Username
goofy
Member Since
July 24, 2006
Total number of comments
186
Total number of votes received
652
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Latest Comments
Why Don’t We Abolish Irregular Verbs and Nouns?
- April 26, 2009, 10:37pm
Some English verbs have become irregular when they didn't used to be irregular... many verbs, for instance "sing/sang/sung", developed from the Proto-Indo-European system of regular ablaut. "sneak/snuck" and "dive/dove" are also relatively new developments.
as best he can
- April 23, 2009, 9:15am
Dave, it's meaning is clear. According to MWDEU some usage commentators don't like it, but no one is confused about the meaning.
http://www.bartleby.com/68/37/537.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/asbestas.html
as best he can
- April 22, 2009, 10:50am
This issue is discussed in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (page 126). They provide 11 examples from literature, dating from 1807 to the present, and conclude "It looks like a perfectly respectable idiom to us."
On Tomorrow
- March 12, 2009, 7:28am
Let me revise: "on" is used with other expressions of time:
I work on weekends.
I work weekends.
Let's get together Thursday.
Let's get together on Thursday.
On Tomorrow
- March 12, 2009, 6:59am
We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
March to the bridge; it now draws toward night:
Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
And on to-morrow, bid them march away.
- Henry V, act III scene vi
The OED notes that "on" is "Now also (esp. U.S. and Irish English) used with tomorrow, yesterday, etc., app. redundantly". I think they say it's redundant because etymologically "tomorrow" already contains the preposition "to".
But as the Shakespeare quote shows it's quite an old usage. And "on" is used with other expressions of time, for instance "on the weekend", "on nights", where just "the weekend" and "nights" could be used without any confusion.
Some usage books complain about it, tho.
Texted
- March 5, 2009, 1:03pm
What is the difference in pronunciation between "text-ed" and "texted"?
Sleep / Asleep
- March 3, 2009, 2:15pm
Etymologically, the "a-" in "asleep" comes from "on". The OED hints that this is also the source of the prefix in "a-fishing" and "a-hunting".
Acronyms, Abbreviations, and BBC News
- February 8, 2009, 8:50pm
Porsche, I'm not sure if Sri Lanka is Sanskrit for "beautiful land". It means "beautiful Lanka". "Lanka" is not listed as meaning "land" or "island" in Apte, McDonnell, Cappeller's or Cologne. It means, variously, "the island of Ceylon or the chief town in it; wind from Ceylon; an unchaste woman; a branch; a kind of grain".
Past tense of “text”
- January 13, 2009, 8:40pm
Porsche, I know that the "nucular" pronunciation is disapproved of by many people. But I wanted to know how it could be "more than a bit frightening". How is a variant pronunciation frightening?
Texted
Texted everything is changing from kindle to none use while driving and so on, to much!