OT: Words / vocabulary you butcher in spelling / pronunciation / meaning for years

[Buffaloed]

Congratulations, you have been nominated for the HFBoards Masterson Trophy!

Looks like I snuck this one past.

 

[AustonsNostrils]

Languages are democratic, if the majority of people use a word that gives it a new meaning it becomes acceptable in time.

My pet peeve has been 'reactionary' to describe someone that acts in a knee jerk fashion. The word means the exact opposite, that you cling to old ways.

 

[brian_griffin]

Looks like I snuck this one past.

I "liked" it because I caught the faux pas.

Languages are democratic, if the majority of people use a word that gives it a new meaning it becomes acceptable in time.

My pet peeve has been 'reactionary' to describe someone that acts in a knee jerk fashion. The word means the exact opposite, that you cling to old ways.

I learn something new all the time on this site...

 

[Buffaloed]

Languages are democratic, if the majority of people use a word that gives it a new meaning it becomes acceptable in time.

My pet peeve has been 'reactionary' to describe someone that acts in a knee jerk fashion. The word means the exact opposite, that you cling to old ways.

I knew that because I was educated by reactionaries.

 

[Buffaloed]

Nimrod is a word you don't see very often. But someone just called one of the admins a nimrod so it deserves a deep dive.

Nimrod: A Common Word with an Unlikely Backstory

 

[dotcommunism]

On a completely different note- anyone else hate its vs. it's?

The dog's bone. Its bone. Because it's his bone. I still google this crap every 6 months or so- just weird how it breaks the rules of possessive language.

Well, with its, consider also his, hers, ours, yours and theirs. It's far more analogous with those than with the apostrophe s possessives, despite the fact that all but his serve solely as pronouns (and while its technically can serve as one too, it rarely does so). Its is kind of an oddball, though, as it actually was originally it's, with the 's being the possessive rather than a contraction. It was to conform more closely with the other pronoun/possessive forms that it became its. Interestingly a brief bit of research makes it look like it's (as a possessive) got fully replaced by its shortly after contractions started to become used in English. Merriam-Webster links its replacing possessive it's with contraction it's replacing 'tis.

The whole 's possessive thing in general traces itself back to Old English (or Anglo-Saxon as its also called). Old English, unlike Middle or Modern English, had an elaborate case system, where words could take different forms to indicate what role they played in a sentence, whereas in Modern English word order and prepositional phrases are used instead. However, the possessive in Modern English is a descendant of the genitive case (which is used to indicate possession) from Old English.

 

[brian_griffin]

@dotcommunism, you need to “meet” @Lempo, the etymologist on the Carolina board.

 

[Lempo]

The whole 's possessive thing in general traces itself back to Old English (or Anglo-Saxon as its also called). Old English, unlike Middle or Modern English, had an elaborate case system, where words could take different forms to indicate what role they played in a sentence, whereas in Modern English word order and prepositional phrases are used instead. However, the possessive in Modern English is a descendant of the genitive case (which is used to indicate possession) from Old English.

The Old English stems from the West Germanic language family. The North Germanic languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish...) all use the s-genitive (without apostrophe).

"Your" actually is same stem with the Swedish "er" (plural 2nd person possessive, among some other meanings), so "yours" pretty much got a double Germanic-stemming possessive going on: first one stemming from the Proto-Germanic genitive form and then the later s-genitive slapped onto it too.

Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/izweraz - Wiktionary
Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/unseraz - Wiktionary

This was a grievous mistake you made, @brian_griffin

 

[cybresabre]

@dotcommunism, you need to “meet” @Lempo, the etymologist on the Carolina board.

That's so cool. My daughter is super into bugs right now.

 

[Lempo]

That's so cool. My daughter is super into bugs right now.

They are all the buzz.

 

[Butt Ox]

I always want to add an additional superfluous "M" when writing Concomitant/concomitantly. Ancillary will become ancilliary if I'm not paying attention.

 

[Club]

I used to think money laundering meant putting your cash in the washer.

 

[Buffaloed]

We've got to show some displine and start spelling Ralph Krueger's name correctly. I found myself dropping the E a few times. After seeing it spelled incorrectly so many times one begins to doubt and loses confidence in the spelling. It's bad enough that Sabres gets misspelled so often.

IT'S NOT KRUGER IT'S KRUEGER!!!!!

 

[AustonsNostrils]

forgot this one, it's very grammatically wrong but it's now out of control due to the Internet, using 'apostrophe s' to pluralize nouns.

e.g. The Smith's are our next door neighbors.

e.g. Krueger will hire assistant coach's soon.

there are even people using 'apostrophe s' on verbs. e.g. My grandmother garden's in her backyard.

 

[paulmm3]

forgot this one, it's very grammatically wrong but it's now out of control due to the Internet, using 'apostrophe s' to pluralize nouns.

e.g. The Smith's are our next door neighbors.

e.g. Krueger will hire assistant coach's soon.

there are even people using 'apostrophe s' on verbs. e.g. My grandmother garden's in her backyard.

This one grinds my gears because this is literally some of the earliest shit you learn

 

[Buffaloed]

imminent
eminent
immanent

Sabres announcement of Jeff Skinner contract imminent.
Jason Botterill is not an eminent GM.
Ralph Krueger sees positive energy immanent in everything.

 

[Tatre]

imminent
eminent
immanent

Sabres announcement of Jeff Skinner contract imminent.
Jason Botterill is not an eminent GM.
Ralph Krueger sees positive energy immanent in everything.

For shame, I only knew 1.5 of those.

 

[Ralonzo]

Nimrod is a word you don't see very often. But someone just called one of the admins a nimrod so it deserves a deep dive.

Nimrod: A Common Word with an Unlikely Backstory

What a bunch of maroons!

This one grinds my gears because this is literally some of the earliest **** you learn

Possessification: It's a Buffalo thing.

 

[Buffaloed]

What a bunch of maroons!



Possessification: It's a Buffalo thing.

Doesn't everyone call it Aldi's?

 

[CatsforReinhart]

Can someone answer this question. It is about sabres grammar


Since the team is the Buffalo Sabres and not the Buffalo Sabre what would be correct?

Eichel is a sabre.

Eichel is a sabres.

Obviously the first one makes sense but I think Sabres is a proper name and not the plural of the word with regards to the name. Stupid grammar.

 

[Buffaloed]

According HF's Advanced Stats™, the phrase "moves the needle" (and derivations) is now the most commonly used phrase in hockey commentary. For a record straight 4th year, "I get that", remains in the top 10.

 

[SharkInABoloTie]

Haven't seen it yet, but I didn't learn until my mid twenties, that the phrase "all the sudden" was made up and it should be "all of a sudden". Made me feel stupid, that's for sure.

 

[MikeyMike01]

For a long time I thought “having trouble making ends meet” was “having trouble making end’s meat”... as in they can’t even afford crappy cuts of meat.

I still kinda like my version.

 

[Chainshot]

Can someone answer this question. It is about sabres grammar


Since the team is the Buffalo Sabres and not the Buffalo Sabre what would be correct?

Eichel is a sabre.

Eichel is a sabres.

Obviously the first one makes sense but I think Sabres is a proper name and not the plural of the word with regards to the name. Stupid grammar.

Precedent with just about every NA hockey team every except the Wild and Avalanche? A singular player is a singular member of the team name. All of them collectively are plural.

 

[Buffaloed]

Some of you continue to struggle with the spelling of Ralph Krueger's name. With the pride of Buffalo at stake, I devised a mnemonic to help you remember the correct spelling. Now I understand why some wanted Ruff back. His name is so easy to spell.

oK aRe yoU EaGER