First the bouquet, I came across this in a Latham novel and liked it:
"An eminent jurist once observed that a word is only the skin of a living thought. Its color and content vary with time and circumstance."

The same day I saw a professionally produced poster at work that annoys me more than it probably should:

"Do you have heart disease? 
Are you overweight or a smoker? 
Do you want to live a healthier lifestyle? 

If you answered “True” to any of these you are eligible ..."


The answers should be yes/no not true/false. Aargh.

You're absolutely right. I couldn't agree with you more. It does annoy you more than it should. Answering "True" to any of those questions, while perhaps not the first choice, is certainly well within the range of options in the English language.

The brick, I'll do the brick then: The multiple choice system has contributed largely to the growing incapacity of people to form correct sentences. (hope this one is)
It also works negative for 'newcomers' to learn the host land's tongue.

Whenever I have to fill out an inquiry or enquete in this 'dots and quadrangles system' I do it swearing and then I use up all the provided space where you can add something to explain what I really mean.

> enquete

?

enquête

Inquiry. Whence English inquest. From the Latin via the French.

thanks, z. I did look it up, but it is a word that I have never seen.

but it is a word that I have never seen

Brannie drops a lot of French inter her posts. I guess we should be grateful she doesn't drop Frisian or Flemish words to confabulate us. The bouquet of the OP made me wonder if English bucket is related. Nope. French bosquet 'thicket' < Germanic bosc 'woods'. And, an anthology is Greek for 'a bunch of flowers', cf. Latin florilegium. Brick on the other hand, is from good old Middle Dutch, bricke, though the OED1 sez it might be from French brique. Dutch has briket from French briquette, (though brik 'brick' is still a dialect word in southern Dutch. English briquets tend to be made out of proto-diamonds, rather than backed stones.

Ha! The pot accuses the kettle that it is black. Enquete is the loanword from French; we have no other word for it. Knowing you have a whole department of loanwords from French yourselves, I assumed this one would have been domesticated too.

quote: "With her other hand she lifted her glass and smiled at him with brief and terrified coquetry." (William Faulkner)
How's that ? ( to go in cricket terminology.)
What's a proto-diamond?

I guess we just say survey.

where-ever we stole that from....

:¬ )


and briquet for me is charcoal for grilling!

And those outdoor days are coming! Just wanted to ask Zed what is the difference between no not true and / false?

The pot accuses the kettle that it is black

Moi? Zwart? OK. (Sitting in the flames on the hearth ...)

What's a proto-diamond?

A briquet in English a a piece of charcoal for burning in BBQs.

well, true and false would do to answer those, but I would be much more likely to say yes or no, so I'm with zed.

Much more likely is no reason to be annoyed more than one should be.

It looks even worse if the answer is in the negative,
"do you have a heart condition?"
"false"

A statement is true or false, not a question. It just grates on my ear.

Since what grated on your ear was on a poster is this an example of synesthesia?

I'm a little sceptical about this synesthesia thing.
"Linguistics is a grayish-purple-blue word" , coming from this page:
page

eta:Me too, I'm with Zed by all means, that's why I respect her capital ZZZ

Brannie, wake up. I didn't mean to put you to sleep.