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

Texted

  • October 24, 2011, 5:58pm

I don't always agree with wordbooks, but this time I do. From Merriam-Webster:


Examples of TEXT

1. I texted her a little while ago.
2. I texted a message to her.
3. She just texted me back.

The OED does not show any irregular ending ...

“Anglish”

  • October 23, 2011, 7:59pm

@Jayes ... English is rife with words that are bewilderingly alike. Some have sunder spellings but have the same sound (homophones): break/brake, heal/heel, cereal/serial; others are spelled the same but are said sunderly (homographs): entrance, invalid, moped, or wound. A third set (homonyms) put together the alikenesses, they are said and spelled the same, but have sunder meanings: bear, plain, saw, asf. Erd-speakers are so wonted to them that we aren’t in the least bothered that a bank may be both a geltwist (financial, gelt + wist) place and also the side of a river. While I try to keep away from these, the old words are what they are.

What bewildered me a bit when I saw first "wite" was that it looked a lot it might be a shape of the verb "to wit". Indeed, someone looking for the meaning had been playing Scrabble and her opponent said that it meant smart or smarter. But I know that wit is conjugated truly oddly. Present tense is, "I wot". Past tense is "wist", ppl is wist or witten. But to wit is not to wite! Wite as a noun also means blame or responsibility ... thus it was also the name of a type of fine under the "frith-borg" laws.

Ween is truly interesting. And yes, I too was amazed to see that overweening (overconfident, OED) was still in the wordbook. It's now in my wordstock! I have sundry byspels of "without ween" being glossed as "without doubt". However, these guys each-seen, do no use it that way: http://jesusween.com/ . lol

As we build the wordstock, there should be more ways to say the say the same thing. We already have words like "to know" and "to wit" that have very alike meanings. Sometimes we just have to edquicken the old meanings. Catch (a Latinate) took over most of the meanings of latch ... it even took the latch's then strong past tense shape! It was catch, catched, catched and latch, laught, laught (and laught as a ppl also meant "prey"). Now it is backwards ... catch, caught, caught and latch, latched, latched!

It hasn't been eath these last few months to find these words bewried with dust. Some are in the OED, some are in M-W, and some are in the 1913 Websters, or the Century Dictionary ... they're stuck in nooks and clinging to life. I only go to OE or word upspringing (like geltwist ... which came from a short talk on another forum about a word for finance) when I can't dig up an old word. From OE I try to find the word in ME. and then later brooks for the word. There are many that I haven't touched on! I still find words every day.

“Anglish”

  • October 21, 2011, 6:55am

Tripped over another good one that is still in the wordbook ... ween. (Nothing to do with Halloween).

ween - is both a noun and a verb.

n. - Speculation; a matter for speculation; also, a belief, an opinion, doubt.

in ween = in doubt.
no ween = no doubt.

v. - be of the opinion (opine), think, or suppose.

And many more!

Without threap, I ween that words for Latinates can be found!

“Anglish”

  • October 20, 2011, 9:15pm

Here's another good one that I brooked today on another thread: wite = blame (both noun and verb).

Tho that I be jealous, wite me not. - Chaucer

There if that I misspeak or say,
Wite it the ale of Southwark, I you pray. - Chaucer.

attorneys general vs. attorney generals

  • October 20, 2011, 9:11pm

BTW, most old military terms are French/Latin based. I wrote a blog on what we might have called the military and the armed forces had they come from Anglo-Saxon / Germanic roots.

attorneys general vs. attorney generals

  • October 20, 2011, 9:08pm

Definitely sergeants major ... http://www.sergeantsmajor.org/ That's the way I remember it from my Army days.

It's odd that sergeant major is the only one that is backwards ... It's major general! ... Major Generals.

Victorian Era English

  • October 20, 2011, 9:00pm

@Porsche ... Yea, I know Niceone was criticizing shotgun's remark ... I guess it depends on how you look at it. Niceone's "it" was referring to the blog (not just the post) that went to just another stupid internet blog in 0.6 seconds. ... My remark was that it was over a year before shotgun post his remark (a lot longer than 0.6 seconds).

If Niceone is saying that 0.6 seconds after reading shotgun's post that "it" (meaning the whole blog) "went to just another stupid internet blog" then I would still say that Niceone is a year late because sara.dee72's benighted, unsupported, snotty remark had already done that. ... So Niceone is still behind by a year and not sharing the wite, just putting it all on shotgun.

“Anglish”

  • October 20, 2011, 8:26pm

Maybe twice-wed ... twice-asundered?

"Those whom God has joined together let no man put asunder."

Here's a good one I found today:

without threap ~ without argument; without opposition

I've been looking for a way to say something like "no doubt" ... I think this fits in nicely ... "without threap".

“Anglish”

  • October 20, 2011, 9:27am

@Stanmund ... BTW, the word "wode" has sundry sunder meanings. It takes up a few sheets to bewry all them ... but among the meanings are crazy, mad:

"Do way youre threpyng! ar ye wode?" ... (threap/threpe is a great word that is still in the wordbook as well)

Wode also still in the wordbook tho sometimes it (mistakenly in my thoughts) refers to "wood"; it was one of the spellings but not one that I would brook. Spellings in ME were kind of crazy with different words often being spelled the way. One place might say it and spell it as wood while another place as woed. In ME wode was also wodde, woed, woide, & (early) woð, (gen.) wodes, asf.

And yes, among the meanings is "wild"or "untamed":

Sche knewe wele þat wode oxen were wylde and vntame.

Today's wordbook only has a few of the sundry meanings ... Mad; insane; possessed; rabid; furious; frantic.

It's a good word! I'd like to see some of the old meanings edquickened.

“Anglish”

  • October 20, 2011, 4:26am

Forgive me for venting here before I get to my ord (point) ... I was just on the Anglish wiki site ... I saw this put forth for "clear" ... sweetle (< OE sweotol).

Good thought ... good start ... but didn't follow thru and do the homework ... and jumped to some odd word twisting. I can see what he did ... He has the, IMO, not well grounded belief that 'eo' = 'ee' and then swapped 'le' for 'ol'.

The truth is that sweotol is only one spelling ... there were sundry others but sweotol is often the headword:

sweotol, swutol, switol, swytol, sutol (-ul, -al, -el); adj. Plain, manifest, evident, clear, patent

Next, the word made it to ME as swutel (early), sutel, and sotel (late) ... and the verb forms sutelen, swutelen, and even sotelen.

Sutel seems to be the most brooked and is the headword in ME. Do you think it is too close to "subtle"? Say the 'u' more like 'oo' ... sootel? Or should swutel or sotel be edquickened instead?

My wandering thought for the day.

Questions

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