"Who own English? The hoi polloi in the universities– the writers of grammar books? The high and mighty of the OED?"

Am I the only one who flinched at that reference to "hoi polloi"?

Or was it intentional? It does wonderfully illustrate of troy's point: everybody knew what was meant even though the phrase was used in direct contradiction of the dictionary definition.

Although I largely agree with of troy's comments, surely at some point you have to tell Humpty Dumpty that he can't make words mean whatever he wants them to mean. (Or, in the case of this thread, play fast and loose with grammar.) I guess the trouble is we will never all agree on where that line is to be drawn.