Pedants' Paradise

[LeMartinPecheur]

This was usually reserved for expensive items, partly for show, and partly to disguise the price (a bit like the way 19/11 was used distract from the fact one was effectively paying £1.

The original use of 19/11 and 99 cents wasn't actually to kid consumers into thinking the item was cheap, it was to limit scope for employee theft. If the price was a round dollar or pound it was comparatively easy for sales staff to palm the money and 'forget' to ring it through the till. Not so easy if they had to give change.

[french frank]

(Tho' I did enjoy on a walk down the Uxbridge Road this morning an advertisement for - a Picture Framers's... )

The Uxbridge company Picture Framers's aim is to provide a 24-hour service to its customers?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Uxbridge company Picture Framers's aim is to provide a 24-hour service to its customers?

But first you have to tell them what you've got in your pockets's.

[french frank]

But first you have to tell them what you've got in your pockets's.

I was trying to point out how one could construct an entity, 'Picture Framers', as in a business that had registered its name, imaginatively, as 'Picture Framers' rather than using it as descriptive of what it did.

'For all your picture framing needs, contact your local professional service Picture Framers, 49 Uxbridge High Street. Established 1957 (incorporating J. Smith, picture framer).'

If you treat that as being a plural noun, it refers to something different, i.e. the individual employees who do the framing out back.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The original use of 19/11 and 99 cents wasn't actually to kid consumers into thinking the item was cheap, it was to limit scope for employee theft. If the price was a round dollar or pound it was comparatively easy for sales staff to palm the money and 'forget' to ring it through the till. Not so easy if they had to give change.

That's fascinating. But I don't think that could apply to those houses costing £299,999.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was trying to point out how one could construct an entity, 'Picture Framers', as in a business that had registered its name, imaginatively, as 'Picture Framers' rather than using it as descriptive of what it did.

But, in that case, wouldn't " Picture Framers' " suffice? " Picture Framers' - the shop belonging to the people who own Picture Framers "?

[LeMartinPecheur]

That's fascinating. But I don't think that could apply to those houses costing £299,999.

Haven't you seen the new £300k note??

[french frank]

But, in that case, wouldn't " Picture Framers' " suffice? " Picture Framers' - the shop belonging to the people who own Picture Framers "?

But there you are positing a plural (the people who own Picture Framers). I am positing a singular - the company, corporately - purely to illustrate the theoretical possibilities.

Picture Framers' tends to mean of or pertaining to all the various individual framers of pictures; Picture Framers's means of or pertaining to the company registered as Picture Framers.

Germane, though slightly different, is : 'View Boots's profile' (online). Boots is the name of the company, rather than Boot, the name of the founder. It might logically have been Boot's's if the name of the company had been Boot's; Sainsbury's write of 'the Sainbury's website', where the inclusion of the definite article makes the point clear. I think.

[Sir Velo]

That's fascinating. But I don't think that could apply to those houses costing £299,999.

That's a recent development though. You've got to remember that back then there were few, if any, houses selling for that sort of money (equivalent to north of £10m in today's prices). In fact if you look at sales particulars for large country houses none of them sold for that sort of money. Montacute House ("the world famous Montacute" as Country Life described) it was valued for scrap at £5,885 in 1929.

[mercia]

prompted by another thread - what is the female equivalent of TRIUMVIRATE please ?

[Sir Velo]

triumgynate

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

triumgynate

Sounds like a political scandal!

[mercia]

triumgynate

thanks.

I wonder if, let's say, Master of the Queen's Music, Master of the Choristers and Master of the Foxhounds could be described as a triumvirate of titles whether all held by men or not

[french frank]

Well, the meanings of vir-viri and homo-hominis may not be quite identical. Jean? Whereas vir usually (almost always?) refers to a man, it can also imply certain 'manlike' qualities, of which being a Master of Something or other might be one.

Incidentally, Old French maistre could also be used of a woman - la maistre - because phonologically magistrum and magistram evolve into identical forms. Maîtresse/mistress were later formations.

[Pabmusic]

Well, the meanings of vir-viri and homo-hominis may not be quite identical...

Interesting. Presumably there's a connexion with the Old English wer (weregild, werewulf) which meant a rather more general 'man' rather than man -vs- woman, something a bit more like 'human'.

The sexual distinctions were wifman (female human), from which we get woman and wife; and wæpman (male human) which is a double entendre ("human with a weapon" - nudge nudge, wink wink) which we've lost completely, presumptuously using "man" (= human) instead and thus generating sexism.