Search found 229 matches

by brogine
Sat Mar 16, 2024 1:42 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Irish Names
Replies: 1
Views: 58

Re: Irish Names

I believe I’ve heard that the name Kaitlin (Kate-lin) is just a misunderstanding of the way Kathleen is spelled in Ireland.

Quae scio?
by brogine
Fri Mar 08, 2024 2:07 pm
Forum: Good Word Discussion
Topic: Insult
Replies: 1
Views: 76

Re: Insult

Many verb-to-noun pairs in English exhibit this peculiarity: survey (survey : a survey), reject (reject : a reject), and rewrite (rewrite : a re-write) among others. I’ve written about this here, advancing the idea that the latter-syllable stress for verbs is favored because it sounds more dynamic....
by brogine
Wed Mar 06, 2024 2:12 pm
Forum: Good Word Discussion
Topic: Estimable
Replies: 8
Views: 2890

Re: Estimable

Thanks. I might also have noted that despite being colloquial and rare, the fact that it’s not a synonym or variant spelling of squish or squash adds a bit to its bona fides.
by brogine
Mon Mar 04, 2024 5:56 pm
Forum: Good Word Discussion
Topic: Estimable
Replies: 8
Views: 2890

Re: Estimable

And I’ve always thought Quasimodo was just a name. (Actually, no need to capitalize it now.) Didn’t even have a hunch! Might as well loose the felis domesticus from the sack: it’s sqush , at least in the OED, earliest citation in Huckleberry Finn . Probably coined therein, but a few other usages not...
by brogine
Mon Mar 04, 2024 3:49 pm
Forum: Good Word Discussion
Topic: Estimable
Replies: 8
Views: 2890

Re: Estimable

The times being what they are, for the most part, I’d say you’re well-situated. I could start a new post about this wee discovery, but no one but you would take any notice anyway, so . . . . . . didja know there’s an entry in the OED (admittedly ‘U.S. colloquial and dialect. rare.’) with ‘qu’ not fo...
by brogine
Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:21 am
Forum: Good Word Discussion
Topic: Estimable
Replies: 8
Views: 2890

Re: Estimable

According to the OED, meaning 2 is obsolete.
by brogine
Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:33 am
Forum: Good Word Discussion
Topic: Hyperbole
Replies: 1
Views: 82

Re: Hyperbole

Interesting that hypobole, which is a word, is not an antonym.
by brogine
Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:43 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: AA Meeting
Replies: 16
Views: 1413

Re: AA Meeting

Ye gods and goddesses! We have the makin’s of a horse race!

The wik has it as a singular flat out.
Etymonline’s entry suggests cannola is Italian only
(and not for the pastry).
And the OED admits solely of the plural.

I’m tellin’ granma!
by brogine
Mon Feb 26, 2024 7:25 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: AA Meeting
Replies: 16
Views: 1413

Re: AA Meeting

I’ve never used that - I get the OED through my library system.
Just looked at etymonline.com and I don’t see that.
Is there another version?
by brogine
Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:17 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: AA Meeting
Replies: 16
Views: 1413

Re: AA Meeting

There are also graffiti and paparazzi, both with legit singulars.

Cannoli sounds off, using it as single (guess l’ll have to have two . . .),
perhaps because we’re so used to a final i indicating the plural.
There doesn’t seem to be a singular form.
by brogine
Sun Feb 25, 2024 5:41 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Washington Irving Specialists?
Replies: 0
Views: 272

Washington Irving Specialists?

I’ve been wondering if the name Diedrich Knickerbocker
was supposed to be a joke of a kind on ‘died rich’, as a comment
on supposed Dutch parsimony.
by brogine
Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:26 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Another Botheration
Replies: 1
Views: 134

Another Botheration

Pre s. I always thought Chuck Berry - he was quite a wordsmith - coined that word, but it’s in the OED, going back well over two hundred years. I periodically check a few automated phone lines for credit card or other kinds of balances. They’ve always been natural-sounding. Lately, a couple are usin...
by brogine
Wed Feb 21, 2024 5:01 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: AA Meeting
Replies: 16
Views: 1413

Re: AA Meeting

Another interesting case is that of data and media.
The singular forms aren’t often required, but the plural quite
often are heard with the singular verb!
by brogine
Tue Feb 20, 2024 11:18 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: AA Meeting
Replies: 16
Views: 1413

Re: AA Meeting

Ya big silly! I was going to come back, anyway. I should have said two lists, the third being of words with plurals only for different types. coffee , wheat , etc. There’s a word for that kind of noun . . . . Now I think of it, aren’t there also words which are plural only in a non-literal sense? Wa...
by brogine
Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:41 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: AA Meeting
Replies: 16
Views: 1413

Re: AA Meeting

I have such a list, in a 1979 print dictionary. Actually, three lists, depending on this or that. But how’s this for an equine of a similar hue? Words for which the singular is the same as the plural . Lemme explain. I’m thinking - not without a degree of irritation - of cases where the singular see...

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