Re: OT: Hey Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It

From: Richard the Dreaded Liberal (eatmyshorts_at_doubleclick.net)
Date: 01/05/05 

Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 23:26:36 GMT

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 15:01:35 +0000, Dirk Bruere at Neopax wrote:

> Bob Stephens wrote:
>
>> On 5 Jan 2005 02:11:56 -0800, bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:
>>
>>
>>>There are two conflicting processes working here.
>>>
>>>People who misuse a word look like idiots to everybody who knows the
>>>accepted meaning, but if the idiots can drag in a sufficient number of
>>>other idiots, their perversion of the original word changes the
>>>accepted meaning.
>>>
>>>"Prestigious" is the classic example - the Complete Oxford still lists
>>>it as meaning deceptive or illusory. I still worry about the
>>>educational level of people who use the word as if it is related to
>>>"prestige" in its second sense, involving (good) reputation, but they
>>>no longer rate as idiots.
>>>
>>>John Woodgate probably knows even better examples.
>>>----------
>>>Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
>>
>>
>> Two of my pet hatreds:
>>
>> Some idiot with a harelip around 1978 mispronounced mnemonics as 'numonics'
>> and now I see it everywhere including college textbooks.
>>
>> The other one is the spoken use of 'peripheral'. 8 people out of 10 say
>> 'peripheal' these days.
>>
>> Oh yeah, then there's 'nucular' and 'simular'. ARRRGH!!!
>
> Very glamorous and fascinating.

This is the most unique opinion I've ever heard! Very unique! Very unique
indeed!

;-)
Rich