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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
On Public Broadcasting, no less, the reporters seem to have a new favorite descriptive phrase : " a wide array." Makes my teeth itch. My Oxford CD has strictly military meanings and Atomica says its sometimes an elaborate arrangement.
I'm sure the modifying of "unique" has been discussed ad nauseum
Also on my list is the practice of referring to what you hope will be an annual event as a First Annual. Anyone care to jump in? wow
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I dislike the use of 'effect' as a verb. I've brought this up before, and found out it is in effective use as a verb. But it sounds so close to affect, which is a verb 98% of the time, that I think people are going to start using them interchangeably. Grr.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Yep, 'fraid so, Jackie. I am already finding the two words interchanged in many of the essays I mark - and this, friends, is not a reflection on the youth of today - the essays that are handed to me are written by "mature students," typically people in their mid-forties and upward.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
" a wide array." Makes my teeth itch. My Oxford CD has strictly military meanings and Atomica says its sometimes an elaborate arrangement.
The Concise OED that lives in my study has considerably more meanings that that, both as a verb and as a noun. "To dress or adorn with display" v.t. or "an imposing or well-ordered series of persons or things" n
So "a wide array" doesn't sound too bad to me!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
the essays that are handed to me are written by "mature students," typically people in their mid-forties and upward.Just because people are "mature students" shouldn't mean that they learned to spell any better than us young folk. Some people, both young and old, just don't care if things are spelled quite correctly - or punctuated correctly. (I DO care, by the way.) Otherwise "mature" shop owners wouldn't write things like: potato's - .99¢/ lb (which would imply 100 pounds to the dollar)
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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The Commando stated : "an imposing or well-ordered series of persons or things" So "a wide array" doesn't sound too bad to me!
So you would say "a wide series?" wow
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Bean adds: potato's* - .99¢/ lb
I am always tempted to demand that they sell them to me at that price. Somehow I don't think I'd get very far.
Not to mention the ubiquitous apostrophe s plural. My favorite 's plural was on on a dumpster. Bulldog Box'es
*Ænigma "corrected" this to potatoes. Possibly the only case of Ænigma doing the right thing!
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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This is undoubtedly a YART, but it drives me nuts when people incorrectly insert an apostrophe into "its" to indicate possession.
bridget=)
Ipsa scientia potestas est ~Bacon
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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This is undoubtedly a YART, but it drives me nuts when people incorrectly insert an apostrophe into "its" to indicate possession.
The sick thing is, I have seen it so often recently that I have to look twice sometimes to determine when it's correct or not!
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>So "a wide array" doesn't sound too bad to me! Nor me. Is is Britspeak perhaps? PS I heard someone apologising for the radio transmission being halted "momentarily" today after there had been a two second gap in the broadcast. It made me smile.
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