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

AnWulf

Member Since

June 19, 2011

Total number of comments

616

Total number of votes received

580

Bio

Native English speaker. Conversant in German, Russian, Spanish, and Anglo-Saxon.

Ferþu Hal!

I hav a pilot's license (SEL certificate); I'm a certified diver (NAUI); I'v skydived and was qualified as a paratrooper in the Army (Airborne!); I was a soldier (MI, Armor, Engineer).

I workt for a corporation, was a law enforcement officer, and a business owner.

Bachelor's in Finance; minor in Economics
Masters of Aeronautical Sciences

Strong backer of English spelling reform.

Browncoat

Now I'v written my first novel [ http://www.lulu.com/shop/lt-wolf/the-world-king-book-i-the-reckoning/ebook/product-22015788.html ] and I'm working on others.

http://lupussolus.typad.com
http://lupussolusluna.blogspot.com
http://anwulf.blogspot.com

Latest Comments

“Anglish”

  • December 5, 2011, 7:11pm

I have the whole list of OE grammar terms on my old laptop. I seldseenly brook them. Most of them are fairly twisted and only calques of the Latin words.

English does have "nameword" for noun but if I had my druthers, I'd benote "nama" forthen it is shorter in length. OE had two words for pronoun, the calque "forenama" and "bīnama" (byname).

I'd hav to look but I think the OE word for verb was ... word (calquing Latin verbum ‘word'). Not very bewriting (describing).

For adjectiv it was tōgeīcendlic (added to, from tōgeīcan to add to, increase ... again, calquing the Latin). Maybe bewriter (describer) would work since an adj bewrites (describes) a noun.

“Anglish”

  • December 5, 2011, 9:36am

@Holy Mackerel ... That was my first thought too. However, this is a nowadays brooking or an old word. OE had other words for reputation like tōtalu. When I first saw gefrain, I thought it had something to do with an inquiry (frain = question).

Gefrain is being brooked as noun for "reputation" which seems to be from the adjectiv shape. Or forhaps it was calqued from Old Norse. There are many words that are being taken out of either OE or ON. Most are being brooked rightly or somewhat rightly. A few are just odd and this is one of them. With most words, an upspring is marked but with this one, no one seems to know where it came from so I'v been digging umbe. I first saw gefrain with the meaning of reputation, renown ... tho others only say reputation; some brook it insted of honor. No one seems to brooking in the wit of the OE noun ... knowledge information ... but rather back-shaping (back-forming) the new meaning from the old adjectiv.

gefrǽge, -frége, es; n. An inquiring, a knowing, knowledge, information, hearsay:
-- Míne gefrǽge - in my knowledge, as I have heard, as I am informed,

ge-frǽge, -frége; adj. Known, renowned, celebrated, remarkable, noted, famous, notorious, infamous: -- Hæbbe ic gefrugnen ðætte is eástdǽlum on æðelast londa, firum gefrǽge - I have heard tell that in eastern parts there is a land most noble, renowned among men.

--Ic eom folcum gefrǽge - I am known (renown, famous) among people.

--Wæs úre líf fracuþ and gefrǽge - Our life was wicked and infamous.

also gefrége: --Lǽt ðé on gemyndum hú ðæt manegum wearþ fira gefrége - Keep in thy mind how that was known among many men

Icelandic has frægn which means famous/renown.

But hey, sometimes folks brook a word wrongly and it becomes the norm.

“Anglish”

  • December 4, 2011, 10:39am

Yes, the Scots ... being further away from the Norman-French Overlords ... kept a lot of words. Many words are marked in the wordbooks as either obsolete or Scots!

Theod alreddy seems to be in widespread brooking. I'v seen leod tho not as much but there are no grounds (grunds?) for not also brooking leid for dialect or something ... Is it said with a long ī? ... līd?

I spent a few hours hunting down the root of "gefrain" ... meaning renown, reputation ... that is being thrown about. While it looks like "frain" ... question, it's not akin ... at least not directly. It seems to come from OE "gefræge" an adj.

Icelandic has "frægn" without the 'ge'.

Perpendicular

  • December 4, 2011, 5:26am

@Hairy Scot ... LOL ... I may stay away from Latinates, but that doesn't mean that I don't kno them or how to benote them. :)

Perpendicular is a mouthful. A perpend is the vertical layer of mortar between bricks. It looks like a back-making (back-formation) from perpendicular.

I think "right angle" is better to bewrite (describe) the 90 deg angle (bend?). One could brook "bight" (OE bīht - angle) insted of angle but a bight nowadays is thought more of as a curve ... a bight in a rope is a loop.

Angle shares the same PIE root *ang-/*ank- "to bend" with ankle and angle (to fish) from OE angel (OHG ango) ... hook, OE angnere ... corner of the eye. So truly, one could eathly say the word was also in OE with a like meaning.

Rules for -ise and -ize

  • December 4, 2011, 4:52am

Fower describes analyze/analyse as "... two equally indefensible forms that has won. The correct but now impossible form would be analysize (or analysise), with analysist for existing analyst."

Oddly, the Greek root means to "loosen up".

“Anglish”

  • December 4, 2011, 4:34am

Well we do find seldseen brooking of the en-/em- forefasts in OE ... enlīhtan (enlighten), emtwa (in two). We also have the in-/im- set. There are folks who don't want to brook en/em owing to the wordbooks all credit the forefasts to French/Latin. They ignore that the forefasts stood in OE as well.

Wale as a choice is a good find! It also means a dead body, slaughter. So I guess yu hav to take it in context. ME has walen as "to choose".

There is also kire - choice, preference, chosen, elite, custom, customary, free will, decision, selection. But I think it is only a noun.

Perpendicular

  • December 2, 2011, 5:41pm

FWIW Hairy Scot, I'm with yu on this one. I'v had a lot of math courses ... up thru two years of differential equations (many, many years ago) and I can't recall describing a line as perpendicular that wasn't the "up" line. A line at 0/360 deg (north) is perpendicular to the one at 90 deg (east) or 270 deg (west). but I wouldn't say that the line at 180 deg (south) is perpendicular to 90 or 270. Maybe it has changed since I had a math class, but that's the way it was xx years ago.

Backward vs. Backwards?

  • December 2, 2011, 2:46pm

One can avoid regard/regards all together by brooking "anent". :)

“Anglish”

  • December 2, 2011, 8:53am

@Ængfolc - Here's one for yur skills. The forefast en- is seen in OE in the word en-līhtan = to enlighten (en-líhtan, in-líhtan, on-leóhtan, on-lýhtan). That's from the B-T Anglo-Saxon Dict) but it is an otherwise seldom seen. (Altho em- is seen a few times as well.)

I read this: Both Latin and Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *en (“in, into”). Intensive use of Old French en-, an- due to confluence with Old Frankish *an- (intensive prefix), related to Old English on- (intensive prefix).

So if Frankish had in- and the French developed en- from Frankish an- doesn't that now make en- Germanic rather than Latin?

“Anglish”

  • December 1, 2011, 3:33pm

@stanmund ... Yu work too hard at this. Try the onefold things first:

OED: ploughland |ˈplaʊland|(US plowland )
noun [ mass noun ]
land that is ploughed for growing crops; ***arable land***.

But if yu want an OE answer:
eringland n. arable land
erian, erigean to plow
eriung f. plowing

Questions

What can I do besides... October 8, 2011