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

571

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”

  • September 30, 2012, 5:47pm

Speaking of French words that are wontedly said to be from French ... Here is a sunder one for mince. Most etyms say that it only comes from the French and that the French word comes from vulgar Latin:

From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-Germanic *minnisōnan (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut into small pieces”), from mince (“slender, slight, puny”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish*minsto, *minnisto, superlative of *min, *minn (“small, less”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”); both from Proto-Indo-European *(e)mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Old Saxon minsōn (“to make less, make smaller”), Gothic

“Anglish”

  • September 30, 2012, 3:25pm

@Ængelfolc ... Passion, when first brought into English, was mostly noted in the religious witt. It is in a land charter turning some land over to the church:

ðaet Eghwilc messepriost gesinge fore Osuulfes sawle twa messan, twa fore Beornðryðe sawle; and aeghwilc diacon arede twa ***passione*** fore his sawle, twa for hire; — that Every mass-priest recites for Oswulf's soul two masses, two for Beornthryth's soul; and every deacon reads two passions for his soul, two for hers. - Oswulf's Charters, c805

None the less, the ord (point) is that "passion" did not come to English in Middle English thru French ... It came into OE thru Latin. Therefore, it goes on the fore-1066 list.

“Anglish”

  • September 30, 2012, 12:56pm

Another good word: Bogglish - to be uncertain, doubtful, wavering, or a wee bit skittish about something.

“Anglish”

  • September 30, 2012, 8:13am

"I saw "sell-by-date" in U.S. supermarkets all the time." ... True! ... Right before I had put that up I had redd a writ on the BBC website that claim that "sell-by date" was a Britishism that was now being seen in the States. However, after I wrote the abuv, I did my own kenseek (research) and ... noting the same way and kenbits (data) that the BBC noted ... that "sell-by date" show'd up in AmEn abut 10 years before it did in BrEn. I check'd the other words that the BBC said were Britisihisms and the same ... the were in AmEn before. Bad kenseek on the part of the BBC.

Nonetheless, "sell-by" is much better and unbecloudier than "expiration".

"New" old words:
forward/foreward ... meaning a contract or agreement (ward here in the witt of guard)
samentale ... agreement (of the same tale)

“Anglish”

  • September 28, 2012, 2:07am

@jayles ... If you're talking about financial investments, then let's start with gelt (money).

gelt +hood, ship, or ness for finances (noun)
My gelthood isn't in good shape right now.

To invest money ... ingelt? Thus a financial investment would be ingelthood or ingelting.

One wontedly buys into an investment ... maybe ... inbuy? Which might be more bending. Fb ... I can't ingelt for that I'm broke, but I can inbuy time. (put in time). Or I can't inbuy gelt, but I can inbuy time. Gewiss, here one can say "put in" ... I can't put in gelt, but I can put in time.

If one is investing in a siege, then the word is beset.

Just a few thoughts to chew on.

Use of “their” as a genderless singular?

  • September 27, 2012, 11:31pm

Jasper is right ... As someone who has learn'd Russian, German, and Spanish, I hav a little insight. They all hav their own grammar rules which hav nothing to do with English. Russian is a strongly declined tung ... word order is not needed to show how a word is being noted (direct object, indirect object, asf) owing to the word endings. German has strict word order that is sunder than English in a relativ clause. Oddly enuff, in many ways, Spanish is nearer to English even tho it is a Romance tung. It has a progressiv tense (-ing in English). They all hav grammar rules that do not correspond with English ... and vice versa ... English has grammar rules which do not correspond with others as well.

“Anglish”

  • September 27, 2012, 10:09pm

Americans use "expiration date" for the British sell-by date - the date by which supermarket food must be sold. But sell-by date is increasingly used in the US in a figurative sense. Eg "That idea is well past its sell-by date." ... Sell-by is better than "expiration"! Even tho "use" is a Latinate, I often hear (and say) use-by date for medicines.

The ban against noting they, them, their in the singular was another of those grammarian made-up rules that didn't fit the tung as it was and is but as they wanted (and many still want) it to be. Noting them in the singular has been about for for a hella long time (since Middle English):

And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,
***They*** wol come up … Chaucer, "The Pardoner's Prolog"

Capitalizing Directions

  • September 27, 2012, 6:14am

@Manda - overall, no. See http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/westward

Giv us the sentence and then we can tell.

“Anglish”

  • September 27, 2012, 5:23am

Jobseeker allowance is a bettering over "unemployment insurance" ... Hmm, I don't think "wage" would be a good bestead for "allowance" here ... maybe "mete" from OE mete (meaning meal ... or meat) or as a noun from the verb mete (from OE metan - to measure out). Or "meten" as a noun from the -en afterfast (like "a burden" from to bear). It would be a good play on words with like-sounding "meat"! lol ... the "jobseeker mete(n)"

With fewer folks studying Latin ... I think that, outside of academia or burocratese, word-making is falling back to the AGT roots. Haplessly, still too many words are struck by those academics or burocrats.

My way for abiding Latinates is:
1. Was it in the tung pre-1066? ... If I find it in B-T, Clark's Concise A-S, or the Univ. of Toronto's wordstock, then it is good to go. Thus we find many words to inhold words like passion and press.
2. Is it found in widespread noting other Germanic tungs? ... Bus and family are good byspels of this.
3. Is it short, fremful (useful), and not eathly besteaded by an AGT? ... prey

Greek rooted words don't bother me as much. Many of them are church words (the New Testament was first written in Greek) that were Latinized a bit. The Greeks didn't take over Britain nor were in widespread fighting with the Germanic folk as were the Romans. Greek as many of the consonant clusters of English ... like "th". Sometimes I think Greek is nearer to English than Latin. That doesn't mean that words like gynotikolobomassophile (woman-earlobe-nibble-lover) don't trip up the tung, but words like problem, throne, asf are good to go for me.

Questions

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