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Shanks claims a "BA (Eng Lit) Bombay University (at the Elphinstone College, to be precise)."
Jackie wonders: "You went to a college for elves??"
Silly Jackie. Elphinstone College is a distinguished school housed entirely in single-storey buildings made from elphinstone -- little, tiny rocks which, unlike sandstone and granite, cannot be stacked very many one atop the other.
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old hand
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It's a contraction (corruption) of 'Elephant stoned', in memory of the feat of some of our more enterprising students who fed two kilos of 'good Manali grass' to a pachyderm. Others later tried to lynch them for wasting all that good stuff, but lost interest halfway through when they got the munchies. Seriously, though, Elphi (as we called it) had a reputation for drug-taking (and strongly left wing views) though the '70s and '80s, and many's the time when others heard where I was from, they'd say: "Oh, Elphi-stoned..." and tell their daughters to avoid me!  cheer the sunshine warrior ps. If you really want to know - Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone was Governor of Bombay for a while, and the college (now some 135 years old, and housed in a beautiful, if filthy, neo-Gothic building) was named after him. The Raj is dead - long live the Raj!
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Pooh-Bah
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Fascinating stuff, Anna - but it would never fit in the boot of my car
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After reading all these replies, I can only conclude that "orientate" is a perfectly fine word, with lots of historical and contemporary usage to support it.
This conclusion has both affirming and unsettling aspects. Affirming in that my sneaking prejudice against the word and its users has been shown to be just that--a prejudice--and once again I am shown how easily prejudices can evolve when one does not dare to question one's assumptions.
Unsettling, however, in that I am left with less certainty of the importance of making fine distinctions in language. Perhaps the previous poster who mentioned a difference between descriptive and prescriptive dictionaries could help me by elaborating on this difference ?
Am I philosophizing too much? If so, please excuse.(But if we can talk about stoned elephants, is anything out?)
Side thought: Does a poster post posts?
Thanks,
MM
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Dear Metameta ~
It is all so simple, once you apprehend it.
Descriptive dictionaries pander to the lowest common denominator. They are driven by misuse. They enshrine the loss of fine distinctions. They justify the spread of ignorance. They pollute the word pool. They are doubtless of the Devil.
Prescriptive writing about the language is an act of great bravery. It withstands the slings and arrows of accusations of elitism, intellectualism, snobbery and the like. It requires education before use. It denies that one person's preference is as good as that of any other and thereby upholds the Platonic ideal. It is a thing much pleasing to God Himself.
Proponents of the former are responsible for signs which read "All-Nite Diner" and "Quik Lube." Of the latter, for great literature. Of the former, for the spread of illiteracy like a fungus growing on the skin of civilisation. Of the latter, for the preservation of books and libraries.
Descriptivists think Bart Simpson is actually funny. Prescriptivists know that Jeeves and Wooster are funny. D's drink blended whiskey; P's only single malt. D's wear "this year's colours" while P's know that the Creator ordained charcoal, navy blue and Harris tweed for all time.
Anything else I can explain for you?
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a careful reading of Father Steve's philippic should have provided you with this: there are no important prescriptive dictionaries (by definition) -- there is only prescriptive writing about language, which some may consider to be elitist, intellectual, snobbish and the like.
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Precisely.
And thanks, tsuwm, for comparing my mini-tirade with the speeches of Cicero against Mark Antony and of Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon. Such company!
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Yes, Father, there is at least one more thing you might be able to help me understand.
From where do the prescriptivists draw their authority? I mean, on what do they base their decisions? Is it simply from some Prescriptivist Dogma, or does it arise within the individual as the result of careful study?
In other words, is prescriptivism more a body of knowledge, or a method?
Thank you,
MM
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Descriptivists think Bart Simpson is actually funny.
Ah, but it was first from Bart Simpson that I learned the answer to that most clichéd of Zen riddles: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
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