What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Noddy24 wrote:

Merry Andrew--

"Baton" shows Gallic influence.

It also seems less violent than "truncheon". I think I'd rather be hit by a "baton", if I had to choose.

So okay, Gallic influence, so why did we stop saying "aerodrome" and start saying "airport", then?

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McTag--

You want Galic consistancy?

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Good point. Touche Smile

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McTag wrote:

It also seems less violent than "truncheon". I think I'd rather be hit by a "baton", if I had to choose.

I feel that a truncheon is rubbery, something to do with the nche, where a baton is sharp and narrow, like a conductor's baton

I like truncheon because it is like luncheon, too

Of course truncheon has a Gallic origin but hey, who cares?

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The Scottish language/dialect is surprisingly influenced by French:

"baton" is used, but sounds like "bawt'n"

crane is pronounced "kran"

assiette becomes "ashet"

conduit is pronounced "cundy"

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shounds like there's a wee drappie too much whisky in their words

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Clary wrote:

shounds like there's a wee drappie too much whisky in their words

You think? and caoutchouc bcame "cahoochie", rubber.

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Has anyone complained recently about:

"I hate when "that" happens."

The phrase is particularly objectionable when the speaker feels that it marks him/her as a person of great taste and refinement.

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I never notice that....maybe I lack the necessary refinement...(don't you hate it when people use....instead of punctuating properly?) but here I think, in my experience anyway, when people say "Don't you just HATE it when that happens?", the intention is irony, and usually humour.

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McTag--

Your social circle has better grammarians than my social circle.

I bet that your social circle also excells in cosmic detachment.

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I don't know what that means. Maybe we're so detached, we never notice. Shocked

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Noddy24 wrote:

Merry Andrew--

"Baton" shows Gallic influence.

So does 'truncheon.' But truncheon has a connotation of blunt force being applied, whereas baton doesn't usually conjure up that image. In time, it may.

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Quote:

So does 'truncheon.' But truncheon has a connotation of blunt force being applied, whereas baton doesn't usually conjure up that image. In time, it may.

Merry Andrew! Punny!

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Trunch sounds like punch while bat sounds like pat.

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Baton derives from baston--but the pronunciation of the "s" was dropped, and it became "bâton." However, the "s" was preserved in bastonage--which means a beating or a caning. I agree with MA, though, that one thinks of blunt force trauma when hearing truncheon, while any number of far less threatening images are evoked by baton.

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Sabotage, that's a good 'un.

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I never wear wooden shoes . . . why combine blisters with splinters?

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Noddy -- I knew you'd get it. Smile

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Clogs are actually very comfortable, if you don't have to run for a bus.

Very practical too, in certain work applications, and warm in winter.

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Congratulations on reaching page 300!

Not bad for a thread that was predicted to die a quick death.

Smile

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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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