The Pedant's Revolt

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

On the subject of Fayre v. Fair --- this is in the same league as " Ye Olde Tea Shoppe "
Pedants will, of course know that "Ye" was in fact the script of the time for " The "
There were a lot of strange spellings in the 16th and 17th Centuries --- look at the different ways in which "Willie Wobblesdagger" was wont to spell his name !

[mvgrogan]

Would that be Billy Waggledagger?

[J.R.]

I think it was Robert Willywaggler !

[englishangel]

I didn't know Bill Shiverysword's name was Robert?

[midget]

"Absolutely" instead of "Yes"
Slightly unique. ???????

[Liz Jay]

People who write about getting their dogs, especially their male dogs.....

"SPADE" !!!!


Makes me want to hit 'em with a shovel!

Liz

[kerrensimmonds]

Ho Ho Liz!
Little Willow was speyed (is that the right spelling) before she came into my orbit.
The cats (both boys) were castrated at 5 months.
So I hope that we in this household do not offend your (absolutely correct and creditable) use of the English language!
I know that I am a 'pedant' and sometimes the bane of the lives of the members of the Team I lead at the University.
My most usual criticism is that in their written reports they might use a singular noun (like 'Team' or 'Panel') followed by the plural of the verb e.g. 'were'.....(rather than 'was').
I guess I would not still be working in 'Academic Quality and Standards' if I did not have such standards, but increasingly I am being made to feel that I am anachronism.
I had a colleague leave us two weeks ago, after nearly a year, and the other Team members and I knew that she just wasn't up to meeting what was required (in fact, she didn't seem to have much of a clue). As an example of her misunderstandings, I presented my Line Manager with an annotated set of her Minutes of one particular meeting, on which I had spent about 10 hours in correction (yes, it had been a long meeting) and his FIRST comment was 'I hope you are not simply correcting spelling and grammar, because if you are, these are of no account in this day and age'. In answer to his question (does anyone remember the 'Mr Mainwaring' of another thread on this Forum, last year...?), I replied 'No'. She had got just about everything wrong, through misunderstanding, despite whatever way she had expressed herself.....
All of this is frighteningly reminiscent of a comment made even as long as 9 years ago by someone in our HR department, when I was under suspicion of harrassment (not proven, in the end) of another colleague from my Team who was made to leave because she could not meet the standard I required, and who then tried to take me to an Industrial Tribunal.
It needs to be said that as far as I am concerned, Christ's Hospital was the bedrock of my development and if I am falling out with people now, maybe it's because I will not compromise the standards I developed all those years ago.
Ho Hum! I wonder if, with hindsight, is it time for me to hang up the baton of 'standards' and retire into oblivion?

[englishangel]

spayed

[J.R.]

Which reminds me of the late and very great Les Dawson, (I met him in a pub in N.W.10), in his old woman sketch with Roy Barraclough.

"Hysterical Rectum"

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

If Spade --- as written, ---in which part of the anatomy has he been hit, with the thing ?

[kerrensimmonds]

Spayed.. not speyed. Thanks Mary! I suspected that I had not spelt it correctly.......

There's an inadequat pedant, for you!

[midget]

Kerren, under no cicumstances should you "hang up the baton". We pedants need all the muscle we can find.

From Beauty Naturals catalogue "Roll-On Remedy's" Grrrrrrr.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

I am "Notorious" for being politically incorrect, but I can only assure everyone, that my remark is intended to be a genuine obsevation and not an un-gallant faux pas ---

Have you noticed that the majority of we "Pedants" are of a similar "Vintage" coming from CH in the 40s to 7os, I believe this is because English, as she is spoke, was cherished in those days, but now alas ----
Perhaps we could get a "Sitrep" from some recent Old Blue ?

[englishangel]

My 20 year old daughter is a pedant, though not an OB. We spent an entire hour in the car the other day discussing haspirated haitches.

I did a silly "what doctor are you?" quiz on Facebook and one of the questions was "You misspell a word in your personal journal do you
a)...
b)...
c)..
d)...?

My comment was

a) what personal journal?
and
b) I don't misspell words. I have typos, but not misspellings. (I am sure Blondie would agreee)

and my 19 year old medical student nephew who had done the quiz too posted "I do so agree".

[midget]

"Fabrics like linen or cotton". Linen and cotton are FIBRES, spun into YARN/THREAD and woven/knitted etc into FABRICS.
My boss in my first textile job used to nag us about it.

Rant over.