Pedants' Paradise

[cat]

What's wrong with simply isolating yourself?

"Self-isolate" is obviously a confusing neologism to many, because ministers and civil servants have been told to add the words "stay at home" whenever they mention it.

[kernelbogey]

Well - you can become isolated without wishing to be.

[Serial_Apologist]

I guess that the 'yourself' simply adds an emphasis (and possibly in this case a useful singular/plural distinction?).

Is it not possible to we yourself, then?

[Pulcinella]

Is it not possible to we yourself, then?

Isn't that what incontinence pads are for?

[cat]

I've heard talk on the radio recently of a coroner virus which is going around. I hope I've heard the last of it because with the coronavirus necessitating emergency measures for issuing death certificates, another disease specifically affecting coroners must be particularly unwelcome.

[Count Boso]

I've heard talk on the radio recently of a coroner virus which is going around. I hope I've heard the last of it because with the coronavirus necessitating emergency measures for issuing death certificates, another disease specifically affecting coroners must be particularly unwelcome.

[muzzer]

Apologies if this has been done already but whither ‘at’ in ‘Stay At Home’? Was it surrendered in exchange for permission to unnecessarily import ‘furlough’?

[oddoneout]

Apologies if this has been done already but whither ‘at’ in ‘Stay At Home’? Was it surrendered in exchange for permission to unnecessarily import ‘furlough’?

Didn't need to import furlough, it had already been in use in this country for military leave, although admittedly not for some time.

[kernelbogey]

Me and Phoebe had a joke years ago....

Just read that in a Guardian interview. I guess the notion of a subject 'I' and object 'me' has now pretty much gone. But I was suddenly wondering whether the Queen's often-parodied 'my husband and I' had made that usage seem 'posh' to some - together with the royals' usage of 'one', perhaps.

Also, teachers' admonitions about correct usage of I seem to have produced confusion and rebellion! (I have an educated friend who will say 'she gave that to my partner and I'.)

[alycidon]

Apologies if this has been done already but whither ‘at’ in ‘Stay At Home’? Was it surrendered in exchange for permission to unnecessarily import ‘furlough’?

Someone has said that furlough is used in a military context but in over seventy years I have only ever heard it in the context of missionaries returning home on leave. As in - the meeting will be addressed by Joe Bloggs on furlough from Timbuktu.

[oddoneout]

Someone has said that furlough is used in a military context but in over seventy years I have only ever heard it in the context of missionaries returning home on leave. As in - the meeting will be addressed by Joe Bloggs on furlough from Timbuktu.

Well missionaries were fighting the good fight weren't they...
I remember various (male) members of my mother's family referring to furlough, but it was old-fashioned even then.

I am aware there could be a double entendre there but I'm not going to edit it

[Oakapple]

I guess the notion of a subject 'I' and object 'me' has now pretty much gone...

A headline from the Shropshire Star yesterday: Trust in he who conquered death.

[alycidon]

Well missionaries were fighting the good fight weren't they...
I remember various (male) members of my mother's family referring to furlough, but it was old-fashioned even then.

I am aware there could be a double entendre there but I'm not going to edit it

Yes, nicely said. Of course missionaries were fighting the good fight - very often for their lives.

[Pulcinella]

A headline from the Shropshire Star yesterday: Trust in he who conquered death.

I can live with that!


We would say Trust in God, for example, so if you believe that Christ is 'He who conquered Death', we could allow Trust in He who conquered Death.
If there was (were?) a comma, it would be different: Trust in Him, who conquered Death!

[muzzer]

“Furlough” hitherto had no meaning in employment law, not even colloquially such as possibly to justify it being used now in the way it is. It shows such an absence of imagination on the part of Cummings. I find this man a daily insult to my intelligence. I dearly wish he would go away.