Psych Lim
One of my (many) psychological limitations is idiots who screw up what 'well-regulated militia' means in the Second Amendment. A famous editor of a firearms magazine recently got it wrong, and so even though I have posted this before here and elsewhere, here goes.
The word 'regular' and its derivations - well-regulated and irregular - have a specific and well-known meaning as relating to things military. Here are some examples:
Theodore Roosevelt fought in the First Irregular Cavalry of the United States.
On Wikipedia, the official standing army of a country is known as its 'Regular Army' as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_army .
Sherlock Holmes employs the Baker's Street Irregulars, a cadre of street urchins who mostly spy for him but are sometimes mobilized into a dangerous slingshot-wielding force.
In the United States an officer upon commission is considered a 'Reserve Officer.' This has nothing to do with the twice a month Reserves; instead it means that he is subject to the 'up or out' officer promotion rules wherein each officer has a set period of time and number of chances to be considered for promotion and if he is passed over he cannot renew his contract and is released when it expires. However, at each successful promotion a Reserve Officer is also considered for promotion to Regular Officer. If they are so honored, then they are immune to the 'up or out' requirements - they have military tenure, so to speak, for their 20 years of military service, because of their perfection in the role of officer.
The first of the Green Berets (US Army Special Forces) five primary missions is called 'unconventional warfare' (UW) which is performed by training irregular forces to conduct insurgency actions in an occupied military zone.
The Civilian Irregular Defense Groups in Vietnam (CIDG) are an example of this Green Beret training.
In Disney's The Ballad Of Davey Crockett, written in 1954, is the line, "Andy Jackson is our gen'ral's name, his reg'lar soldiers we'll put to shame" - crowing about how Davey Crockett and his pals are better than any normally-trained soldier.
It's obvious just from context that 'irregular' means hastily put together and poorly trained and 'regular' means well-trained, skilled. Even the most average dictionary will have amongst the examples for the base word 'regular' the possibilities 'to regulate the digestion' and 'regular as clockwork' so as to indicate something working properly, not only the action of controlling something with rules.
These and many other examples can be found nowadays with a simple google search. This is not rocket science. This is perfectly common, everyday, current English. It's just from a portion of society, the military and its surrounding scholarly theory, history, and even fiction and games; that some people don't interact with.
The word 'regular' and its derivations - well-regulated and irregular - have a specific and well-known meaning as relating to things military. Here are some examples:
Theodore Roosevelt fought in the First Irregular Cavalry of the United States.
On Wikipedia, the official standing army of a country is known as its 'Regular Army' as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_army .
Sherlock Holmes employs the Baker's Street Irregulars, a cadre of street urchins who mostly spy for him but are sometimes mobilized into a dangerous slingshot-wielding force.
In the United States an officer upon commission is considered a 'Reserve Officer.' This has nothing to do with the twice a month Reserves; instead it means that he is subject to the 'up or out' officer promotion rules wherein each officer has a set period of time and number of chances to be considered for promotion and if he is passed over he cannot renew his contract and is released when it expires. However, at each successful promotion a Reserve Officer is also considered for promotion to Regular Officer. If they are so honored, then they are immune to the 'up or out' requirements - they have military tenure, so to speak, for their 20 years of military service, because of their perfection in the role of officer.
The first of the Green Berets (US Army Special Forces) five primary missions is called 'unconventional warfare' (UW) which is performed by training irregular forces to conduct insurgency actions in an occupied military zone.
The Civilian Irregular Defense Groups in Vietnam (CIDG) are an example of this Green Beret training.
In Disney's The Ballad Of Davey Crockett, written in 1954, is the line, "Andy Jackson is our gen'ral's name, his reg'lar soldiers we'll put to shame" - crowing about how Davey Crockett and his pals are better than any normally-trained soldier.
It's obvious just from context that 'irregular' means hastily put together and poorly trained and 'regular' means well-trained, skilled. Even the most average dictionary will have amongst the examples for the base word 'regular' the possibilities 'to regulate the digestion' and 'regular as clockwork' so as to indicate something working properly, not only the action of controlling something with rules.
These and many other examples can be found nowadays with a simple google search. This is not rocket science. This is perfectly common, everyday, current English. It's just from a portion of society, the military and its surrounding scholarly theory, history, and even fiction and games; that some people don't interact with.