Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

speedwell2

Member Since

February 3, 2004

Total number of comments

477

Total number of votes received

1465

Bio

Latest Comments

you all

  • April 5, 2005, 8:50am

It's "Hey, you," or "Hi, you guys."

“by” vs. “of”

  • March 31, 2005, 7:45am

Of course you can possess integrity or loyalty.. That's absolutely correct. Whether you can be "possessed of" them is a little different; strictly speaking you can (it's not absolutely wrong), but as Ed and CQ point out, it sounds strange to the average modern speaker.

You still sometimes see it used in a wry sort of way, though, for instance: "As Mark walked out of his drunk girlfriend's apartment, he slyly possessed himself of her car keys so she wouldn't be able to drive that night." Or, Mom's favorite, "You can't just walk up and possess yourself of anything in the fridge."

Note the use of "himself," "yourself," etc.

The last serious use I saw of this construction was in a Victorian-era novel, in which the hero had befriended a man in trouble, who later turned out to have been a nobleman; upon that nobleman's death, our hero suddenly "found himself possessed of the old gentleman's entire legacy."

Commas and Quotation Marks

  • March 29, 2005, 10:06am

Who, me? Um... yeah, that's how my partner thinks I drive, anyway. LOL

Commas and Quotation Marks

  • March 28, 2005, 7:10am

Sure, as soon as you Brits start to drive on the correct side of the road. :))

Realize or realise?

  • March 28, 2005, 7:09am

OK, nice to hear from an expert. Got any links to material that supports and enlarges upon the claim, Dennis?

politics in the kitchen...

  • March 24, 2005, 8:07am

OK, I'm going to go do actual work now....

politics in the kitchen...

  • March 24, 2005, 8:07am

Not to mention what goulash looks like to the people below you when you throw it, lukewarm, over a balcony at a movie theater while making juvenile retching noises....

OK, I swear I've never actually DONE this, so the movie buffs in the group need not crucify me....

L

  • March 24, 2005, 8:02am

Heretic!! Burn the heretic! Burn the.... waaaaaaait....

politics in the kitchen...

  • March 23, 2005, 9:38am

As an ethnic Hungarian who regularly makes goulash (my father insists on "gulyas," its spelling in Hungarian), I guess I'm a cooking expert :) but I have nothing to add to what Persephone said, since I actually had never heard the term before.

But given that goulash is a stew, and Communism presumably follows the marxist doctrine of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need," the term makes me think of the fable "Stone Soup." (grin)

L

  • March 23, 2005, 9:28am

Oh, my, we have a word that isn't in the dictionary. Whatever did the language do before there were dictionaries? Were all the words just wrong?

Questions

Taking the Name, in vain or in earnest September 23, 2004