Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

But it may quite correctly be comprised of six rooms.

And I would have argued that that was incorrect but cf OED which supports the passive usage:

1970 Nature 27 June 1206/2 Internally, the chloroplast is comprised of a system of flattened membrane sacs (which I knew, of course!)

My reasoning would have been that comprise is formed from French comprendre, English form comprehend (used with the same meaning) and you can't be comprehended of.

All baloney, because you can use comprise in the passive

[Serial_Apologist]

And I would have argued that that was incorrect but cf OED which supports the passive usage:

1970 Nature 27 June 1206/2 Internally, the chloroplast is comprised of a system of flattened membrane sacs (which I knew, of course!)

My reasoning would have been that comprise is formed from French comprendre, English form comprehend (used with the same meaning) and you can't be comprehended of.

All baloney, because you can use comprise in the passive

So my teachers were wrong all along?!

[french frank]

So my teachers were wrong all along?!

What you can't say is that 'The house comprises of six rooms.' Isn't that what your teachers were saying? If so, they were right. You can (I learn) say 'The house is comprised of six rooms'. I would say grammatically correct but not sure it's idiomatic/usual.

[Serial_Apologist]

What you can't say is that 'The house comprises of six rooms.' Isn't that what your teachers were saying? If so, they were right. You can (I learn) say 'The house is comprised of six rooms'. I would say grammatically correct but not sure it's idiomatic/usual.

Thanks for that clarification, ff.

[gurnemanz]

And I would have argued that that was incorrect but cf OED which supports the passive usage:

1970 Nature 27 June 1206/2 Internally, the chloroplast is comprised of a system of flattened membrane sacs (which I knew, of course!)

My reasoning would have been that comprise is formed from French comprendre, English form comprehend (used with the same meaning) and you can't be comprehended of.

All baloney, because you can use comprise in the passive

English "comprise" is back-formation derived from the past participle of the French "comprendre" which can be used in the sense of "included" ("y compris"). French "comprendre" can mean either "comprehend/understand" or "include" whereas English "comprehend" can only mean "understand".
I wouldn't call it a passive but rather the past participle used adjectivally, as in "the car was stolen" in the sense off it being described as a stolen car not being stolen at that moment.

[french frank]

whereas English "comprehend" can only mean "understand".

I believe that to be incorrect, since I looked up the various possible meanings that are still current. Will look them up again.


III. To take in, comprise, include, contain.
7.
a. To include or comprise in a treatise or discourse: now more usually said of the book, etc.
b. To include in scope, application, or meaning.
c. To include in the same category.
8.
a. Of a space, period, or amount: To take in, contain, comprise, include.
b. transf. and fig.
9
a. To enclose or include in or within limits.
10.
a. To contain as a line or surface; to encompass; esp. in Geom.
b. To enclose or have within it; to contain; to lie around. ? Obs. [Only this one is marked as obsolete]

However, even under 8 b there is an example of the passive:

1713 R. Steele in Guardian 12 Mar. 2/2 All Sorrows..are comprehended in the Sense of Guilt and Pain.

[jean]

I believe that to be incorrect, since I looked up the various possible meanings that are still current. Will look them up again.

"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Though I suppose you could argue that that isn't really current.

[french frank]

"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Though I suppose you could argue that that isn't really current.

Well, that appears to exhaust the subject. It has certainly exhausted me. And so, in the words of Pepys, to bed ...

[mercia]

momentarily to return to the baths, why slipper baths, I wonder ?

[Bryn]

momentarily to return to the baths, why slipper baths, I wonder ?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slipper+bath

Obvious really, I suppose. I thought there might be some more involved basis.

[jean]

It says here:

A slipper bath is a bath tub shaped like a slipper, with a high rising back, designed to keep the water hot for longer and to protect the modesty of the bather – even though they were alone in a cubicle.

When I was growing up in the 50s, there were children in my class at primary school who lived in houses without bathrooms, who used a tin bath in front of the kitchen fire (which I thought quite exciting and certainly warmer than our bathroom) but I don't remember anyone ever going to public baths.

However when I spent a year at London University, in 1964-65, I believe that the Students' Union in Malet Street had private bathrooms as well as a swimming pool - I think I even made use of them occasionally as my landlady was a bit parsimonious with hot water.

Or am I imagining that?

[french frank]

Hardly pedantry, but I was mightily pleased to come across the origin of 'lorem ipsum' which is the text which one often comes across where websites are under construction, and the like. Being wrenched from Cicero's Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia... it has something in common with: Ut re mi fa sol la (si) Ut &c.

Ut queant laxis
resonare fibris,
Mira gestorum
famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

Very satisfying to find reasons for things

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why not go the whole hog with readjusted Latin -

Caesar adsum jam forti
Pompey aderat.
Caesar sic in omnibus;
Pompey init sat.

[french frank]

Why not go the whole hog with readjusted Latin -

Caesar adsum jam forti
Pompey aderat.
Caesar sic in omnibus;
Pompey init sat.

Anyone remember this?

[Pabmusic]

While we're on the subject, here's something French, with the learned notes from the editor, Courtlandt H. K. van Rooten. It's from his scholarly edition of the medieval Mots d'Heurres: Gousses, Rames:

Un petit d'un petit¹

S'étonne aux Halles²

Un petit d'un petit

Ah! degrés te fallent³

Indolent qui ne sort cesse⁴

Indolent qui ne se mène⁵

Qu'importe un petit d'un petit

Tout Gai de Reguennes.⁶

¹ The inevitable result of a child marriage.

² The subject of this epigrammatic poem is obviously from the provinces, since a native Parisian would take this famous old market for granted.

³ Since this personage bears no titles, we are led to believe the poet writes of one of those unfortunate idiot-children that in olden days existed as a living skeleton in their family's closet. I am inclined to believe, however, that this is a fine piece of misdirection and that the poet is actually writing of some famous political prisoner, or the illegitimate offspring of some noble house. The Man in the Iron Mask, perhaps?

^{4, 5} Another misdirection. Obviously it was not laziness that prevented this person's going out and taking himself places.

⁶ He was obviously prevented from fulfilling his destiny, since he is compared to Gai de Reguennes. This was a young squire (to one of his uncles, a Gaillard of Normandy) who died at the tender age of twelve of a surfeit of Saracen arrows before the walls of Acre in 1191.



I wish (oh! how I wish) I'd thought of it.