Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

'I was yesterday invited by a gentleman to dinner, who promised that our entertainment should consist of an haunch of venison, a turtle, and a great man.' Oliver Goldsmith

Good find - I think one of the sites we had a link to said it wasn't a matter of how a word was written, but how pronounced (e.g. an hour). That suggests Goldsmith said 'an aunch'.

1573–80 J. Baret Aluearie H 66 An hanch of venison.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 482. ¶4 The best Pickle for a Wallnut, or Sawce for an Haunch of Venison.

This uncertainty over 'an' explains why we now say an adder rather than a nadder (nǣdre), and, I presume, the variations on orange-arancia-naranja-nāranj.

[vinteuil]

This uncertainty over 'an' explains why we now say an adder rather than a nadder (nǣdre), and, I presume, the variations on orange-arancia-naranja-nāranj.

... yes - and the same for 'an eft / an ewt' - 'a newt'

[Old Grumpy]

In relation to Petrushka's post on The Techie Board

This should read CDRs not CDR's surely...


OG

[Bryn]

In relation to Petrushka's post on The Techie Board

This should read CDRs not CDR's surely...


OG

No. It should read CD-Rs.

[Old Grumpy]

Pedant!

[ahinton]

Pedant!

Well, at least I got the thread right!

[french frank]

Well, at least I got the thread right!

On this thread 'Pedant' is the equivalent of Mornington Crescent. Or to take it a step further: Camden Town.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My Rs ain't seedy!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Perhaps that should be on the "People Summed Up in Four Words" Thread?

[french frank]

Elizabeth Taylor tells of the occasion she went to the theatre with Ivy Compton-Burnett and Herman Schrijver to see a performance of Beckett's Happy Days:

It was a sparse audience and Ivy took a great interest in it.
'Would you call it an intellectual audience, Herman?' (Too distinct voice in too empty auditorium).
'One or two look that way inclined,' he whispered. 'Do you think they are staring at us, because they think we are intellectuals?'
'Of course they don't think that,' she said scornfully, 'We are far too well dressed.'

Many a true word … The story does suggest a connection with a 'social elite', though I'm not sure whether Dame Ivy was betraying her own view or second guessing what the audience members might think.

It seems that, regardless of what Camus himself said or thought, the word 'intellectual' is susceptible of many interpretations - favourable and unfavourable (mainly the latter in this country). Perhaps that goes back to the time when most people had no chance to go to university, and half of those who did go weren't interested in studying (were too well dressed, in fact!).

[Ed: susceptible to or susceptible of? I've tried both and I think they both look all right. Marginally, I prefer 'of'. I think.]

[DracoM]

'of' deffo.

[jean]

This is interesting.

[french frank]

This is interesting.

Yes. My second thoughts were provoked by the vague perception:

Susceptible of roughly means capable of, admitting. Something can be susceptible of proof, of a solution, of division, of observation, of being considered, etc.
Susceptible to roughly means able to be affected by. Something (or someone) can be susceptible to light, to disease, to infection, to poison, to attack, etc.

But I liked the conclusion that if you can't be bothered with such minutiae, just use 'susceptible to' because that's what all the dictionaries will say in 100 years time.

I hijacked my thread. I will remove these to Pedants' Paradise …

[vinteuil]

This is interesting.

... indeed it is. Thank you for alerting us to this : a nuance of which I had not been consciously aware.

[jean]

Nor had I!