DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

I didn't know that Peter and I like it! We borrowed Dachshund (Badger-dog) but left Stachelschwein alone.....

[Tripps]

Another example of tarnish replacing tar. From Fawkes blog today.

“It’s disappointing that there are people so desperate to tarnish farmers with the same brush as groups like Just Stop Oil, that they don’t establish facts before filing their story. Embarrassingly for them, the evidence doesn’t support their view.”



Whilst in pedant mode - its hedge a bet rather than edge.

[Stanley]

Well done David! Keep chasing the buggers. I hear examples of bad word choice almost every day but of course forget them if I don't write the source down. The written word is easier! I reckon that the reason why my vocabulary is better than most is because of the amount of reading I have done and I include the wonderful comics we had! The Wizard, Rover and Hotspur used accurate language and good grammar. Even earlier was the Boy's Own.

[Tripps]

The entire Hotspur back catalogue is available on 4 x DVD Roms on eBay for just £6.

I've easily resisted the temptaion - I have enough such stuff.

[Stanley]

Wonderful! I wonder if they are marketing it to today's youngsters. Who knows, they might get hooked like we did.
Hoo Sung and the Rolling Sphere, Wilson the world's greatest athlete and Rockfist Rogan spring to mind..... My mind is still populated by their shades.......

[Stanley]

We have circular, triangular and rectangular.... Why not oblongular?

[PanBiker]

Rectangle covers the oblongs, we also have square to describe a rectangle with equal length sides which should be used if that is the case. Geometry as taught over 60 years ago.

Rhomboid, now that's a different ballpark and along with triangles and irregular rhomboids is the only way I can eat toast that invariably starts as a rectangle. I know that is weird but it's how I am wired up.

[Whyperion]

Rectangle covers the oblongs, we also have square to describe a rectangle with equal length sides which should be used if that is the case. Geometry as taught over 60 years ago.

Rhomboid, now that's a different ballpark and along with triangles and irregular rhomboids is the only way I can eat toast that invariably starts as a rectangle. I know that is weird but it's how I am wired up.

I thought Rectangle and Oblong were interchangeable. Maybe someone wanted to change the definitions
Oblong refers to a flat shape with longer sides than ends, often an elongated rectangle; a rectangle is a shape with four right angles and opposite sides of equal length. Oblong typically describes a shape that is longer in one direction than the other, resembling an elongated circle or rectangle.

It is said that all rectangles are oblongs , but not all oblongs are rectangles (in same way all squares are rectangles)

This gives rise to Obloid for the "squashed sphere" and similar 2d and 3d shapes.

I suppose the typical oblong is the section of a "lockets" cough sweet

[Whyperion]

BBC Word Of Mouth Always an interesting Radio 4 program presented by survivor Michael Rosen looks at Old English and its Translation into "modern" English. Quite a lot as Old English retains in Yorkshire/Northumbrian and Scottish words and phrasing but its not always clear if it is from Germanic or Danish roots (they cross over too) . Interesting to me was the sign off to "Wassail" as a phrase meaning "Keep Well" used as a greeting and a farewell sign off (shades of "Live Long and Prosper") and the two words it comes from to my ears sound like "Hello" , which is a word that we dont really have a clear origin of , often attributed to Bell and the use of The Telephone as a greeting, maybe in earlier writing other phrases were always preferred with "Good Day"/ "Good Morning" and so on being the preferred greeting in person. The Old English doesnt seem to get as far as "Aye Up" on a listen , I might be wrong.

[Stanley]

I tripped over an explanation of the word bacon yesterday.
From Middle English bacoun (“meat from the back and sides of a pig”), from Anglo-Norman bacon, bacun (“ham, flitch, strip of lard”), from Old Low Frankish *bakō (“ham, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *bakô, *bakkô (“back”), an extension of *baką, whence English back, which see for more. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“back, buttocks; to vault, arch”). Cognate with Old Saxon baco (“back”), Dutch bake (“ham, side of bacon”), Old High German bahho (“ham, side of bacon”), whence German Bache f (“wild sow”), Alemannic German Bache m (“bacon”).
So there.... another itch scratched!

[Stanley]

I heard a lovely use of language this morning that caught my attention because of its accuracy. I heard a scientist say "These are important data." Most people I know and possibly me as well would say This data when of course it is plural. A small thing but it jumped out at me....

[Tizer]

Likewise the extinct giant ox called an Aurochs. That's the singular, the plural being Aurochsen. As you'll guess it comes from German but with a complicated background. Aurochs

[Stanley]

I knew the word but not that it was singular Peter. Thanks for educating me!

[Tizer]

This not a matter of dialect but of sentence composition...
I got the usual annual email from my broadband provider telling me that my `price will be increasing by £3.00 a month'. I was tempted to reply to them and say`That means that 12 months from now I'll be paying you £36.00 more than now and I'll look elsewhere for a cheaper service. On the other hand, if you meant to write that `the price of my package will be £3.00 more than now then I'll stay with you'.

[Tripps]

Top class pedantry Tiz. Well spotted.

[Whyperion]

presumably plain english : The Monthly Charge will be increased by £3.00 . Which I think for many people might be a bit more than the old inflation(plus) price increase.

I think we need a Trump Dictionary
He says about one million Ukrainians and Russians have been senselessly killed, adding that the actual number is much higher than that.

(thats a Statistics thread too). interesting in a way he might be right as the numbers overall are combatants. people in occupied regions for different purposes and a number of Ukraine civilians, however I still find Trump's way of taking a value in any situation then randomly uplifting it annoying.

[Stanley]

Well spotted indeed! I had to read it three times before I spotted the flaw.

[Whyperion]

Clickbait, careless English or a problem with the English as she is rit ?

Daily Mirror via MSN aglomerator
Donald Trump offered to build skyscraper project in Russia after rant at Zelensky.

What this actually was a Russian MP suggesting (to)that Trump build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

The way the headline reads is that somehow Trump had contacted Russian Developers / Whatever and made a building proposal.

(Thinks maybe Zelinsky should have made an offer of Land for Trump to build something with little towers

[Cathy]

Guess who I thought of when this word came to mind, haha.
Bumptious (Oxford) - showing that you think that you are very important; often giving your opinions in a loud, confident, and annoying way.
This led me to a Snollygoster (Oxford) - an unprincipled but shrewd person.
Then Ninnyhammer (American English) - a fool or simpleton.

[Stanley]

Well done Cathy. I have never come across any of them!

[Whyperion]

Is it Ma-Cron or Mac-ron. I have heard the BBC use both.

[Tizer]

And about time too...
`Abrdn adds back vowels after widely mocked rebrand' LINK
Investment firm Abrdn will add the vowels back into its name after dropping them in a rebrand that was widely mocked. The firm said it will now be called aberdeen group, with no capital letter at the start. In the past it has been Aberdeen Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.

All this silliness of using lower case throughout in company names started years ago. I remember when British Midland Airways changed its name to bma and then launched a smaller airline and called it bma baby.

[Whyperion]

And about time too...
`Abrdn adds back vowels after widely mocked rebrand' LINK
Investment firm Abrdn will add the vowels back into its name after dropping them in a rebrand that was widely mocked. The firm said it will now be called aberdeen group, with no capital letter at the start. In the past it has been Aberdeen Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.

All this silliness of using lower case throughout in company names started years ago. I remember when British Midland Airways changed its name to bma and then launched a smaller airline and called it bma baby.

british medical association ? I always like BWIA (British West India Airways)

[Stanley]

All down to the PR executives Peter who have to keep coming up with new ideas to justify their pay. Vowels are there for a reason, they help differentiate between words and aid pronunciation. Leaving them out is ignorant and senseless! That perhaps sums up most of them....

[Tizer]

It always makes me think such companies are run by young children who haven't yet discovered the significance of capital letters.