Pedants' Paradise

[LMcD]

https://www.edp24.co.uk/features/gre...nion-1-6052868

I've just emailed the editor of the Eastern Daily Press, wondering whether Greta would have made the same mistake.

[kernelbogey]

Responding to claims he was a Salvini supporter, Anello said: “For almost 20 years I have served both right and left governments indifferently.”

[french frank]

Anello said: “For almost 20 years I have served both right and left governments indifferently.”

So, no enthusiasm for these extremists? Trust a good moderate.

[Serial_Apologist]

Here's one from this lunchtime's BBC4 news: "elecTORal". I would always say "eLECtoral", with the stress on the second syllable - it sounds less clumsy, somehow.

There was a lovely malapropism from Daily Depress reporter Carole Malone on this morning's Jeremy Vine show on CH5:

"Oxytoxin is the chemical in the brain that causes sexual arousal".

[Wychwood]

Surprised to hear Donald Macleod today in a repeated CotW (mis)using the phrase reaching a crescendo: "The row reaching a crescendo...in a fist-fight in church".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I noticed that!

Nails scraping down a blackboard, I can cope happily with ... but "reaching a crescendo"!!!???

[Pabmusic]

I noticed that!

Nails scraping down a blackboard, I can cope happily with ... but "reaching a crescendo"!!!???

What's so bad is that it's the classic error in musical terminological usage.

Pffft!!

[kernelbogey]

What's so bad is that it's the classic error in musical terminological usage.

Pffft!!

Pabs, you could calm yourself with a latte and a panini....

[Pabmusic]

Pabs, you could calm yourself with a latte and a panini....

That's a good idea.

[french frank]

What's so bad is that it's the classic error in musical terminological usage.

Pffft!!

Interestingly, the OED has 6 examples ("colloquial (orig. U.S.). The peak of an increase in volume, force, or intensity; a climax. Esp. in to reach a crescendo"), the first from Fitzgerald's Gatsby in 1925, up to the Economist in 1975. But none of these examples has a musical context.

[Zucchini]

The music can of course reach a point where a crescendo commences ...

[french frank]

The music can of course reach a point where a crescendo commences ...

Very logical, and if Donald Macleod had said: "The row reached a point where a crescendo commenced...in a fist-fight in church", there would be no outcry.

[gurnemanz]

Interestingly, the OED has 6 examples ("colloquial (orig. U.S.). The peak of an increase in volume, force, or intensity; a climax. Esp. in to reach a crescendo"), the first from Fitzgerald's Gatsby in 1925, up to the Economist in 1975. But none of these examples has a musical context.

I also react against "reaching a crescendo". It is a present participle, "growing" and as such refers to a process occurring over a period of time not to a point in time. However, whether we like it or not, in modern usage it is very often encountered in the sense of the high point of a crescendo. So it is probably Canute-like to resist. Chambers describes this usage as "figurative":

1.An increase of loudness
2.A passage of increasing loudness
3.A high point, a climax (figurative)

[vinteuil]

I also react against "reaching a crescendo". It is a present participle, "growing" and as such refers to a process occurring over a period of time not to a point in time. However, whether we like it or not, in modern usage it is very often encountered in the sense of the high point of a crescendo. So it is probably Canute-like to resist. Chambers describes this usage as "figurative":

1.An increase of loudness
2.A passage of increasing loudness
3.A high point, a climax (figurative)

... and of course 'climax' originally meant 'a ladder', and hence 'an ascending series' - rather than the much later usage as a 'culmination'

.

[gurnemanz]

Pabs, you could calm yourself with a latte and a panini....

A fully paid-up pedant is bound to point out that "panini" is the plural of "panino". A panino might make a decent snack but one spaghetto would be a rather sparse meal.