bonobashi
--- On Sat, 20/12/08, Bonobashi <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Bonobashi <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [silk] Pet Peeves and Pedantry, was: How Risky Is India? > To: [email protected] > Date: Saturday, 20 December, 2008, 7:41 PM > --- On Fri, 19/12/08, Divya Sampath > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > From: Divya Sampath <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [silk] Pet Peeves and Pedantry, was: How > Risky Is India? > > To: [email protected] > > Date: Friday, 19 December, 2008, 1:10 AM > > --- On Wed, 12/17/08, Bonobashi > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Everybody seems to have a favourite gripe, and > that is > > > clearly the only thing worth talking about. > > <snipped> > > > > > For me, at the moment, it's imbeciles who > write > > 'a > > > history' instead of 'an history'. > > > > Ah-ha! The mis-use of language - now that's a > favourite > > gripe I can really get behind. > > > > In this case, though, ahem. 'A history' is > correct. > > 'An history' is very definitely not. The > 'h' > > at the beginning of the word is not silent. If you are > > nostalgic about my outbursts of linguistic pedantry on > Silk, > > we can go into why the 'h' in 'hour', > > 'honour' and 'honest' are silent, and > why > > this is not the case with 'history' or > > 'hippopotamus'. It will involve long and > soporific > > explanations involving word etyomology. Latin, Greek > and > > French will be invoked. You have been warned. > > Warning noted. > > However, I understand that the usage is linked to the > origin of the word, not so much to the pronunciation of the > 'h' sound. > > So, history, hotel, hospital being words of foreign origin, > Greek, French and French respectively, ought to be an > history, an hotel and an hospital. > > I do remember reading the exact rules of usage in some > obscure tome or the other, but having forgotten that you are > around to haunt those who venture forth into these > well-charted waters but are unable to produce their letters > of marque, omitted, most unwisely, it would appear, to look > it up before making that very allusive remark in an > otherwise general rant. > > So I have the task of looking it up before the nuclear > winter sets in...er, that is, before you react. > > > > Permit me to offer up a favourite gripe of my own: the > > frequent use of 'decimate' to signify > 'wipe out > > a large proportion of'. I know this has become the > > commonly accepted meaning (due to widespread abuse in > > popular media), but it's still a conscious effort > not to > > go all Inigo Montoya (You keep using that word. I do > not > > think it means what you think it means.) when it > catches me > > unawares in the midst of the evening news. One would > think > > the original meaning ('kill one in every ten') > is > > perfectly obvious from the word root: decim-, as in > decimal, > > from the Latin for a tenth. > > > This, by the way, as you probably know already, was a > specific Roman military punishment for units found to be > insufficiently courageous in battle. It was literally the > execution of one in ten. > > Yes, it is a hateful misuse. > > > > > Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to > http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/
