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Post by Verbivore on Oct 26, 2019 19:23:49 GMT
[...] I do wish I had an OED but perhaps someone who has will see what it has to say? Here you are, LJH: homogenous1 Biol. = homogenetic 2 Surg. Of transplanted tisssue [ NOTE: typo sss in OED!] homogeneous1.a Of one thing in respect of another, or of various things in respect of each other: Of the same kind, nature, or character; alike, similar, congruous. 2.a Of a thing in respect of its constitution: Consisting of parts or elements all of the same kind; of uniform nature or character throughout. homologous1.a Math. Having the same ratio or relative value as the two antecedents or the two consequents in a proportion, or the corresponding sides in similar figures. 1.b Mod. Geom. Having a relation of homology, as two plane figures; homological; homographic and in the same plane. 2.a Biol. Having the same relation to an original or fundamental type; corresponding in type of structure (but not necessarily in function); said of parts or organs in different animals or plants, or of different parts or organs in the same animal or plant. 2.b Path. Of the same formation as the normal tissue of the part: said of morbid growths. 3 Chem. Applied to series of compounds differing in composition successively by a constant amount of certain constituents, and showing a gradation of chemical and physical properties; esp. to series of organic compounds differing by multiples of CH 2, as the alcohols, aldehydes, ethers, etc. 4.a In other applications: = Corresponding. 4.b Cytol. Of chromosomes: pairing at meiosis, and normally (except in the case of the sex chromosomes of some species) identical in morphology and in arrangement of genetic loci. 4.c Med. Derived from or involving an organism or organisms of the same species; also, involving or containing antibodies or antigens that react specifically with one another, as when an antibody has been produced by injection of an antigen.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Oct 27, 2019 11:24:59 GMT
Thank you, Vv. I really hope you could copy and paste all that. I wouldn’t like to think you had transcribed it in the old-fashioned way.
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Post by Verbivore on Oct 27, 2019 11:27:09 GMT
Thank you, Vv. I really hope you could copy and paste all that. I wouldn’t like to think you had transcribed it in the old-fashioned way. C&P (C'd & P'd?) directly from my onboard (from DVD original) OED 2nd edn. It comes in very handy.
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Post by Twoddle on Oct 27, 2019 12:12:24 GMT
I'd always thought it was "homogenous" but now stand corrected. My 1985 Chambers Concise Dictionary defines homogenous as "similar owing to common descent or origin", and homogeneous as "of the same kind or nature; having the constituent elements similar throughout". Henceforth I'm happy to accept that I buy homogeneous, not homogenous, milk (which has been homogenised, not homogeneised ). You learn something new every day. Then you die and forget it all.
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Post by Dave Miller on Oct 27, 2019 17:38:10 GMT
It's the opposite case with a couple of words, though - we often hear an "e/i" sound being unnecessarily added.
How often we hear mischievious and grievious !
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Post by Twoddle on Oct 27, 2019 22:28:47 GMT
How often we hear mischievious and grievious ! Yes, far too often. A former colleague of mine could never be persuaded that really bad crimes were heinous, not heinious.
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Post by Dave Miller on Oct 27, 2019 22:55:21 GMT
Or (the e/i sound disappearing, this time): medeval.
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Post by Verbivore on Oct 28, 2019 0:43:47 GMT
In my 1950s/'60s schooldays town, long before the Catholic–Protestant divide softened, mischievious was, along with fillum – and others that slip my mind just now – a marker of Catholic systemic schooling (i.e. the low-cost working-class institutions, not the costly privates), which then had Irish nuns and brothers doing the teaching.
It was a most heinious matter of mischievious grieviousness (or would that be grieviosity?).
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Post by Twoddle on Oct 28, 2019 9:05:39 GMT
Or (the e/i sound disappearing, this time): medeval. That one drives me potty. Even learned historians can be heard saying it on TV. It has four syllables, not three!
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Oct 28, 2019 12:41:14 GMT
It seems there are two* possibilities: the solecisms under discussion are increasing infrequency, or they are not. The evidence is inconclusive. On the one hand, those contributors here who are being driven potty or mad or daft by the usages have not succumbed to their fates so the solecisms are not increasing; or the solecisms are increasing and have driven everyone else over the line into psychological oblivion and have stopped their contributing to this forum. Bearing in mind the present lack of contributors, it seems the second proposition is more likely.
I call on all of us to redouble our efforts to preserve the purity of our language and thus save those of us who remain from final lunacy (many of us are part way there already).
* I ignore the proposition that the usages are static.
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Post by Verbivore on Oct 30, 2019 20:37:48 GMT
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Post by Twoddle on Oct 30, 2019 22:49:26 GMT
I've no idea why, but my favourites (both of which are mentioned in that piece) have long been: "Marley was dead, to begin with", and "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife", probably takes third place.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Oct 30, 2019 23:46:19 GMT
I am not sure it can be counted as a “best” first line but, certainly, one of the most startling must be the first sentence in Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (Hutchinson, 1980) — “It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.
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Post by Verbivore on Oct 31, 2019 3:14:12 GMT
I am not sure it can be counted as a “best” first line but, certainly, one of the most startling must be the first sentence in Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (Hutchinson, 1980) — “It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me. Thanks for that, LJH: It appealed to me. (Yes, maybe I'm bent. LOL) And good luck to Burgess (or his character) in managing it at 81! It also had me wondering what might happen between the catamite and the archbishop, especially in those days of non-accountability, previous to the current fashion of royal commissions exposing Who Did What to Whom, When, Where, Why, and How. Archbishops have been reported to sport dirty vestments habits.
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Post by Dave Miller on Oct 31, 2019 7:39:16 GMT
I am not sure it can be counted as a “best” first line but, certainly, one of the most startling must be the first sentence in Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (Hutchinson, 1980) — “It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me. That’s a brilliant first line: it sets the scene, in detail but concisely, and includes an immediate cliffhanger. You’ve just got to read on and find out what happens next!
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