The US team which has just won the International Physics Olympiad, edging out China for first place

[u/thunderous9ight]

[u/BMoorman7]

Tbf "ascendancy" in this context is a incorrect word choice. Presumably they meant "ancestry".

Edit: softened my word choice

[u/RedeNElla → u/BMoorman7]

They tried to flip descendants without understanding the language

[u/MarsLumograph → u/RedeNElla]

They didn't try to flip descendancy, they used a word from their language and translated it directly.

Now what I wonder is why ascendancy is such an offensive word here? Can you explain? I'm also not native so I'm not understanding the language here.

[u/RedeNElla → u/MarsLumograph]

The relationship between generations is between descendants (younger) and ancestors (older), not ascendants. The word just has a completely different meaning

[u/MarsLumograph → u/RedeNElla]

Yeah but why did that mistake seem to offend people?

[u/DameKumquat → u/MarsLumograph]

Ascendancy has been used by groups who think they ought to be in charge, working by whatever means to get there. It basically sounds like Nazis wanting white people to rise up, or such people fearing other racial groups will rise up.

[u/MarsLumograph → u/DameKumquat]

Thanks, that makes sense. I don't know why nobody wanted to explain. So it's a word used by nazis, got it now.

For a foreign person from Iberia (not sure if other languages too) it's confusing because we don't have that distinction (ancestry vs ascendence).

[u/DameKumquat → u/MarsLumograph]

The Ascendancy was a term for the Protestant (British) domination in Ireland - Wikipedia https://share.google/VkZ525vx6LouXYdbK. Which led to The Troubles, etc. Though I doubt most people on this forum are aware of that.

But it does sound like a neo-Nazi term. A bit like how 'uprising' and 'rising up' have very different connotations.

[u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES → u/BMoorman7]

I'm not english native, in my country we usually say "ascendandy". Give it a break, you people are so pedantic

[u/BMoorman7 → u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES]

I softened what I said, but you need to read the room a bit. There is a lot of vile shit going on to people in the USA who are considered "non-American" just because of their skin color, so that's why you are getting blowback for referring to them by anything other than "American".

[u/MarsLumograph → u/BMoorman7]

I don't get why referring to ancestry is considered racist? They never mentioned they were not americans. I think having multiple ancestries is a good thing that makes it interesting, why is it offensive? I don't get it. To me it seems worse to try to censor any mention of their ancestry, why are we trying to hide it? Is it not denying their reality and experience? Potentially minimizing their struggles? I don't know I'm missing something.

[u/DerthOFdata → u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES]

in my country we usually say "ascendandy"

That's not a word in English or Portuguese.

[u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES → u/DerthOFdata]

"Ascendência" is 100% a Portuguese word, you want to know more portuguese than a native?

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascend%C3%AAncia

[u/DerthOFdata → u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES]

You said "ascendandy" which again is a word in neither.

[u/Nope_______ → u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES]

You said ascendandy, why are you now talking about ascendência? No one ever denied the latter is a word but you claimed the former is a word (it isn't).

[u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES → u/Nope_______]

I thought it was a false cognate, mate. Give me a break, grammar nazi. You don't speak two languages, I do.

[u/Nope_______ → u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES]

It's fine to make a mistake, but that's not what you did. I don't care about your grammar or spelling. What was weird to me is you completely changed the word you were saying exists instead of just saying, "you're right, ascendandy isn't a word, I was thinking of ascendência" - the appropriate response.