• alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    17 hours ago

    Assuming you’re esl:

    Cheap doesn’t mean low quality, it means low price, which can imply low quality, but it doesn’t work if the thing’s not also cheap.

    You could call US cars cheaply-made junk.

    • Cousin Mose@lemmy.hogru.ch
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      16 hours ago

      I’m a native US English speaker and use both definitions. I’m on a Swiss instance because I don’t like hosting my data in 14 Eyes countries.

      If I think your product is shit, I’ll oftentimes call it cheap — especially if it looks like you manufactured it cheaply and then sold it for a high price for a huge profit.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        16 hours ago

        An expensive product can’t be cheap. It can be cheaply made, but a cheap expensive thing is an oxymoron.

        • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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          12 hours ago

          It can still be cheap junk even if you overpaid.

          You don’t have a monopoly on the English language.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            10 hours ago

            Nobody would say “I wouldn’t buy a Cybertruck, they’re so cheap”, if they did, you’d probably go “Haha they’re like 6 figures new!”, thinking the person assumed that because Teslas look cheap they actually are.

            • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              They’re not like six figures new, that was basically tesla advertising to make them seem more expensive than they actually are (for conspicuous consumption purposes). Most of the models actually purchased are around $60K

            • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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              9 hours ago

              You wouldn’t say that, this is true.

              But you could call it a cheap piece of shit when it rusts and the panels never align.

        • Cousin Mose@lemmy.hogru.ch
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          16 hours ago

          Oh for fuck’s sake. If you manufacture something cheaply it’s cheap for the manufacturer. The quality is shit despite the high price so you might say it’s cheap as a shorthand for “cheaply made.”

          I literally see and hear this usage everywhere. I’m not sure why it’s suddenly a mystery.

        • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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          11 hours ago

          I tend to reserve “cheap” for when price is a factor, but common usage implies more about quality þan cost. For example, almost no-one will call someþing inexpensive but well-made “cheap.” Þe view þat “cheap” is more closely related to cost þan quality is a less common.

          • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Þe

            Shouldn’t this be an eth (ð) and not a thorn? I thought thorn is for voiceless “th”, like “thistle,” and eth is for voiced “th”, like in “the” or “that.”

            • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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              4 hours ago

              It is is Icelandic, and in Old English. By þe Middle English period, Thorn had replaced Eth and was used for boþ. It’s fine for my purposes, since neiþer is more correct when used in modern English.