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 0.46 — 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 2026-07 (run #2: 3 current + 3 vintage models, 3 matched registers, 1,392 samples)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 6.27 | 4.47 | 0.78 | 2.91 |
| hn | 6.76 | — | 1.19 | |
| cooking | 4.25 | — | 0.54 | |
| parenting | 7.41 | — | 0.34 | |
| 3.26 | — | — |
literal: not just