There's this odd little language called French, from which we have stolen many words. Some have blended almost seamlessly into our language, like "petite",  "ennui", or "noir" as in "film noir".

Some continue to sound rather French and are used in frenchified English, sometimes pretentiously, sometimes not. Saying "au revoir!" to someone in parting ( Read more... )

Rant # 311 in my ongoing battle against the Dumpth* of America:

In the latest mutant ill usage of American English, all over the web I'm suddenly seeing people write about how xyz "is based off" name-source-material-here.

The expression is "based on", dammit. As in, "I based my role-playing character on Snape." 
As in, to base something is to place ( Read more... )