'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

Saetana

ScarletBea wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. To decimate is to reduce drastically, not just 10%, it's not linked to the 'decimal system'.

Dictionary definition of decimate below:

From Latin decimare ‘to take the tenth (decimus) part of anything,’ in particular referring to the levying and payment of tithe and also the practice of capital punishment applied to one man at random (by lot) out of every ten in a legion.

Verb
decimate (third-person singular simple present decimates, present participle decimating, simple past and past participle decimated

Check out the link below to the Wiktionary page on this word, there is an alternate meaning of reducing drastically but this is way down the list of definitions :cool:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decimate

samizdat

brettcta wrote: »

i had something of this ilk

My University tutor, who was quite an eminent scholar, corrected me for using "of that ilk" in the sense of "of that kind", although it seems this usage is more common than the original meaning.

Freedictionary.com explains the problem: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ilk

Personally, I think it is a bit pompous these days to use words like "ilk" when there are other, more suitable, words; and pomposity is harder to forgive if it is also based on ignorance.

In a similar vein, people who use the pronoun "I" because they know people tend to misuse "me" run into difficulties if they use "I" when it should actually have been "me", or if they wrongly correct people in those circumstances. In fact, that is my pet hate!

Another bugbear of mine is the vogue at the BBC to say "refute" when the true sense is "deny". The BBC College of Journalism explains this well: [URL=""]http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/glossary/writing/rebut-and-refute.shtml[/URL]. If only the BBC's journalists could be bothered to follow their own rules!

Finally, "a raft of", supposedly meaning "a lot of", drives me crazy. I always imagine a flimsy craft bobbing about in the Pacific Ocean.

lesley2a

Martin - it's "borrow (or get a letter) FROM", not "off"!

pete1976

Some more pet hates of mine:

People missing out the first 'i' when pronouncing 'medicine' (as already mentioned by someone above). I've heard this many times from BBC presenters.

People saying things like "It's more muddier". No, no, no, it should be either "It's more muddy" or "It's muddier", you can't use both. This seems to be getting more and more prevalent recently (including BBC presenters).

People putting an extra 'n' into the word "skeleton" and making it "skelenton".

People missing the 'g' out of Birmingham and making it "Birminham".

I was asked to proof-read a document from a colleague a couple of years ago and I ended up re-writing almost every sentence for him. Mind you, English wasn't his first language so maybe I should've let some of his mistakes go!

pete1976

Just thought of some more annoyances:

Contracting people's names, e.g. Simon Cowell becomes SiCo and Susan Boyle is SuBo.

Similarly expressions such as 'Hazmat' meaning Hazardous Materials (when in Australia a few years ago I worked briefly for the New South Wales Fire Brigades and 'Hazmat' had me confused for a while).

'Mizzle' annoys me too.

and not using capital letters to start sentences (seen many times in this thread).

And starting sentences with 'and' :-).

LynnMcW

spandit wrote: »

Panini is the plural of panino, so asking for "a panini" or "two paninis" is incorrect.
I may be wrong as it may have changed due to common usage.

Or as the sign in a local shop says: "Pannini's".

KimYeovil

Saetana wrote: »

Check out the link below to the Wiktionary page on this word, there is an alternate meaning of reducing drastically but this is way down the list of definitions

Aaargh! That is an evil one to* me - 'alternate' being used as an alternative for 'alternative'. It is too late and it has now been adopted in British English but it still sounds monstrous to most fogeys.

* Should that be 'for' ?

Red_Doe

Why do english people say lickle, for little? Drives me nuts when I hear it. And dat for that? Der for there? Or the usual mix ups with there, their and they`re. Nukular for nuclear. Grrr.

LynnMcW

hrdolly wrote: »

And, I don't know how I forgot the biggest offender - been instead of being! My granddaugher came home from nursery with a badge on written by the nursery nurse 'For been a good girl' !!

It really annoys me when teaching staff do this. How are children supposed to learn what is correct?

JimmyTheWig

pete1976 wrote: »

And starting sentences with 'and' :-).

Nothing wrong with that if you are doing it in informal writing and using it for emphasis.