Words actually mean things, you know.

[naamah_darling]

Jesus God. It's fine if you come onto my favorite obscure answers community wanting to pester us about medieval hats/falconry/cooking/architecture/medicine. Ask away! But for the love of all that's footnoted, and for the sake of my fragile sanity, do not ask about diseases/food/brothels/inheritance customs/punishments for bestiality "in ancient

Comments

[vr_trakowski]

*cheers* Definitely.

[ravenofdreams]

"And no, the fact that most people misspell it does not mean that the spelling should be altered, any more than mathematics should be altered to compensate for an individual's inability to add three and five together in a consistent fashion. Like me. I cannot reliably perform basic math. I do not, however, believe that those rules should be altered because I am bad at them."

A-freaking-men. I would like to tattoo this on the heads of certain of my students who have told me such nonsense.

[petranef]

A friend of mine is a linguistics grad student. We can't even talk about this subject any more, because he believes that grammar shouldn't "wag the tail of the dog." The arguments get really hostile. Me, I adore spelling (and respect grammar). It's one of the few things I can actually do well.

I've noticed horrendous errors cropping up in places that once were above such things, like major newspapers and books. I wonder if there are still any employed editors out there.

[cissa]

From my reading, I'd say no. Alas.

[lustforlike]

Sorry to barge in, drive-by from metaquotes here, but isn't your friend using that analogy incorrectly? The tail normally is wagged. It's when the tail wags the dog that things get back to front.

But it would be evil and prescriptivist to imply that word order matters, so best protect the baby evolving languages form such horror. :)

[petranef]

Also, the plural noun does not have an apostrophe!

[petranef]

Hell, yeah! Let's go global while we're at it. ;)

[icewyche]

Count me in.

[khavrinen]

A scent or a sight cannot "ravage your senses," unless it is causing permanent damage to your eyes, skin, nasal passages, etc.

Ha! This reminds me of one of my favorite passages in Lois McMaster Bujold's "The Vor Game", in which Our Hero is brought before the mercenary Captain who has captured him, and begins sniffling and blinking rapidly. She snaps at him, "Stop sniveling, you coward," and he replies, "I'm not crying, you bitch, I'm allergic to your damn perfume."

With regards to the spelling thing, the mnemonic I use is that "The definitive spelling has no 'A'," because that word's actually pronounced the way it's spelled.

[naamah_darling]

"I'm not crying, you bitch, I'm allergic to your damn perfume."

*ROFL*

Oh, that's awesome!

[patina]

I was considering that myself. A little chainmail dress and bastard sword twice my height ought to do it. ^_^

[sargon999]

PICS!