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ducktypegoose | 6 years ago

Depends on how you think about it, relative to the mirrors that were there before they are collosal. I do take humbrence with the author's use of the word, "deflecting". Sounds like they're trying to divert the Sun's wonderous glory away from their town. Reflecting is the word, praise the Sun.

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soperj|6 years ago

Deflect is to change direction. It's why you can deflect a puck in hockey into the net. Don't know why people keep reading it as a negative.

jws|6 years ago

Deflect most often is used in a sense of deflecting something away from something else. e.g. to deflect a bullet. That would mean away from its target, not into a target.

In English there isn't a general word for altering a trajectory into an object. In this case however, reflect is precisely suited to what mirrors do to light and doesn't have the confusing inverse connotation of away. You reflect away from something or onto something equally well in English.

monktastic1|6 years ago

I don't mean to be a grammar Nazi, but by "humbrence with" do you mean "umbrage at?"

In a neat coincidence "umbrage" and "umbrella" apparently share a common origin in Latin "umbra" (shade).

klibertp|6 years ago

Please don't downvote this guy. As a non-native speaker, I learned one nice word and a bit of trivia about it. It certainly adds to the discussion, as without the explanation I wouldn't know what the GP wanted to say.

ducktypegoose|6 years ago

I took the initiative to divert the conversation into semantic territory, and invited the Spelling-Stasi into my home. So as far as I'm concerned you can have a cup of tea while you're at it. And I'm glad you pointed out the serendipity of the mistake, so I can attempt to claim it as as my own clever play on words.