Pedants' Paradise

[LezLee]

On QI, of all things, something which always puzzles me.
The question was: 'What is the connection between the word 'murder' and Red Rum?' Answer - 'one is the other spelt backwards'.
Then Sandi added "and they are anagrams of each other"!
Isn't that what an anagram is?

[LeMartinPecheur]

On QI, of all things, something which always puzzles me.
The question was: 'What is the connection between the word 'murder' and Red Rum?' Answer - 'one is the other spelt backwards'.
Then Sandi added "and they are anagrams of each other"!
Isn't that what an anagram is?

All palindromes are anagrams but by no means all anagrams are palindromes!

[LezLee]

All palindromes are anagrams but by no means all anagrams are palindromes!

Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way. I was only thinking the phrase 'of each other' was redundant.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way. I was only thinking the phrase 'of each other' was redundant.

"Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way," to coin a phrase

[cloughie]

"Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way," to coin a phrase

Penny for 'em?

[LezLee]

"Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way," to coin a phrase

I do hope 'to coin a phrase' is meant tongue in cheek! Hard to know whether it's intentional when it's written down!

[LezLee]

A glaring mistake repeated several times in last night's 'Call The Midwife'. 'Guinness World Records' was called 'Guinness Book Of Records' from its inception in 1955 to 2000.

[Padraig]

A glaring mistake repeated several times in last night's 'Call The Midwife'. 'Guinness World Records' was called 'Guinness Book Of Records' from its inception in 1955 to 2000.

Is that a record?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Penny for 'em?

Mea maxima culpa, I thought LezLee had picked up on confusion about palindromes and anagrams (as if all palindromes were not also anagrams), whereas it was 'anagrams of each other' that had inspired the posting. And I missed that completely

[Andy Freude]

Intrigued by a recent American newsletter which reported:

"Megan Rapinoe and teammates shined a bright light on the role of elite female athletes in sport" and

"You'll be waked by howler monkeys rather than by an alarm clock"

I think 'shined' might be standard English if usely transitively ("Shaun the shoeshiner shined his shoes shoddily"?). Waked?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Only post-mortem (unless like Finnegan)?

[Padraig]

Intrigued by a recent American newsletter which reported:

"Megan Rapinoe and teammates shined a bright light on the role of elite female athletes in sport"

For starters, I totally agree with the sentiment.

The verb - to shine - is interesting, as used by Americans. In the above sentence, the past tense, 'shined' is unfamiliar to me, but sounds ok to say. I have got quite used, though, to hearing 'shone' as a past tense, but pronounced 'shown'.

'waked' now sounds alright, too, though it has a special meaning when there is a funeral to take place.

I suspect we are in the realm of common usage.

[Pulcinella]

I read today of criticism of HM The Queen for saying 'different to' rather than 'different from' in her Christmas Day broadcast.
But surely, by definition, 'different to' has now become 'the Queen's English', and thus not only acceptable but correct usage?

[LezLee]

I read today of criticism of HM The Queen for saying 'different to' rather than 'different from' in her Christmas Day broadcast.
But surely, by definition, 'different to' has now become 'the Queen's English', and thus not only acceptable but correct usage?

It seems odd though that someone such as the Queen who must surely have been brought up to say 'different from' should change to 'to' in her old age. I would never use 'to', it just doesn't come naturally to me.

[gurnemanz]

It seems odd though that someone such as the Queen who must surely have been brought up to say 'different from' should change to 'to' in her old age. I would never use 'to', it just doesn't come naturally to me.

Different to/from is one of those where I would refrain from adjudicating. I'm pretty sure my brain would randomly make my mouth produce either variant without my conscious mind being involved.

I say this having worked for four years as English Lektor (ie native speaker running conversation classes) in the English Department of a German university. German colleagues would (deludedly) regard me as a fount of wisdom on idiomatic usage. The professor himself asked me one day. "Can you say ..." (can't remember what it was.) A few days later I was talking to him again and he commented: "you just said that thing you said you couldn't say."