The pronunciation of Gaelic hill names is fraught with difficulty for the non-Gael. One problem is the striking way in which some consonants are not pronounced at all. This is the Gaelic phenomenon of lenition, in which the addition of an “h” to a consonant changes and softens its pronunciation. Some lenited consonants, particularly “dh” … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 1
Tag Archives: Usage
Unpled
ʌnˈplɛd Unpled: (legal) not used as an argument; undefended by evidence This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated. One might expect that when seeking such … Continue reading Unpled
Latin Plurals: Nouns Ending In -um
DESIDERATA Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Those are the opening lines of Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann, originally written in 1927. The text has a rather complicated history of publication, and … Continue reading Latin Plurals: Nouns Ending In -um
Benjamin Dreyer: Dreyer’s English
This book [… is] my chance to share with you, for your own use, some of what I do, from the nuts-and-bolts stuff that even skilled writers stumble over to some of the fancy little tricks I’ve come across or devised that can make even skilled writing better. Benjamin Dreyer was a copy editor at … Continue reading Benjamin Dreyer: Dreyer’s English
(Be the first)
Latin Plurals: Nouns Ending In -a
First Latin scholar: Crispin, I have some fresh lime. Would you decline a tequila?Second Latin scholar: Certainly. Tequil-a, tequil-am, tequil-ae, tequil-ae, tequil-ā. Tequil-ae, tequil-ās, tequil-ārum, tequil-īs, tequil-īs. That’s a very old joke, referring to Latin first-declension feminine nouns. (My, what a laugh we used to have at the expense of those poor Classics students.) But … Continue reading Latin Plurals: Nouns Ending In -a
Latin Plurals: Nouns Ending in -us
Most Latin words in -us have plural in -i, but not all, & so zeal not according to knowledge issues in such oddities as hiati, octopi, omnibi & ignorami … H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary Of Modern English Usage (1926) Writing about the noun form of bogus recently made me think about nouns ending in … Continue reading Latin Plurals: Nouns Ending in -us
Bogus
ˈbəʊɡəs bogus (noun): a press for producing counterfeit coins; a counterfeit coinbogus (adjective): not real, counterfeit, existing in order to deceivebogus (adjective, 21st Century): bad, wrong, inappropriate Bogus is a potentially expensive word. Back in 2008, the science writer Simon Singh wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian newspaper, entitled “Beware The Spinal Trap“, in … Continue reading Bogus
Serendipity
sɛrɛnˈdɪpɪtɪ serendipity: The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Also, the fact or an instance of such a discovery People like the word serendipity—there’s something cheerful and unexpected about that “-dipity” ending which makes them want to say it or write it, and so its original meaning has gradually eroded away. The … Continue reading Serendipity
(Be the first)
Nosism
ˈnɒsɪz(ə)m nosism: The use of “we” in stating one’s own opinions. Two minutes later, a man called Chamberlain who did Prime Minister impressions spoke on the wireless; he said, “As from eleven o’clock we are at war with Germany.” (I loved the WE.) Spike Milligan, Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall (1971) Milligan is … Continue reading Nosism
(Be the first)