts? A.I.? :)

How do you detect, describe &
picutre imaginaries??
--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw
The game is afoot... Meow...
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From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

On 8/4/2026 1:03 PM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 8/1/2026 5:15 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?

Night vision? Ghosts? A.I.? :)

How do you detect, describe &
picutre imaginaries??

The Sixth Sense (1999) Trailer #1
| Movieclips Classic Trailers - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ZP95NF_Wk>
--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw
The game is afoot... Meow...
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.english.usage

On Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:15:11 +0200, Steve Hayes
<hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:

Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?

I've just come across it in a book, and I recall coming across it in a
book I was editing a couple of years ago. I made enquiries at the
time, and thought I had made a not ofn it, but could not find my note.

Thanks to all who replied (mainly in alt.usage.english, to which I
have therefore set follow-ups) and pointed me to sources of more
information.

I've now found something that is possibly related -- Benedict Anderson
used the term "imagined communities" primarily in relation to
nationalism.

For him the "nation" was a social construct, an imagined community
whose members did not know each other.

This helped me to understand another usage that has often puzzled me
-- when people speak of people who have one characteristic in common
as being a "community" -- for example "the deaf community", "the gay
community" or "the white community".

I have met gay people who hang out with other gay people, and so have
formed what could be called "a gay community" (with the indefinite
article), but they are not "the gay community".

I have been classified as "white" in the sense of being part of the
white population group, but I in no way see myself as being a member
of any "white community", but no doubt there are some white
supremacists who imagine that there is such a thing, and so it is an
"imagined community", or perhaps just an "imaginary".
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2