My gast is really flabbered!

Ana Thu 19-Jun-14 20:28:49
I think...... we....... heard you the first time, AAA.
Gosh - did I miss the ballot where you were elected spokesperson ?
Or perhaps it's the Royal WE ? ...... .....~~.....~~~~

No idea, AAA - it's all Greek to me...

grumppa
My understanding of what you are saying is :
1) The SOD and the OED are as one in supporting the supremacy of the Greek -ize, over the French -ise.
2) The SOD claims that the magnificent total of TWO famous authors favoured the -ise form.
Now this is the jump I don't understand - on the basis of this you state :
If it is good enough for them it's good enough for anyone else.
I could understand if you wished to align yourself with a couple of dissenters, but to claim that their perspective is the correct one because they were in such a minute minority is about as logical as subscribing to the possibility of Cold Fusion, or the certainty that MMR causes Autizm.

AAA - Would you mind taking this discussion of Zs and Ss away from this thread and into the Pedants' Corner topic? You are hogging the limelight and being exceedingly boring. Everyone else agreed long ago that minute dissection of the finer points of grammar and spelling just impede the flow of the conversation and are better relegated to their own threads.

Thank you.

Well said Elegran. Disruption and pomposity have no place here.

I was simply pointing out, with some amusement, that SOD, while only admitting the z spelling, happily cites two uses of the s spelling, thereby providing precedents for those of us not concerned with showing off our knowledge of Ancient Greek.

Well said Elegran and Micelf.

Ancient Greek also had four moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive and optative), and three voices (active, middle and passive)

How many posters deal confidently in English with the subjunctive, let alone tackle the antique optative? Let sleeping languages lie.

American spelling and grammar sometimes retain archaisms that have gone out of use on this side of the Atlantic. Among these is the use of the -ize suffix. They also use, for example, 'gotten' which survives in British English only in 'forgotten', 'begotten'; I have seen and heard 'oftentimes' in American English, an old-fashioned word which would be regarded as poetic if used by a modern writer or speaker. It's simply a matter of the language diverging when the Founding Fathers crossed the Atlantic and developing in only slightly but mutually comprehensible forms.

Elegran Fri 20-Jun-14 08:13:21
AAA - Would you mind taking this discussion of Zs and Ss away from this thread and into the Pedants' Corner topic? You are hogging the limelight and being exceedingly boring. Everyone else agreed long ago that minute dissection of the finer points of grammar and spelling just impede the flow of the conversation and are better relegated to their own threads.
Hail to thee, Elegran -
+ Self appointed guardian of the traditions established by yourself.
+ Honorary Moderator.
+ Director of free flow discussion. [Were you a Traffic Light before you retired?]
If you feel you MUST vent your spleen, try directing it at the persons who started and continued this side issue, for example:
Ana Tue 17-Jun-14 17:45:18 And what's with all the Zs?
If you are going to act as a Mod, then Mod.
At the moment, as Oscar Wilde said in 'Earnest' ... ''You're creating a false impression.''
A period of quiet introspection, perhaps?

Bog off, AAA...
You're getting beyond a joke now.

(wonder how long that'll last?)

SO back to the annoying phone call I had this afternoon (rushed in from the garden, with dirty hands and feet thinking it was one of the DC) and the buggars person rang off just as I got to the phone. NO it wasn't anyone I knew. Probably selling boilers or trying to reclaim some PPI that we never had.

TPS doesn't work either - does anyone know how to get it to work?

TPS only works for calls made in the UK, and if the company who's phoning you has a) agreed to abide by it and b) can be bothered to read the list. International calls and companies who blatantly ignore it can't be blocked.

If you don't mind, AAA, I suggested the redirection to PCorner on Wed at 09:36:35. So lay off Elegran.

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That's OK, Anno I'll share the pain with you, I'm not greedy.

However just to consider grumppa's reference to the SOD it seems particularly appropriate at the moment and while Elegran expressed it with greater restraint, would an invitation to * SOD off* be clear enough?

Leave him to soak in his spleen, MiceElf He is happy there.

In the last week we've had 3 calls from a Solar Panel company 'now in your area'. First time I told them we already had panels. Next time, couldn't get a word in edgeways until asked who else lives here. I answered politely it was none of her business then started to say, "It might be a good idea to check out if we already have panels at the start of the call' but the phone was put down on me after a few words. An hour later we had another call so I let her go on until she invited me to have them round to give us a quote & explain how it worked. I replied that I'd love to have her round so I could show her our panels & explain the stats to her - again the phone was put down on me. How rude not to accept my kind invitation.

Temper, temper, Ana

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It has been said before, but the words "pub" and "bore" spring to mind.

I have rarely read such rude and patronising comments. Nasty.