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

“Under urgency”

  • October 8, 2011, 4:15am

Well, not the way I brook "stand down" but I guess it is a good anglo-root way for "suspend". Kind of makes sense, but I can see a gray areas for bewilderment (bewilderness?).

FB - If he doesn't stop cheating, I'll stand him down. ... Does that mean suspend him or fire him?

The better way to make a verb from a noun with be- ... but "befarewell" seems to be a mouthful. lol ...

Over exaggeration

  • October 7, 2011, 4:24pm

over-
prefix
Definition of OVER-
1: so as to exceed or surpass
2: excessive
3: to an excessive degree

...

# over·ex·ag·ger·ate
# over·ex·ag·ger·a·tion

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/over-

“Under urgency”

  • October 7, 2011, 4:22pm

I'd be more worried about what they passed "under urgency":

Updated at 8:25 pm on 6 October 2011

Parliament has passed a controversial police surveillance bill under urgency on Thursday.

The Government only secured the votes it needed at the start of the week after a parliamentary select committee made significant changes.

The Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill, which allows police to secretly film suspects, passed by 105 to 14 with the Maori Party, the Greens and Mana voting against.

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira told Parliament the bill enables state agencies to invade the privacy of citizens.

“Under urgency”

  • October 7, 2011, 4:20pm

I don't think it is wrong grammatically ... liken to "under duress". But I agree, it does sound odd.

Are you in New Zealand? I took a look and the only place it seems to be used is in NZ ... Are the kiwis making a new phrase?

From the NZ Parliament's website:

Urgency in the House

The House of Representatives sometimes goes into “urgency” to make progress on business additional to what would be possible under the normal rules for sitting hours and progress of business.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/Features/8/f/a/00NZPHomeNews170220091-What-is-urgency.htm

“hone in” vs. “home in”

  • October 7, 2011, 3:56pm

"Home in" is the correct version. I had never heard of "hone in" until I saw it here yesterday. It's HOME IN not HONE... You can hone your skills but you home in on a target.

I have a pilot's license and worked in aviation for many years ... we have homing beacons ... not honing.

home (v.) - 1765, "to go home" from home (n.). Meaning "be guided to a destination by radio signals, etc. (of missiles, aircraft, etc.) is from 1920; it had been used earlier in reference to pigeons (1862). Related: Homed; homing. O.E. had hamian "to establish in a home".

Hang Glide

  • October 5, 2011, 10:40am

Some folks have the same problem with scuba dive ... dived or dove / doven.

But here, with glide, you cannot go wrong! Not only does glide have a weak and a strong form, it has two strong forms!

Even Eddie Izzard isn't far off. There was a very old form, gegliden.

glide, glided, glided
glide, glided, glode
glide, glid, glid
glide, glid, glidden
glide, glode, glidden

http://www.thefullwiki.org/glide

ALL are correct and have been brooked over the years.

Now just hang "hang" onto the stem:

hang-glide, hang-glode, hang-glidden
or
hang-glide, hang-glid, hang-glidden
or ... pick one.

“Anglish”

  • October 4, 2011, 5:34pm

@Jayles ... Remember that Eastre was the Goddess of Fertility (and likely other things as well) ... thus the Easter Eggs which have nothing to do with Christianity. Just as it did with Winter Solstice, the Christian church merely worked the Heathen-fests into Christian-fests.

Also keep in mind that the Saxon months didn't exactly (genaulich?) match the Christian months so there is a little play in the days.

Ironically, the Saxons had a 13th month that was thrown in after X years to get the rimbook back in sync (the third travelling month). Now, I can understand that, since the Germanic tribes didn't have the thought of a seven-day week until the Romans, that the Germanic tribes stuck with the moon-rimbook. But you would think that the Romans and later Gregory would have marked that the seven-day week would fit well into a 13-month year (each month having 28 days) much better than trying to stay with moon. In sooth, I didn't even think about it until I was in Germany and my German gf told me that salaried employees got an extra month's pay at Yuletide to make up for the fact that there should be 13 months. So if *I* were to do the rimbook over again, there would be 13 months!

I'm ok with brooking the first nine months ... let's anleth (face) it, some of the Saxon names for those months aren't "inspiring". "After Yule" ... naw. I'd be ok with Sol, Hredþa, Eastre ... but Three-milkings? ... I'd stick with May ... Maybe Lītha (Līþa < līþ root for mild, to sail, to travel) for June but 2nd Lītha for July? Naw. ... Maybe your "Midsummer" for July and Midwinter for January? I'm good with August ... It's a strong sounding name.

It's Sep - Dec. that I would put the fustra (focus) on and knock out. While Harvest-month would be good for the northern halfworld, it wouldn't describe (show, tell?) the happenings in the southern halfworld. So maybe Halig (Holy).

Winterfilled, Winterfill, Winterful(l), or Winterfyl for October might be a little bewildering unless one knows that Saxons, more or less, had two seasons ... winter and summer that began and ended on the equinoxes. But I'd be ok with it.

Blot or Blood for November is ok.

Yule would be good for December.

FWIW ... those are my thoughts on the months.

Y'all are looking at the wrong part. Look at head as a verb rather than a noun, one meaning is:

To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.

Thus, in behead, the be- doesn't mean off but is an intensifier of the verb "to head".

be- is a great forefast (prefix) ... It has many uses ... for byspel, it makes verbs from nouns ... like "friend" ... gainsay to Facebook, friend is not a verb but befriend is!

@anterian36 ... I've never "de-headed" the blooms but I have "headed" them.

Fora vs Forums

  • October 4, 2011, 2:12pm

@rauxa ... Forum is not neologism (a newly coined word). It is a loanword (a word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification).

As for forum, put me down for forums. When I first saw fora, I thought someone had misspelled flora. I know enuff Latin to be wrong about 3/4 of the time. lol ... Yes, I used enuff ... the "ough" cluster needs to go the way of the dodo bird.

You are correct that there are anglo-root words that could do the same thing and then we wouldn't need to have this moot over forums / fora. We could use moot itself or "mootstow" or "mootsted".

@nigel.pindar ... Americans (Webster mainly) chose the Latin "color" over the French "colour" ... and the Latin "honor". The frain is, why do the Brits want to use a French spelling? But then, you can avoid that by using the anglo-word, hue instead of color.

@ctiney ... child and ox both come from Old English ... nominative plurals in OE were not formed by adding an "s" (BTW, if ox did, it would be oxes not oxs). They kept their strong plurals with slight changes in ME whereas ax (OE æx) didn't. Why? Can't tell you, but I'm ok with the strong plurals.

Pled versus pleaded

  • October 4, 2011, 9:40am

From OED: plead |plēd|
verb ( past pleaded or pled |pled|) ... interesting that the online "world" version of OED lists pled as North American or Scottish ... regardless, it lists the word so therefore, it exists.

From OED: pled |pled|
past and past participle of plead

So the word exists and is an acceptable past tense. As I pointed out above, plead is a Latinate and the normal is for outlander words (verbs) to be treated as a weak verb. But this one wasn't and hasn't been for many, many years.

From OED: dive |dīv|
verb ( past dived or dove |dōv|; past part. dived) [ intrans. ]

Pled and dove are acceptable past tenses.

Questions

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