English Language & Usage Asked on July 18, 2021
It could be related to ‘silk touch’ or ‘light step’.
In minecraft ‘silk touch’ means ability to take the block as is, being able to place it later in game, without changing the block, but usually many block types will change if you take them.
Im interested in any word or phrase that can describe behaivor of a person (or preferably a group) that chooses paths that can be returned from if decision would change later. And to do minimal unreversible change to the world in general.
For example, breaking a vase is hard to revert, so person would avoid breaking a vase. Not breaking a vase is easy to revert – person can break it later if needed. So preferred path is not to break a vase. Making noise on average is hard to revert, people may become aware of your actions, or may become annoyed. Being quiet is reversible in most cases, you can announce your activity later, or annoy people later. Lying or speaking the truth in court (speaking, making noise) is an example that blocks other option anyway, so both paths are about equal, and neither is preffered. Building from recyclable material is preferred, because it is easier to ‘undo’ the construction compared to building from non recyclable materials.
The opposite of ‘burning bridges’, and somewhat oposite of ‘yolo’. It could be somewhere nearby the meaning of ‘entropy’. There is likely some sort of idiom associated with it that i dont know.
edit, suggestions list
If a word has ‘reversibility’ in its meaning, thats a big bonus. In particular if word counts the cost for the reverse action, and selects the action with the least of the reverse cost.
it seems the ‘retrievable change’ is very close to what I wanted, thanks to @Tuffy. You can add your answer so that I can select it. Or we can wait for other suggestions if you wish
I think pussyfooting strongly carries the sense that a tentative step can swiftly be withdrawn, not just the softly-softly imagery.
Pussyfoot, which means a delicate, soft step comes from the imagery of a cat’s careful tread. To pussyfoot is to proceed with caution, subtlety, and delicacy and is used pejoratively. The term is American in origin and, in adjectival form, dates to at least 1893.
There is, sadly, a cautionary caveat: As Brian Donovan points out in a comment (though I'd missed this completely), the term, even though it originated in the States, might raise a few eyebrows in the US because of the non-cute–feline associations of 'pussy' there.
Tentative itself goes further than 'using great caution', with the nuances of a controlled, experimental, small-scale dry run. Not overly committed.
tentative [adjective]
of the nature of or made or done as a trial, experiment, or attempt; experimental:
- a tentative report on her findings.
unsure; uncertain; not definite or positive; hesitant:
- a tentative smile on his face.
tentative: unconfirmed, provisional, ..., test
[Collins]
Testing the waters (see FumbleFingers' comment above) and putting out feelers are metaphors in the same semantic area.
Answered by Edwin Ashworth on July 18, 2021
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