Thanks for those thoughts call_copse. Yes pronouncing it properly (as the French) is to invite accusations of snobbery, and to pronounce it any other way is simply wrong! Don't use it at all; there are plenty of English alternatives. What an interesting name for a newspaper, Luke. Is it supposed to ...

Most interesting. Thanks Audiendus.

So it looks like peat is fair. I will peat this to my friends - the pedantic semanticists will be amused

I got onto this one by wondering what the plural of the word is. Surely it is already a plural, I thought, and the singular is presumably agendum. And if it is a plural already, it surely doesn't mean a list of things to discuss/do. It means rather 'things to discuss'. So 'an agenda' is not strictly...

Stop Press. I have just checked the online English dictionaries and they make no effort to pronounce it in French, although what they say is much closer to the French than the US pronunciation. Non- parail or perhaps non-parayal. The French is closer to naw( with a hint of an n)- paray(with a hint o...

Nahn-pe-rel? Indeed! Maybe in US, but never anglicised in my experience in UK and Australia. Actually, I don't think it is ever used here in Oz. It is a straight French word, pronounced if you can do it, as a French person would say it. But as we have said before it really shouldn't be used in Engli...

Contemplating Churchill's offer of blood, toil, tears and sweat, I marvelled at the glory of these old English words with no Latin or Greek origin to be seen. How powerful is the language. But sweat is particularly interesting because I can't think of another word in English ending in -eat that is p...

Perhaps, George. But as I recall she was not a lady of good humour. Thinking further on the Australian equivalent to bonhommie but with a special Australian-ness, perhaps the word larrikin could be adapted. So maybe if the person who behaves in that way is a larrikin, the way he behaves might be hav...

A further reflection on 'bonhomie'. I note that the Google dictionary offers scores of synonyms but of course none of them has the same nuance. 'Geniality' - yeah, but... Conviviality, possibly. But bonhomie is a rather refined pleasant spirit, and that is not conveyed in any of the suggested synony...

Excellent stuff, George. I don't know about a single word for the Australian style - books have been written trying to define it. But Larrikinism is often used - a sort of good-natured ebullience that fails to respect the 'system' and its authority. Certainly as a communications person, I did a job ...

Excellent points on the distinction between bon mot and epigram. Thank you, George particularly. Perhaps a bon mot is a nice throw-away line and then thrown away where an epigram persists - even on its way towards becoming a proverb? But I still dislike using foreign words that have not yet been ang...

Yes, the expression is fully French. It has not been anglicised in any way. So in my view the French plural should be used. But why on earth are we using a French word/expression when there is a perfectly satisfactory and well-established English (Greek) one? Epigram is surely an exact synonym?

Does this word exist? Has it ever existed? What did it mean? The only references I can find are to an obscure piece of legal jargon that bears no semblance to to the words with a prefix: Assemble, resemble, dissemble, ensemble and probably others. So presumably it has existed and the others are deri...

I believe there is a language (is it a North American Indian one?) that has lots more words for 'there'? A bit like the perhaps apocryphal 27 words for snow in Eskimo. Near, there, further, further still, further still and out of sight, and lots more. Can anyone enlighten us?

David

Splendid. Normal service has been resumed. Very excited.

David

Today's The Conversation in Australia has a splendid piece on the linguistic issues (in Australia) that cause pedants like us to frenzy (is that a verb?) Anyway it is fun and so are most of the added comments for those that have time. https://theconversation.com/the-horror-and-pleasure-of-misused-wo...