active · lexical · first recorded 2026-07-02 · registers: hn, cooking, parenting
The soft residue of the famous “it's not X, it's Y” construct. The hard form has been trained away (see its entry), but the reflex survives as “not just”: elevating whatever is being described by denying a smaller frame first.
Also appears in good human prose — weighted down accordingly.
◑ appears in good human writing too (collateral score 0.41 — the closer to 1, the more it also fires on acclaimed pre-AI prose)
…acting as a sacrificial antioxidant, not just lowering pH…
…salting early and adequately (not just at the end)…
occurrences per 10k words, measured 2026-08-17 (run #10, 3 current + 3 vintage models)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 7.05 | 5.67 | 0.68 | 2.91 |
| hn | 8.51 | — | 0.98 | |
| cooking | 4.46 | — | 0.54 | |
| parenting | 6.21 | — | 0.34 | |
| 4.74 | — | — |
| run | date | AI /10k | vs humans |
|---|---|---|---|
| #2 | 2026-07-02 | 6.27 | ×8.0 vs humans |
| #3 | 2026-07-02 | 6.50 | ×4.5 vs humans |
| #4 | 2026-07-06 | 5.46 | ×5.1 vs humans |
| #5 | 2026-07-13 | 6.77 | ×6.0 vs humans |
| #6 | 2026-07-20 | 4.33 | ×3.2 vs humans |
| #7 | 2026-07-27 | 7.38 | ×5.2 vs humans |
| #8 | 2026-08-03 | 6.18 | ×3.8 vs humans |
| #9 | 2026-08-10 | 8.13 | ×3.8 vs humans |
| #10 | 2026-08-17 | 7.05 | ×10 vs humans |
literal: not just