English

[xRIEx]

Impasse said:

xRIEx said:

I was just venting my bugbear about people using the word "preheat" to mean "heat"; 'pre' means 'before', so 'preheat' means 'before heat' - the usage of e.g. "preheat the oven" is exactly the same as "heat the oven".

Loads of people abuse 'pre', even to the point of "pre-prepared" - it's already got 'pre' at the beginning of the word, it doesn't need another!

That's preposterous.

Precisely!

[Digger]

Someone pre-prepare the parrot for me!

[Impasse]

Digger said:

Someone pre-prepare the parrot for me!

I presume Sir will be requiring the Preuss Weaver? A preeminent selection.

[aka_kerrly]

GetCarter said:

geeks said:

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Impressive

Eye, the quirks of modern English.

[davepoth]

GroundEffect said:

Actually, Math came before maths. Technically the first is correct. We just use the second.

A lot of of what the Americans use for English just makes more sense - Mr Webster did have some good ideas in simplifying our stupid language. Thru rather than Through. Program rather than programme.

They weren't Webster's ideas. English has always been a bit darwinian - spellings, grammar and usage all fighting for supremacy. The spellings he chose were in the main extant (Remember that Webster's work predated the OED by decades) but he brought together the more phonetic spellings as a way to distinguish "American" from "English" which he felt had been tainted by the aristocracy.