But is he a cunning linguist?
yes, as a matter of fact I am 12 years old. Why do you ask?
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British English speaker here. I find âI could care lessâ doesnât grate, and actually makes sense, if I interpret it as sarcasm.
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Bingo. I like to take it further, and point out that even a disinterested judge may not be unbiased or impartial: he/she may have an irrational prejudice against one of the parties.
Were you by any chance frozen in a glacier about a hundred years ago and thawed out only recently?
THIS. it takes all the fun out of being a pedant.
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Iâm feeling smug because I was only caught out by âhomogeneous/homogenousâ and âstanch/staunchâ, and oxforddictionaries.com says that in each case the second is an acceptable variant (and my somewhat elderly copy of the Shorter OED agrees in the case of âstanch/staunchâ).
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(We) American people argue about this all the time, but I donât think anyone considers âcould care lessâ to be the âUS versionâ of the phrase.
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I donât think I have ever seen/heard âcareenâ used as âcareerâ. That would indeed be annoying. Although, sometimes careers do seem to careen a bit.
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Of course it can be used figuratively, and often is. I think the (losing) battle of people who get annoyed at the âhis eyes literally popped out of his head in surpriseâ kind of use might be something like this: when you canât use âliterallyâ anymore to distinguish a thing that actually happened from what didnât really, then how do you convey it? âActually, truthfully literallyâ is a bit awkward to fit in there. Yeah, over time words mean what people want them to. But itâs a kind of sentence modifier arms race thatâs not really necessary and the literal meaning of literal seems to be a sad casualty.
On the other hand, itâs often the funny kind of wrong. I recently read a road bike review that included two instances of âquite literallyâ in a row, one fully legit in my view and the other fairly unambiguous in context but just asking for it.
The brakes are non branded dual callipers which are quite literally crap and at times downright scary. Soapbox time Iâm afraid⌠on a bike designed primarily for beginners is it common sense to downgrade the one component that is quite literally a lifesaver?
One of the comments:
CALL THE âLITERALLYâ POLICE!
Unless the brakes are actually carved from faeces, that is.
/pedantry
I laughed.
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It would. I usually think of it as âthe kind of opinion currently considered acceptably progressive and culturally sensitive enough to avoid any sort of polemicâ.
Which, of course, means itâs often cynically used to hide what one really thinks in the sort of society that pretends to promote the free exchange of ideas but will lazily, thoughtlessly converge towards a vague notion of which ones are right and crucify anyone caught in public with âwrongâ, unfashionable ones. But thatâs another issue.
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One thatâs bugs me a bit is how people use âtabledâ to mean âstopped discussingâ⌠when in fact âtabledâ means âbrought up for discussionâ, and âshelvedâ means âstopped discussingâ.
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Knock knock.
Whoâs there?
To.
To who?
To WHOM.
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Just remember an umpire should be disinterested, but never uninterested.
The Economist Style Guide is a worthy addition to any bookshelf.
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I think thatâs more a US/UK English difference, like âmootâ.
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He actually seems to be using parameter in the mathematical sense â as in x in f(x) is a parameter. What he objects to is the use of âparameterâ in the empty business-drone sense of âwe need to work within the parametersâ.
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Hey, he pointed out 58 common misuses, notâŚ
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I have used the verb âessayâ in the title of an English paper just to fuck with the teacher.
How can you write that this is three essays when it is clearly only one?
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Do you have a point other than the pokey thing on top of your head?
Itâs sarcasm, isnât it? I mean, irony.
