Pedants' Paradise

[oddoneout]

What makes a pretty flower an invasive weed? Discuss.

An attractive flower arising from a totally uncivilised rootstock... Celandine flowers are attractive, but the plant gets everywhere thanks to the bulbils and makes a smothering carpet which requires a lot of persistence to control let alone eradicate. Ground elder has a pretty flower but again, the plant from which it arises has no manners.
Some garden plants fall into that category as well, but not so many in my experience.

[vinteuil]

the bulbils

... bulbils! A new word for me - many thanks

.

[gurnemanz]

An attractive flower arising from a totally uncivilised rootstock... Celandine flowers are attractive, but the plant gets everywhere thanks to the bulbils and makes a smothering carpet which requires a lot of persistence to control let alone eradicate. Ground elder has a pretty flower but again, the plant from which it arises has no manners.
Some garden plants fall into that category as well, but not so many in my experience.

The word bulbil was a new to me. I googled 'celandine bulbil' and I was surprised to discover that you can actually buy them. https://www.wildflowershop.co.uk/Bul...ine%20Lssr.htm
As someone who disposes of them buy the bucketful, I would have thought there should he a warning about their tendency to proliferate and take over.

[gradus]

Apart from their pretty flowers the three-sided onions widely resident in our garden have edible bulbils - a useful weed.

[Pulcinella]

Photo caption in today's Times (my bold):

The foreign secretary has covered more than 75,000 miles in his first 200 days, excelling any of his predecessors over the same time frame

Wrong word, surely?

[french frank]

Photo caption in today's Times (my bold):

The foreign secretary has covered more than 75,000 miles in his first 200 days, excelling any of his predecessors over the same time frame

Wrong word, surely?

Unless cleverly playing with words to pay a compliment to an excellent foreign secretary (I'd forgotten who he was and had to check).

[gurnemanz]

Seems to be the wrong choice if the writer means to say "more than" rather than "better than" which would be the more usual connotation of "excel".

Eg Chambers:

transitive verb:
To be superior to or better than
To surpass
To exceed (Milton)

intransitive verb:
To have good qualities in large measure
To perform exceptional actions
To be superior or better
To be exceptionally good at (with in or at)

[oddoneout]

Photo caption in today's Times (my bold):

The foreign secretary has covered more than 75,000 miles in his first 200 days, excelling any of his predecessors over the same time frame

Wrong word, surely?

Well it's excelling at adding to the pollution/climate difficulties isn't it? But I doubt irony was the aim; it's not knowing the correct word, and excel and exceed sound sufficiently close to be subject to "it'll do" if anyone bothers to check...

[french frank]

Seems to be the wrong choice if the writer means to say "more than" rather than "better than" which would be the more usual connotation of "excel".

One is quality, the other is amount.

[Serial_Apologist]

Photo caption in today's Times (my bold):

The foreign secretary has covered more than 75,000 miles in his first 200 days, excelling any of his predecessors over the same time frame

Wrong word, surely?

Perhaps journeys were plotted on Excel!

[Pulcinella]

Perhaps journeys were plotted on Excel!

[Pulcinella]

The Guardian today:

People in Britain have more confidence in the EU than the UK parliament, reversing a state of affairs that has lasted for more than 30 years, research reveals.

On first reading, I took this to mean:

People in Britain have more confidence in the EU than the UK parliament does, reversing a state of affairs that has lasted for more than 30 years, research reveals.

But it really means:

People in Britain have more confidence in the EU than in the UK parliament, reversing a state of affairs that has lasted for more than 30 years, research reveals.

If I'd been writing the story, I think I would have included the in.

[smittims]

Yes, I agree with you. I thought that's what they meant, but I saw it was not what they said.

Ambiguities and uncertainties of this kind seem to me to be more frequent. Can it be that fewer journalists today have been taught grammar?

[french frank]

Yes, I agree with you. I thought that's what they meant, but I saw it was not what they said.

Yes, I 'misread' it, too.

Meanwhile I had to chase up the OED on this Headline "Gwyneth Paltrow accuser apologises for 'King Kong' ski trial jab". Did it mean jibe? Can 'jab' mean jibe too? Apparently, it can. Americanism, but this provokes the question: but why would anyone choose jab rather than jibe - unless they were American?

[smittims]

Maybe they wanted to appear 'up to date'. In the same way people say 'cathartic', without knowing what it means, because they've heard others say it and it sounds cool.