Didn't you get the memo? These days it is acceptable in what passes for English to use a word that even sort of vaguely looks or sounds like the correct one. And things like tense, plurality, etc., don't really matter. People are just supposed to figure it out. And if you insist on things being correct you're just a terrible person.
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Didn't you get the memo? These days it is acceptable in what passes for English to use a word that even sort of vaguely looks or sounds like the correct one. And things like tense, plurality, etc., don't really matter. People are just supposed to figure it out. And if you insist on things being correct you're just a terrible person.
ReplyDeleteI love doing that to people when they use 'decimated.' What? Only 10% died, by the hands of their fellows, as punishment? What did they all do wrong?
ReplyDeleteAlso love explaining it to them in exquisite detail. Because, yes, I am an a-hole. A pedantic a-hole. And proud of it.
Many years ago, I saw a .sig file (either e-mail or on Usenet) about the word "decimation" to the effect of:
ReplyDelete"I think it came from the Romans."
"Of *course* it came from the Romans! Who *else* would need a word that means 'kill every tenth person'?"
You need a certain minimum frequency of occurrences before a language distills it down to a single word.
DeleteLike German has reduced, "Hey, Hans, wanna grab the guys, load up the tanks, and invade Poland next weekend?" down to; "Hans, Polen, Ja?"
Or: "Ich frage mich, wie die Seine jetzt aussieht" being condensed down to "Croissants?"
DeleteWeird but true. German word for 'croissant' is... 'croissant.'