Comments | trinker: You did what to whose WHAT?! (Omphalographia)

trinker

You did what to whose WHAT?! (Omphalographia)

Sep 04, 2010 11:05

I've had an ongoing 'tsk' for the misuse of "naval". Because really, Bestselling Author[s] & Editorial Team[s][1], $character did not have a maritime adjective in the middle of $character's torso. Nav*e*l.

And they're also *navel* oranges. Because they look like they have a bellybutton. Despite easy comparison to the British Navy's Royal Navy's ( ( Read more... )

you're grammer sux eggs

Comments 20

wcg September 4 2010, 22:45:00 UTC

British Navy

Please don't say that. It's the Royal Navy. Such careless usage has been known to cause bar fights. There's a British Army, but the senior service of Her Majesty's armed forces is the Royal Navy.

trinker September 4 2010, 22:50:53 UTC

Beg pardon! I had no idea it might cause offence.

So...what ought I correct that to, given that this isn't for an audience of Her Majesty's loyal subjects?

wcg September 4 2010, 22:57:39 UTC

The correct term is Royal Navy. It's the only Royal Navy in the world. (The others have qualifiers, like Royal Dutch Navy.) If there's doubt, you can say Royal Britannic Navy, but that's not its proper name.

trinker September 4 2010, 23:47:43 UTC

How fascinatingly imperialistic, to co-opt the phrase "Royal Navy" for one's sole use. (Or rather, what an interesting artifact of a time when English was the language of the British Empire, as opposed to a global language.)

Thread 5

abenn September 4 2010, 22:57:45 UTC

I'm enjoying these posts, also. A continuing series would be fun. Or random posts whenever. I don't really care.

trinker September 4 2010, 23:48:29 UTC

So far, I haven't seen any pleas for less, so I'll play it by ear. It's nice to be posting again after such an extended drought.

jess_faraday September 4 2010, 23:26:32 UTC

I've come across homonym errors recently in books published by Big Houses. For shame, y'all! Homonym errors rank among my pettest of peeves.

trinker September 4 2010, 23:31:03 UTC

I suspect cost-cutting leading to check-os. (I've just coined that as a "error induced by over-reliance on spellchecking instead of proofing".)(If there's a better word for it, I want to know!)

columbina September 7 2010, 18:25:55 UTC

Not lemons. Limes. Carrying limes on ship to prevent scurvy is the origin of the term "limey."

(As long as we're being picky.)

Now ask me what a particular kind of fabric has to do with the reduction of the rum ration in the Royal Navy and how George Washington is connected to it. Go ahead. I dare you.

trinker September 7 2010, 19:08:43 UTC

Columbina! How nice to see you again.

http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm for an explanation of why I said mistaken about limes.

And meanwhile, of *course* I dare you to talk about rum rations and fabric. (And if you haven't met wcg yet, he's a big fan of Age of Sail stuff, as well as Naval/Marine history in general.

columbina September 7 2010, 20:05:53 UTC

I know of wcq from other people's livejournals wot he lurks around.

Also, I misread your original post and I thought you were talking about oranges being mistaken. (That page you linked above was absolutely fascinating, by the by ( ... )

trinker September 7 2010, 20:44:13 UTC

I knew half the story you just told there, but definitely not the Mt. Vernon part. Wonderful.

I figured based on your response that you hadn't seen that page, and it seemed very much like something you'd geek over. I was thinking of you this weekend while fiddling with some toilet plumbing, by the way.