What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Breakfast is the same in many languages. In Latin disjejunare = to break one's fast. In old French the sloppy surrender monkeys reduced it to dîner, ate it later and later, and déjeuner replaced it for breakfast. That slipped forward in time so that we now have petit déjeuner. So all 3 meals are fast-breakers for the Frogs.

Clary,
....Is "off their chump", the predeccesor to,"off their food bag"?
.....Setanta,
.....I'll bet you probably do a slow burn when someone says "just ONE second". ...when I'm in a good mood, I'll say something like "go ahead and take more time." If I'm feeling a bit more devilish, I'll proclaim, "ONE THOUSAND ONE".

Piffka wrote:

Gilbert and Sullivan song that has this phrase "while the coast is clear" ....pirates on the shore?

Hmm. Interesting observation. Now you've got me wondering whether that line is the original source of the colloquial expression, or whether G&S just borrowed an existing expression because the meter fit the song and it was a clever play on words.

from a Q & A website:

COAST IS CLEAR - "The phrase first appears in print in 1531 where it describes a vessel which had safely cleared the coast, then later Shakespeare used it in 'Henry VI' as a reference to visibility. Neither of these references touch on its true insinuation; it is a reference to smuggling surely? Or some nefarious operation." "Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions" by Bill Beavis and Richard G. McCloskey (Sheridan House, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., 1995. First published in Great Britain, 1983).

A military term literally having to do with clearing an enemy from the beach prior to an invasion.

Setanta,
.....I'll bet you probably do a slow burn when someone says "just ONE second". ...when I'm in a good mood, I'll say something like "go ahead and take more time." If I'm feeling a bit more devilish, I'll proclaim, "ONE THOUSAND ONE".

So all 3 meals are fast-breakers for the Frogs.

Clary wrote:

Breakfast is the same in many languages. In Latin disjejunare = to break one's fast. In old French the sloppy surrender monkeys reduced it to dîner, ate it later and later, and déjeuner replaced it for breakfast. That slipped forward in time so that we now have petit déjeuner. So all 3 meals are fast-breakers for the Frogs.

However, 'dinner' actually means breakfast (Middle English from Old French disner, now dîner [the noun was derived from the verb disner, which became English's dine].
Disner came from the Late Latin (300 - 700 AD) verb disiunare, "to break one's fast" or "to eat one's first meal." In earlier Latin the verb was disieiunare, where dis = "away" and ieiunium = "fast".
In Middle English, dinner was used for the first big meal of the day, which was eaten sometime between 9 a.m. and noon, so it had the meaning of "breakfast" or "lunch".
Later on, a cultural change caused the upper classes to start having their main meal in the evening - which they called dinner.

Never heard off their food bag, but it sounds as though it means off their food. No need for the bag.

We call those nosebags. But there is no phrase 'off your nosebag'.

It sounds pretty insulting though, doesn't it?

no, with the nosebag instead of the food bag: "Tony Blair must be off his nosebag chumming up to Dubbyou like that".

You in Singapore, JTT?

Oh, just England. I thought you said you were in SE Asia. Singlish is fun, and Chinglish too. Is there a Jinglish?

Dear..Dear..JTT,
.....That was a most engrossing rebuttal, to my statement. You are my kind of fun debater. (debatist?) However...I believe your concise, and thorough point must be rendered academic.
....The titular question of this thread is "What are YOUR pet peeves Re: english usage?" So I was stating MY pet peeve. which is unquestionable, since my response, is only beholden to MY feelings................BUCKO!

Someone starts a thread entitled "Flat Earth" and you expect, Booman, only postings supporting such nonsense. But, as I've said, many times, please peeve away.

.....Now, because I like you, (I really do like you)I'll give you a reason why it rubs me the wrong way; You see there is no consistency to the statement. When a person says that, I have no Idea how long they mean. It may be a few seconds. may be five. ten, God knows how many minutes. Therefore when I ask a person to wait, I try to be a little more specific in my time frame, to do less, would be rude on my part....See where I'm coming from Podnuh?

Of course I see where you're coming from, Booman. You're coming from the peevist angle. And while you may have a legitimate complaint with an individual who repeatedly makes you wait unneccesarily, you're incorrectly mixing up a social issue with a language issue.

If a person continually states "I'll meet you at {time}" and that person is always late, will you then have a problem with the sentence, "I'll meet you at {time}".

There's nothing wrong with the language, this use of 'second'. This particular usage, as every child knows, means "a short undefined period of time". Language is, in and of itself, neutral. It's used simply as a way to communicate a given idea.

Clearly, it's a collocation of indefiniteness. Should you need a greater degree of definiteness, our language has collocations for that too. I needn't outline them for you.

Why aren't you peeving about the person who says, "Wait a minute" and then gets back to you in, say, 20 seconds?

Unless you're willing to apply a modicum of thinking to these peeves you'd be wise to follow the axiom; "Adults do their language a whole lot better than they describe their language".

Setanta......You want a piece of'em?...

Setanta's thimble is empty.