What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Yeah, as Tina Turner says: we don't need another hero..

hang, v. [hang, hāng]
-This verb has an unusual history to it. Middle English hangen 'hang' (circa 1130 CE) was a fusion of two Old English words from around 1000 CE: hon 'suspend' (transitive verb, past tense heng) and hangian, hongian 'be suspended' (intransitive verb, past tense hangode). It was also influenced by Old Norse hengja 'suspend' and hanga 'be suspended.' Hon is corresponds to Old Frisian hua 'suspend or hang,' Old Saxon, Old High German, and Gothic hahan, Middle Low German han, and Middle Dutch haen. These all spawned from proto-Germanic hanh. As for heng, this arose from proto-Germanic kheng, from prehistoric Indo-European keng- 'to waver, be in suspense.' Through this, the English word is related to Old Frisian hangia 'be suspended, hang,' Old Saxon hangon, Middle Dutch and Dutch hangen, Old High German hangen, German hängen, Gothic hahan, Hittite gang- 'to hang,' Sanskrit sankate 'wavers,' and Latin cunctari 'to delay.' Modern English hang has two past participles: hung and hanged. Hanged was in use for many centuries before hung appeared, the latter being traced back to the 1500's with an originating location in Northern England. By the 1600's, hung had become the standard but hanged was still kept on, mostly to be used in legal settings to mean 'suspended by the neck.' We still see it used in some idiomatic expressions that branched off from the legal usage, such as "I'll be hanged if...."

and declares the intention of both parties to "forget all past misunderstandings and differences"

(trying to remember)

OmSigDAVID wrote:

That is true, as of now, and thru the 1900s.
It woud be interesting to know what the state of grammar
was in that respect, as of the time in question.

David

hang, v. [hang, hāng]
-This verb has an unusual history to it. Middle English hangen 'hang' (circa 1130 CE) was a fusion of two Old English words from around 1000 CE: hon 'suspend' (transitive verb, past tense heng) and hangian, hongian 'be suspended' (intransitive verb, past tense hangode). It was also influenced by Old Norse hengja 'suspend' and hanga 'be suspended.' Hon is corresponds to Old Frisian hua 'suspend or hang,' Old Saxon, Old High German, and Gothic hahan, Middle Low German han, and Middle Dutch haen. These all spawned from proto-Germanic hanh. As for heng, this arose from proto-Germanic kheng, from prehistoric Indo-European keng- 'to waver, be in suspense.' Through this, the English word is related to Old Frisian hangia 'be suspended, hang,' Old Saxon hangon, Middle Dutch and Dutch hangen, Old High German hangen, German hängen, Gothic hahan, Hittite gang- 'to hang,' Sanskrit sankate 'wavers,' and Latin cunctari 'to delay.'


Modern English hang has two past participles: hung and hanged. Hanged was in use for many centuries before hung appeared, the latter being traced back to the 1500's with an originating location in Northern England.
By the 1600's, hung had become the standard but hanged was still kept on, mostly to be used in legal settings to mean 'suspended by the neck.' We still see it used in some idiomatic expressions that branched off from the legal usage, such as "I'll be hanged if...."

David wrote:

(trying to remember)

When life was so tender?

If the innovation continued unchecked, unmonitored by Susie Dent, then the language would fragment into thousands of mutually incomprehensible dialects. The stickler-advocated rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation slow the speed of change and allow the language to remain united.

whales to stop using their blowholes

Otto Frederick Rohwedder (July 7, 1880 " November 8, 1960) is an American inventor and engineer who created the first automatic bread-slicing machine for commercial use. It was first used by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri in 1928.
[...]
Rohwedder also studied optometry, graduating in 1900 with a degree in optics from what is now the Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Otology in Chicago. He became a jeweler.

There are many things I don't miss about Germany. But I do miss the bread. A lot. (Sigh.)