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Thread: Illiteracy at the top.

  1. #41
    Formerly known as DavidJames David Bailey's Avatar
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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    If enough people decide that a "Barry" is a noun that means "yet another rant about not much at all", and should be pronounced as "Bear-y", then it will go in the dictionary with that meaning, and that pronunciation.

    Franck, can we add this to the Glossary? Pleeeeeease?

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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Idly browsing through Eric Partridge's immortal tome (thanks, whitetiger) Usage and abusage and suddenly thought - I wonder if he has anything to say about refute?

    And of course, he does; contrasting it with 'deny' which he says is simply to assert the accusations are false, whereas 'refute' means to prove the accusations are false.

    More helpful information.

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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    They don't make the rules – no-one does – they just document common usage. You can refute it as much as you like – doesn't change the language back to what it was a hundred years ago.
    Does this mean that txt spk will soon be appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary then??

    God forbid!

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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    They don't make the rules – no-one does – they just document common usage. You can refute it as much as you like – doesn't change the language back to what it was a hundred years ago.
    Sorry, I missed this before Trampy quoted it just now.

    What definition of 'refute' are you using here?

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    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    What definition of 'refute' are you using here?
    Which do you think?
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    "learned tome" - now that's what I call English!
    Librarian training, the enjoyment of reading and a fascination with language provided by years of being a Bookworm and "Informavore". Constant access to the internet in my current job also makes searching for practically anything easy when you know how and where to look




    Cheers

    Whitetiger

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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by ducasi View Post
    Which do you think?
    I don't know. Which did you mean?

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    Re: Illiteracy at the top.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    I don't know. Which did you mean?
    It's a new usage – it means "nibble on the ear of".

    I'm talking to the OED people now...
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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