Pedants' Paradise

[eighthobstruction]

Was that Alf Tupper? He of the parcel containing his running shoes while the other competitors had large sports bags for their gear?

.....yes, a man of good sporting ethics and a builders labourer in his spare time....always brassic....(although, as an amateur his need for the prize was always a bit ambiguous to me)

[french frank]

I'd always assumed it to be spelt "boracic",

That's because you went to a good school.

[oddoneout]

I'd always assumed it to be spelt "boracic", a derivation from borax, one reaction to which if taken undiluted would be to recoil

Well in its original form from which the slang came it would have been, but it's easy to see how it ended up in its current form.

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-185191,00.html

Useful stuff borax - ant killer, fire retardant for fabrics, woodworm prevention, but we're not allowed to use it these days(although I think the US can) - it's all "borax substitute" which I don't think does the same job. Like creosote, coal tar, paint, making it safe goes with making it less effective.

[Pulcinella]

You'd have thought that the council would have got this right!

https://www.thetimes.com/article/e3ac3295-c0d0-4568-a11a-f8bcc0efe0a4?shareToken=479a85d6f4e1c5b23493af40c1db251e

[kernelbogey]

You'd have thought that the council would have got this right!

Interesting that Christa Ackroyd, the Yorkshire tv journalist quoted at length has quite a rant about this 'dialect' being an outdated 'flat caps, whippets and pit' working class dialect, no longer relevant today.

[Serial_Apologist]

Interesting that Christa Ackroyd, the Yorkshire tv journalist quoted at length has quite a rant about this 'dialect' being an outdated 'flat caps, whippets and pit' working class dialect, no longer relevant today.

Still widespread and going strong, if not using bygone words which were designated for bygone industrial implements and practices any more - one doesn't have to travel north to find out, just watch the characters on Gogglebox. The missed direct article for which people like to inset t' to stress the glottal is widespread across "the north", along with "gerra, gerrit, gorra", not only found in Yorkshire.

[LMcD]

I notice that the triathlon in Paris might be reduced to a 'duathlon' rather than a 'biathlon' - presumably to avoid any suggestion that it might suddenly turn Nordic.

[kernelbogey]

I notice that the triathlon in Paris might be reduced to a 'duathlon' rather than a 'biathlon' - presumably to avoid any suggestion that it might suddenly turn Nordic.

...or a bit 'woke'!

[Pulcinella]

The stupid supposedly grammatical practice of not putting a comma before the word and (and I don't specifically mean the Oxford comma, which I use all the time) creates ambiguities on first reading that could easily be avoided.

Here's a line from today's Guardian that really is confused!
It needs the second (parentheticalj comma after Emhoff, but some poor sub will have thought that there can't be one before the 'and'.

Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, lawyer Doug Emhoff and Vance, who was brought up in Ohio, was largely raised by his grandmother.

[Pulcinella]

I notice that the triathlon in Paris might be reduced to a 'duathlon' rather than a 'biathlon' - presumably to avoid any suggestion that it might suddenly turn Nordic.

Wasn't the whole thing a rather in-Seine idea in the first place?

[smittims]

Wouldn't it be best to put a semi-colon between 'Ernhoff' and 'and ' ? Or a Full stop and begin a new sentence. Otherwise we might think Doug is 'the Duke of Ernhoff and Vance ' (cf. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).

[Pulcinella]

Wouldn't it be best to put a semi-colon between 'Ernhoff' and 'and ' ? Or a Full stop and begin a new sentence. Otherwise we might think Doug is 'the Duke of Ernhoff and Vance ' (cf. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).

[LMcD]

Wasn't the whole thing a rather in-Seine idea in the first place?

Presumably the majority view was that it was a capital idea.

[french frank]

Here's a line from today's Guardian that really is confused!
It needs the second (parentheticalj comma after Emhoff, but some poor sub will have thought that there can't be one before the 'and'.

I feel the same way on that. I don't have particular rules, Oxford, Cambridge or redbrick, but I do add commas where I feel that a pause, even a momentary one, is natural or helpful in conveying the meaning.

[Serial_Apologist]

Wasn't the whole thing a rather in-Seine idea in the first place?

Currently as well.