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Post by Twoddle on May 20, 2018 9:16:18 GMT
Presumably, the intention is that “major” faults must be attended to with greater urgency that “minor” faults - but if minor faults are dealt with “as soon as possible”, how will it be possible for “immediately” to come any sooner? I read about the new test this morning and was similarly bemused by some of the terminology. Also, I breathed a sigh of relief that I sold my diesel a year or so ago; diesels are definitely being made scapegoats nowadays. |
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Post by Twoddle on May 20, 2018 9:28:17 GMT
I am happy to acknowledge having only a passing interest in royal weddings but one can almost hear the “only” in Twoddle’s post when he says “The other, so I'm led to believe, is an actress”. Prince Harry is certainly unelected but both he and Ms Markle are worthwhile and, indeed, interesting people who have done significant charitable work and who have used their fame, deserved or not, to promote many important causes. If they originate, as Twoddle suggests, from “highly dysfunctional families”, they are surely all the more entitled to admiration — and no-one can choose their family. Canadian news analyses have spent much time discussing and positively valuing the importance of the marriage, and the form of the service, for race relations not just in the UK but even in Canada and the USA. Many millions of people around the world have been fascinated by, and have derived great enjoyment and even some fun from, the marriage. For example, 1,700 people in Toronto paid to attend the Princess of Wales Theatre at four o'clock in the morning to witness a live broadcast of the marriage and to celebrate the occasion. And they also take pride in the choice of Brian Mulrooney’s grandchildren to carry the bride’s train. I have almost no interest in cookery programmes, house hunting programmes and most sports but if my likes and dislikes were to be the criteria by which broadcasters select the programmes they produce, many folk would be deprived of their pleasures. Of course, if I may be allowed a tic comment, these folks’ pleasures are clearly seriously inferior to those enjoyed by those of us who went to good schools but they should not be deprived of their trivial pleasures — should they? I agree with almost everything you've written, LJH, but my frustration and annoyance weren't directed at the fact that the wedding took place and was reported by the news media - I accept that it was newsworthy and in the public interest - but at the sheer deluge of publicity on national TV and radio, to the exclusion of almost all other news, and to the grovelling, sickly sweet, "ooh, fluffy kittens" manner of its presentation by reporters and presenters who usually take a fairly rational and hard-nosed approach to things. I know that Harry and Meghan do good works for charity, and I laud Harry's role in the Army, but thousands of other people are equally praiseworthy without receiving quite that level of recognition for week on week, time without end. As to colour, I think it's marvellous that, after so many generations, the family has welcomed into its fold, without comment or prejudice, its first red-head.  |
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Post by Verbivore on May 20, 2018 11:29:35 GMT
For want of anything much else linguistic … Here’s something that I didn’t know until yesterday. While visiting a multilingual friend of German origins I was browsing her library and found her Deutsches Wörterbuch, the German equivalent to our Oxford Dictionary. The full godnose how many volumes, about 140 years old. As I admired the binding I noticed the Grimm on the title pages.  I knew the Brothers Grimm were philologists and early linguists, but had never given the idea great consideration. Now I was driven read up on them – here. |
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Post by Twoddle on May 20, 2018 22:04:04 GMT
For want of anything much else linguistic … Here’s something that I didn’t know until yesterday. While visiting a multilingual friend of German origins I was browsing her library and found her Deutsches Wörterbuch, the German equivalent to our Oxford Dictionary. The full godnose how many volumes, about 40 years old. As I admired the binding I noticed the Grimm on the title pages. View AttachmentI knew the Brothers Grimm were philologists and early linguists, but had never given the idea great consideration. Now I was driven read up on them – here. Does Germany have an equivalent of L'Académie Française or La Real Academia Española, i.e. an official organisation for the language? I wish there were one for UK English; the OED seems content to incorporate any old (or perhaps that should be "new") crap that's floating around in popular parlance at the time. |
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Post by Twoddle on May 22, 2018 21:42:04 GMT
This evening I heard part of Prince Harry's first speech at a public function since his wedding. I don't remember the exact phrase in question but it included the words, "to William and I". "to … I"? It seems that the Queen's speech hasn't quite made its way down the generations to the Queen's grandson.
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Post by Verbivore on May 22, 2018 22:05:42 GMT
Recently I posted here about the misunderstanding of the Latin cum, as in summa cum laude. Now the issue is in the news. Cake shop ignorance cums on a tad strongly.Another report.I’ve encountered this issue in my work. Sometimes a client will submit, for example, a real estate advert that includes a term such as “shed cum garage” – except they spell it “shed come garage” in their ignorance. When I’ve tried to emend the client’s come to cum, they reject it, believing cum to be a “rude word”. It’s a Latin preposition meaning with, fergawdsake! Get over it, you wowsers! |
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Post by Little Jack Horner on May 23, 2018 22:04:42 GMT
I am very much afraid that you are the one who will have “to get over it”, Vv. You are, I think, fighting a lost battle. In any case, I am not sure I approve of Latin words being inserted into perfectly ordinary English sentences — it makes me think of educated 19th century novelists showing their superiority over their less well educated readers. How about simply “shed/garage” ? Or “spacious garage” ? Or “garage with storage” ?
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Post by Little Jack Horner on May 23, 2018 22:24:55 GMT
We British often complain about Americans referring to British chips as “French fries” when they are of course quite different things. While on my current tour of Québéc and Ontario, I have several times been gratified to see “fish and chips” advertised in fast food outlets. And they refer to genuine British-style chips at that.
I have also observed that Canadian usage employs the British spellings of theatre, centre and traveller. I expect most contributors to this forum already knew this but I have discovered it all by myself — and it pleases me !
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Post by Dave Miller on May 24, 2018 8:35:54 GMT
I am very much afraid that you are the one who will have “to get over it”, Vv. You are, I think, fighting a lost battle. In any case, I am not sure I approve of Latin words being inserted into perfectly ordinary English sentences — it makes me think of educated 19th century novelists showing their superiority over their less well educated readers. How about simply “shed/garage” ? Or “spacious garage” ? Or “garage with storage” ? Wow. That’s a surprising reaction. Perhaps other places find “cum” to be unusual, but to me in England it’s just a word originating in Latin but now part of English, much like via, sic, agenda, flux or modicum. Hmmm ... should we now write “modicome” or perhaps “modi___”? It has a useful precision: a shed-cum-garage is both, yet neither quite one nor the other - a hybrid. (Oops. They we go again. My apologies, ljh, for “inserting a [nearly] Latin word into a perfectly ordinary English sentence”.) It is certainly not particularly indicative of spaciousness, and a garage might easily have additional storage without taking on the character of a shed. I have, I’ll admit, occasionally seen “cum” used in reference to semen - vastly outnumbered by the times when I’ve seen it spelled “come” for the same purpose - but then I’ve encountered sexual meanings for words like tool or Thomas. As Vv says, “get over it”! |
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Post by Verbivore on May 24, 2018 9:36:50 GMT
[…] How about simply “shed/garage” ? […] That's a solution I've settled on with some advertisers, but real estate agents can be as particular as they are subliterate, and they know what they want, right or wrong – more often the latter. How on Earth would prissy Australian estate agents cope with all those English place names having a linking cum between their elements. e.g. Stow cum Quy (why no hyphens?), Prestwich-cum-Oldham, Salcott-cum-Virley, Cockshutt-cum-Petton, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Attercliffe-cum-Darnall, Upton-cum-Chalvey, Shingay-cum-Wendy … (yes, I had to look those up, but I knew such existed)? |
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Post by Verbivore on May 29, 2018 6:56:58 GMT
An example of thoughtless copywriting in some advertorial for a sex-toy shop that I proofed today:
"Toys for males, females, and couples in unique cutting-edge designs can spice up your love life”.
Ouch!
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