Comments | jon88: My Christmas wish

jon88

My Christmas wish

Nov 27, 2009 12:40

Happy Black Friday. A little research confirmed my guess that today's nickname derives from a negative place, so I feel I have some license to be crabby ( Read more... )

Comments 10

qaqaq November 27 2009, 18:06:20 UTC

While I know that "champing at the bit" is the classic form of the phrase, "chomping at the bit" has become so common (and even recognized in dictionaries -- see "chomp" in 11C) that I've occasionally wondered if it is now the more standard form of the phrase.

jon88 November 27 2009, 19:05:08 UTC

I considered that before including it. Didn't really want to start a descriptive/proscriptive dictionary debate, but figured that as long as I was indulging myself....

qaqaq November 27 2009, 19:39:42 UTC

I don't really think this is a proscriptive/descriptive issue. There have been a number of phrases whose "correct" forms have changed over time due to a misusage becoming more common than the original phrase, and I just wonder if this phrase is another one of those.

jeffurrynpl November 28 2009, 17:24:36 UTC

I was watching an episode of Australian Kath & Kim the other day. On that show malapropisms are the norm but even they said "champing at the bit." I don't know if it's said correctly more often in Australia or if they were testing the audience (or something else).

anonymous November 27 2009, 18:16:51 UTC

Along those lines, as common (and accepted) as "till" for " 'til" has become, it still irks me.

Anon above =Quest anonymous November 27 2009, 18:18:01 UTC

see subject . . .

Re: Anon above =Quest ucaoimhu November 28 2009, 02:53:25 UTC

"Has become"? "Till" is the original, correct form. The spelling with an apostrophe arose as a result of people taking the word as a shortening of "until", but "till" doesn't come from "until" any more than "to" comes from "unto".

Back formations anonymous November 27 2009, 19:47:50 UTC

Off topic, I know, but I cannot stomach conversate, conversated, or conversating. I stop reading at the first one I come across. -Skip

Christmas Wish anonymous November 27 2009, 22:35:04 UTC

"This program was 'pre-recorded" for broadcast at this time." So, they recorded it before they recorded it? Seems to me one can only record something, not "pre-record" something. Then, of course, there are those in the ed biz who want to "reach out to the whole child"...instead of just his or her arm or leg. RF

rubrick November 28 2009, 23:34:37 UTC

In The Language Instinct (which I heartily recommend), Steven Pinker spends a paragraph or two railing about the disinterested/uninterested issue- and then another paragraph or two explaining why he's dead wrong. "Disinterested" meaning "not caring" is not only perfectly sensible by analogy with dozens of other words, it also predates the "having no stake" usage historically.

It's true that, since "disinterested" can mean either of these things, it can be harder to infer what the writer meant. C'est le langage.

As for it's/its, I rather wish the posessive form would just be granted the apostrophe it obviously deserves, rather than being this bizarre exception whose only real function is as a shibboleth. Which isn't to say I don't notice when the incorrect form is used, or feel chagrined when I make the mistake myself. I just don't feel the world is improved by either of these things.