AdamJT13;2117554 said:
I never said that. I said there are people who ignore him whenever he opens his mouth (present tense), not that there are people who have ignored him every time he has ever opened his mouth (past and present).
Your distinction between past and present tense is irrelevant to my point because the word whenever is a time-inclusive statement--a fact that will become apparent when we examine multiple definitions of the word "whenever" that are applicable to your particular usage:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whenever
when·ev·er
: at any or every time that
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
when·ev·er
1.at whatever time; at any time when: Come whenever you like.
2.when? (used emphatically): Whenever did he say that?
American Heritage Dictionary
when·ev·er
1.At whatever time that: We can leave whenever you're ready.
2. Every time that: The child smiles whenever the puppy appears.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary
whenever
at any time that
As we can plainly see, regardless of the definition we use for
whenever, your words have a literal meaning that you cannot prove; consequently, your statement was either hyperbolic or misleading.
If you want to play semantics, you need to understand the definitions of words better than using one definition out of one dictionary. To ignore also means to be ignorant of, to fail to notice, to pay little or no attention to, etc. It comes from a Latin word that means "to not know."
I fear you've moved from semantics to etymology.
If you would like to examine additional meanings for "ignore," we certainly can. Let's start with Merriam-Webster.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignore
ignore
Etymology:
obsolete ignore to be ignorant of,
1
: to refuse to take notice of
2
: to reject (a bill of indictment) as ungrounded
Your attempting to impose a defintion for ignore that is obsolete and no longer part of modern English. Modern definitions for ignore indicate a conscious and/or deliberate refusal to acknowledge the person or thing being ignored. Consequently, people cannot ignore DCFanatic without first being aware of the item he is offering. This modern definition for ignore is validated in numerous other dictionaries.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
ig·nore
1.to refrain from noticing or recognizing:
to ignore insulting remarks.
2.
Law. (of a grand jury) to reject (a bill of indictment), as on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ignore
ignore
1. To deliberately pay no attention to.
2. (
obsolete) Fail to notice.
American Heritage Dictionary
ignore
To refuse to pay attention to; disregard.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary (Beta Version)
ignore
to take no notice of; to pay no attention to
Example:
He ignored all my warnings.
Even in the Kernerman defintion, which seems as if it might corroborate your purported usage of ignore, the example sentence clearly shows that the failure to take notice is deliberate. Consider this: If I can't hear a person's cries for help because he's 100 miles away from my position, is it more accurate to say that...
1) I ignored his cries for help, or
2) I was not aware of his cries for help.
Number 2 is clearly the more appropriate and accurate choice. Number 1 is, at best, a poor choice of words and, at worst, misleading. Given your dogged approach to accuracy, you of all people should appreciate this distinction.
