tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post5624259217184651156..comments2024-03-03T13:59:25.573-08:00Comments on If You Know What I'm Saying: baaaaackkkkk...ish...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-18478733290324200792013-06-10T16:55:41.268-07:002013-06-10T16:55:41.268-07:001. that's my story and i'm sticking to it ...1. that's my story and i'm sticking to it ;-)<br /><br />2. - as yet unwritten about, or rather i never finishes the post. yet. more will be revealed forthwith..!<br /><br />3. ... aha, see this one actually relates to *two* unfinishes posts, so there -! ...<br /><br />4. ok, so i'm british, english-naturalised-welsh (inasmuch as my daugher considers herself very definitely welsh) as it happens, yet i know that most of my readers are in the states, and many/most of the others will be primarily acquanited with american english, so this is the time to point out/get off my chest the fundamental misunderstanding here. "moot" means *arguable*. it's one of those words which can easily be (socially) "understood" at a young age to mean something equally plausible according to (lack of) context, in this case *redundant* or null and void, precisely *not worth arguing* which is, i need scarcely point out, richly ironic. in any case, the mistake was (i presume) enshrined by an american lexicographer long enough ago that it became correct english for most of the world, in terms of daily currency of understanding. i myself am fully aware that i risk almost certain misunderstanding of my own, "correct" usage ;-)<br /><br />(another example, not quite of the same thing but close enough, and not yet dictionary-crystallised (?), is the use of "erstwhile" to mean *learned* as many (people educated enough to encounter the word) still do, de temps en temps... no direct antithesis here of course, just a best guess which ends up being totally irrelevant)<br /><br />5. yeah yeah, bad coinage, mixed root. so is "television" (and loads of others of course - i was going to call this a catachresis, but i misremember after all these years apparently. that is too generic a term anyway, and i can't recall the correct one - gone!). ipsoalienation kinda works actually... hmmm<br />centrifugehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00110896886246132385noreply@blogger.com