The Pedant's Revolt

[nastymum]

Try teaching Englsh to pupils who say 'Shakespeare, he was like..' Every queston you ask is answered with something prefaced wth 'it's like'.I now refuse to accept such answers and make them start again. It has now become a kind of Just a Minute situaton where the class sit as little hawks ready to pounce on anyone who says it and mock them mercilessly.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Journalists (and others) who report on pedophiles as people who commit unspeakable acts against children.

I find American spelling to be remarkably ugly, and still use double vowels whenever I can get away with (publishing in British, but not American or Australian, journals for example). However, it seems to have escaped the attention of the cuprits that there are two words (paedophile and pedophile) with quite different meanings.

Guess that's why we visit an orthopedic surgeon, rather than a pediatrician.

Very cold and wet here today - be prepared for more boring emails from me

[Mid A 15]

Obviously it is extemely annoying when the answer to a question is prefaced by "obviously."

NOOOOOO!!!!!! If it was obvious I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place!!!!!!

Another irritant, touched on by Huntertitus, those who say fifty minutes past four rather than ten to five.

It is past until four thirty and to after four thirty. At four thirty either is acceptable.

[matthew]

Journalists (and others) who report on pedophiles as people who commit unspeakable acts against children.

I find American spelling to be remarkably ugly, and still use double vowels whenever I can get away with (publishing in British, but not American or Australian, journals for example). However, it seems to have escaped the attention of the cuprits that there are two words (paedophile and pedophile) with quite different meanings.

The word 'pedophile' is used by Americans with the same meaning as 'paedophile' has in Britain.

If there's another meaning of 'pedophile', I'm not aware of it. Please tell me I'm about to learn something new.

[Mrs C.]

How are you?
I`m good

what happpened to "very well thank you?"

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Journalists (and others) who report on pedophiles as people who commit unspeakable acts against children.

I find American spelling to be remarkably ugly, and still use double vowels whenever I can get away with (publishing in British, but not American or Australian, journals for example). However, it seems to have escaped the attention of the cuprits that there are two words (paedophile and pedophile) with quite different meanings.

The word 'pedophile' is used by Americans with the same meaning as 'paedophile' has in Britain.

If there's another meaning of 'pedophile', I'm not aware of it. Please tell me I'm about to learn something new.

OK, I stand ready to duck for cover when the classical scholars jump in with the fact that ped is latin and phile is greek, but if you put the two together you get someone who loves feet. Do Americans take their sick children to visit the pediatrician?

xx

[englishangel]

Yes Americans do visit pediatricians with their children.

And an orthopedic surgeon is one who straightens children, not feet, the 'a' has been dropped from the Greek paed. Someone who treats feet is a podiatrist.

And incidentally, when I trained as a midwife in 1978 I was taught that fetus was now the accepted spelling.

I think I mentioned this before when we had a discussion on Julius Caesar.

[midget]

My adolescents drive me incandescent with

"I was like...." translates as "I said....."

See also "I went,like..." or "I go", meaning "I said".

[nastymum]

Norwich Union (I think) advert for car insurance ' We reward drivers who have less accidents' Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Don't do this-only reward those who have fewer accidents.

[englishangel]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7590440.stm

I think someone at Tesco is on this site

[icomefromalanddownunder]

[quote="englishangel"]Yes Americans do visit pediatricians with their children.

Peddiatrician or peediatrician? I tend to forget that I am not having a verbal conversation when I am emailing.

[matthew]

My adolescents drive me incandescent with

"I was like...." translates as "I said....."

A perfectly reasonable idiom that you'll find in any half-decent dictionary.

It's not wrong just because you don't use it.

[englishangel]

Yes Americans do visit pediatricians with their children.

Peddiatrician or peediatrician? I tend to forget that I am not having a verbal conversation when I am emailing.

children pee. you have a peddal on a bicycle.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Yes Americans do visit pediatricians with their children.

Peddiatrician or peediatrician? I tend to forget that I am not having a verbal conversation when I am emailing.

children pee. you have a peddal on a bicycle.

OK, but in Australia they refer to peddophiles when they mean peedophiles, and the confusion has come about because of the adoption of the American spelling of the word.

xx

[huntertitus]

My adolescents drive me incandescent with

"I was like...." translates as "I said....."

A perfectly reasonable idiom that you'll find in any half-decent dictionary.

It's not wrong just because you don't use it.

I didn't say it is wrong, it just irritates me because it replaces something simple and correct
with something more complicated while posing as a more modern way to say something.

I think the "half-decent" (i.e. not altogether decent!) dictionary you refer to is the Oxford Dictionary of Slang