On 14 Jun 2006, at 3:48AM, Dave Land wrote:
On Jun 12, 2006, at 3:35 AM, William T Goodall wrote:
On 12 Jun 2006, at 3:04AM, Dave Land wrote:
Salon is running a great piece by the inimitable Garrison Kiellor
on the ridiculous tact
Is that a back-formation from 'tactic'? Because the correct word
is 'tack', a figurative usage of the sailing term.
You cot me. That's the pries I pay for halving had a peace of my
brane removed.
That's a better excuse than most English abusers on the internet can
manage. It seems like the bad drives out the good with errors
becoming more common than the correct use. Some of the more common:
Voila / viola
Rogue / rouge
Lose / loose
Fluorescent / flourescent
Atheist / athiest
Hobbyist / hobbiest
Ballot / ballet
Customers / costumers
Tack / tact
Bated / baited
What's most surprising is that several of these aren't even words so
it can't be spell checkers that are to blame.
Every time I see 'baited breath' in print I think of people trying to
catch flies in their slack-jawed mouths...
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
Theists cannot be trusted as they believe that right and wrong are
the arbitrary proclamations of invisible demons.
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