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

Barter

We're certainly now at the 'repeating the same complaint that many others have made because we've not read everything or we've forgotten' point of the argument. At least if you're mentioning sixth, its, arksed, fing, or others oft repeated, please acknowledge that it's already been posted & discussed, rather than implying that yours is an original post.

So, fingers crossed that this hasn't already been said: I was taught that often should be pronounced offen, so hearing the t grates on me.

MrGumby

andelainedream wrote: »

Another becoming more common and in the same category as shtreet/shtring for street/string etc is the replacement of d with j e.g. in jraw for draw etc.
Why?

Mejum for medium is the one that gets me.

KimYeovil

etruscanshades wrote: »

NO! "Goodness' sake" is perfectly correct.

If you want to be all modern and American and teenagey, then I suppose you can say "Goodness's sake" but it sounds horrible.

(Did you like "teenagey"? I just invented that one. It'll be in the next edition of OED.)

I think you missed the original post. It was a complaint about this site being called "Martin Lewis' MSE" rather than "Martin Lewis's". And the correspondent wrote "for goodness sake" rather than either apostrophe-ed version.

jennyjelly

I had a friend who, when angered, would say "he's really got my gander up now".

It always gave me a mental picture of her hitting the offending person with a goose.

KimYeovil

quoia wrote: »

Kim, I couldn't decide if you were agreeing or disagreeing with Paul, or what a quantal had to do with it. The "size" of "your" quantum seemed to change between statements - and Paul was suggesting the error of claiming a QL, whilst "discrete and measurable", if it was relatively zero progress

I was not disagreeing with Paul - I just found his use of infinitesimal delightful and ironic. A quantum leap is only 10^35 times too small for most macroscopic changes whereas an infinitesimal is infinitely too small. An error bar of infinity is infinitely more too lax a metaphor than an error bar of 10^35 or 10^37.

Although I have to say my using the phrase "discrete AND measurable" when in Heisenberg territory was just asking for trouble!

(And as for bugbears - correspondents who think they are so special they should not post using default fonts...)

KimYeovil

jennyjelly wrote: »

I had a friend who, when angered, would say "he's really got my gander up now".

It always gave me a mental picture of her hitting the offending person with a goose.

I regard 'gander up' more as a superlative of 'dander up'. A frothing mad person with a yeast infection is less frightening than a honking guard-goose.

jennyjelly

KimYeovil wrote: »

I regard 'gander up' more as a superlative of 'dander up'.

Is it? I thought it was just a case of using the wrong word and 'dander' is the only correct one.

Must google it now or I won't sleep tonight!

Patr100

The over use of the word "plunge" in headlines instead of "fall"
As if fall is somehow not dramatic enough.

KimYeovil

jennyjelly wrote: »

Is it? I thought it was just a case of using the wrong word and 'dander' is the only correct one.

Must google it now or I won't sleep tonight!

No it is not a superlative it is a mistake. I was merely pointing out the delightful coincidence that geese do make very effective guard-dogs so riling a gander would still be an appropriate idiom.

P.E.Dant

You can only borrow OFF someone if you physically pick the loan or cash off their person. You surely mean borrow FROM.