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Words / Re: Passata
« on: April 18, 2024, 09:44:47 AM »
A huge difference in usage:
Ngram Viewer: eng_gb versus eng_us
Ngram Viewer: eng_gb versus eng_us
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Words / Re: Mausolea. neoplasm and pleonasm
« on: March 30, 2024, 03:20:36 AM »Whilst I'd concede that most people would know the word mausoleum, I'd suggest that mausoleums is by far the more common plural form.
Ngram VIewer confirms this (I expected the difference to be greater).
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Words / Re: Suffering succotash!
« on: March 27, 2024, 03:23:09 AM »
My father liked succotash, so I'm familiar with the word. From my POV, it was a way to ruin perfectly good corn! (I'm okay with most beans, but not limas.)
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Words / Re: Word suggestion: uninstall
« on: February 24, 2024, 02:45:38 PM »
In 30+ years of working in Information Technology, I never saw an American company use anything other than install / uninstall.
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Words / Re: Nullius worth a look as a word
« on: February 23, 2024, 12:28:29 PM »I would think no, as it is a Latin word, in a Latin phrase, and I would suggest not in general usage other than that particular phrase.
Agreed. The legal profession loves Latin words and phrases.
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Whatever / Re: More or Les (was Bloody Plurals)
« on: February 12, 2024, 05:57:13 AM »JFK was the last U.S. president to wear a top hat to his inauguration. Kennedy briefly tipped his hat to tradition but then “went topless” during his inauguration, effectively putting an official end to the top hat look that had unofficially faded since the 1920s. When Lyndon Johnson took the oath four years later, he also opted not to wear a top hat.
Click here to see an article about whether JFK was responsible for the demise of the top hat
Thanks for that info, Jack. (I was too lazy to look for information!) Interesting explanation of the demise of the hat for men.
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Whatever / Re: More or Les (was Bloody Plurals)
« on: February 09, 2024, 10:21:34 AM »When I looked for some pictures not all the gents wore top hats.
I recall reading many years ago that men routinely wore hats until the Kennedys and JFK was widely considered to have single-handedly wrecked the men's hats business!
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Whatever / Re: More or Les (was Bloody Plurals)
« on: February 08, 2024, 04:43:14 AM »It would be great if we could get a number of people to read the poem and give their opinions.
Being rubbish at rebuses, I don't pay attention to them so I don't know the poem being discussed. Thus, I'm unable to give an opinion!
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Words / Re: lambent common?
« on: January 30, 2024, 04:19:00 PM »
oops — sorry for not checking, Alan. I really didn't remember the word, not even remembering having raised it before!
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Words / Re: word suggestion: versicule
« on: January 30, 2024, 10:25:32 AM »
Thanks, Jacki — I should have been clearer. The OED defines versicule as a versicle, the earliest examples having different spellings (as is very common), but the more recent example using versicule(s).
Oddity: I tried to place the last 's' in brackets as is normal when referring to a quotation, but it wouldn't display so I used parentheses.
Oddity: I tried to place the last 's' in brackets as is normal when referring to a quotation, but it wouldn't display so I used parentheses.