You rebel, you.

For instance, your occasional tries at telling me what is not a valid word. I can't recall any of these instances where a sufficiently complete dictionary did not support my usage, rather than yours. At least of late you've given that game up. Yes, I regard a Collegiate Dictionary as inadequate for college-level writing. I would put the peak of its usefulness somewhere about junior high, and for the writer not frightfully ambitious to grow into a fierce wild Thesaurus spp. at that.

I'd take issue with this too. The miscomprehending substitution of homonyms and near-homonyms for the correct terms is a variation of the hobson-jobson, one done within a language rather than between two -- and it can induce an error of comprehension. That this is so very much associated with words of similar if not identical sound suggests the error arrives through the poorly functioning or inattentive ear, aggravated with a lack of reading well-edited material that might steer one to better understanding. It would remove such infelicities as "spitting image" and "one in the same."

TEAL -- plucking away greengrocers' apostrophes... a/k/a prepostrophes.

Mwahahahaha!!1 I'm a regular parsing Pharisee, I am.

While many's the dictionary that blesses "belabor the obvious," I far prefer "labor the obvious." To belabor is to abuse or to batter. Consider the related phrase "labor the point" -- any point so treated gets bent over and rapidly loses any resemblance to a point, IMHO. It no longer points in the direction it should. A point that is merely labored does not suffer this dismal fate. As a crummy substitute, it suffers tendentious tediousness. Perhaps I should unyoke this weary point from the plow of metaphor and rest it from its labor.:rolleyes:

There we have it, UG, the best reason in the world to not let your children be grammar nazis.

Urban Gorilla

http://www.ilovenewyork.se/images/kingkong_1933.jpg

"One and the same" but "spitting image" I'd always heard was a corruption of "spirit and image"

What have you heard or read?

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be linguists.

A cackle of mad scientists.:lol2:

The Borg.:borg:

Or "spit and image," which sounds like an intermediate step. See the oldfashioned phrase "the spit of him," i.e., a very strong resemblance.

But the two get regrettably miswritten.

Bruce, how 'bout you give my ass a nice deep baiser? I do not constitute a reason not to be a Grammar Nazi, and you can decide to stop being a putz just any second now. My being blessed with a respect for the English language is not grounds for you giving me a hard time. Had you a full measure of sense, you'd know that much. As it is...

I was just reading a 1930s book on farming and they talked about a "spit" of dirt meaning a shovelful that is as thick, wide, and deep as the blade.

If you have such respect for the English language, why don't you use it, instead of talking like a goddamned frog?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA - digr - thats too funny - no really - TOO funny!

And learn how to spell labour, too! :p:

Some grammar rules are important, they keep meaning clear and unambiguous. Some are not - I am happy to boldly split an infinitive, and I hold that a preposition is a word you can end a sentence with.