tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post9158549037980792361..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: putting the U in endeavo(u)rlynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-39216106945126038412021-06-13T11:30:57.669+01:002021-06-13T11:30:57.669+01:00Danish has the (archaic) word "husbond",...Danish has the (archaic) word "husbond", which is the male head of a household back in the day when a normal household had servants and other employees as well as the husband, wife, and children. The wife probably wouldn't refer to her husband as "husbond" (or maybe?), but the servants/employees definitely would. The two parts of the words "husbond" are clearly similar to the modern Danish words "hus", meaning "house", and "bonde", meaning "farmer". So the "husbond", I'm guessing, is the farmer of the house, the head of the farm household.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-80575023345225198882014-03-21T05:00:18.318+00:002014-03-21T05:00:18.318+00:00Until I read it here in that 1790 quotation from N...Until I read it here in that 1790 quotation from Noah Webster, I had no idea that "husband" used to be spelt "housbonde".<br /><br />The word must originally have had something to do with houses and bonds, then? I didn't know that. That is useful information that was lost when the spelling was changed.<br /><br />...Which is rather a good illustration of one of the reasons pronunciation-based spelling reform is a bad idea.<br /><br />Webster is hoist by his own petard!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-27979907093319279182010-07-06T22:48:40.355+01:002010-07-06T22:48:40.355+01:00Yesterday I heard Ian Darke, English football/socc...Yesterday I heard Ian Darke, English football/soccer commentator currently working the World Cup for ESPN in America, use the word "pernickety", which sounded horribly wrong to me; it's "persnickety". But a trip to the dictionary led me to the "chiefly Brit." usage. Learn something every day, I guess.<br /><br />Or two things; the dictionary in question was English-Spanish (all I had to hand), wherein I learned the exciting translations "chince" and "quinquilloso".Fnarfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022243603033471232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-70928549697727692492007-10-18T12:23:00.000+01:002007-10-18T12:23:00.000+01:00Interesting blog entry by your old prof, Lynne!How...Interesting blog entry by your old prof, Lynne!<BR/><BR/>However, (digression-from-topic alert!) his bit about the Good Doctor's poking fun at his friend Boswell in his dictionary entry for 'oats' cannot be right. The Dictionary was published eight years before he met Jamie. <BR/><BR/>Will you tell Dennis Baron or shall I? :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-37382417781456724192007-10-18T11:42:00.000+01:002007-10-18T11:42:00.000+01:00pran: you can get British, Canadian, etc dictionar...pran: you can get British, Canadian, etc dictionaries at <A HREF="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3" REL="nofollow">firefox addons page</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-55327975418738125662007-10-18T08:16:00.000+01:002007-10-18T08:16:00.000+01:00My old prof Dennis Baron has written about Webster...My old prof Dennis Baron has written about Webster and more recent spelling reforms at <A HREF="http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=1112&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286" REL="nofollow">his blog</A>, in hono(u)r of Webster's birthday--aka National Dictionary Day (US).lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-24154245718508326282007-10-17T18:46:00.000+01:002007-10-17T18:46:00.000+01:00Dear lynneguist,Thank you for the link to my post(...Dear lynneguist,<BR/>Thank you for the link to my post(ranatunga.blogspot.com/2007/07/typo.html). <BR/>I'm getting loads of traffic from your blog.<BR/><BR/>Also it's quite interesting to read your blog & very interesting stuff too. Was always thinking 'ahh these Americans...!' when I get syntax errors in my code for 'colour' etc...<BR/>The Firefox spell checker is AmE, so <I>bare</I> with me, I'm compelled to use AmE in my scribblings.PRanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09249211690118280409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-72178833453208790422007-10-17T15:09:00.000+01:002007-10-17T15:09:00.000+01:00Glamour is not the only non-French –our; there are...<I>Glamour</I> is not the only non-French –our; there are also Germanic <I>neighbour</I> (cognate to nigh + boor) and <I>harbour</I> (-bour related to borough) . There are also words from French but which didn't have –or or –our in French: <I>armour</I> and <I>demeanour</I> had –ure; <I>endeavour</I> and <I> behaviour</I> from devoir and avoir; <I> succour</I> from sucurs, and <I>arbour</I> ("bower", from herbier, not related to arbor "tree").Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6932434601239983312007-10-17T10:13:00.000+01:002007-10-17T10:13:00.000+01:00Good point, Howard--and one that I actually knew! ...Good point, Howard--and one that I actually knew! (It's a word that we assign to our first-year students to research!) I added it at the last minute without reflecting...Will soften the 'French-derived' in the post.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-27478936586476979272007-10-17T09:45:00.000+01:002007-10-17T09:45:00.000+01:00'Glamour' is not in fact from French, but from Sco...'Glamour' is not in fact from French, but from Scots (apparently a corruption of 'grammar'). It also appears that the -our spelling is preferred in American dictionaries. From the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:<BR/><BR/>[Scots, magic spell, alteration of grammar (from the association of learning with magic).]<BR/>Usage Note: Many words, such as honor, vapor, and labor, are usually spelled with an -or ending in American English but with an -our ending in British English. The preferred spelling of glamour, however, is -our, making it an exception to the usual American practice. The adjective is more often spelled glamorous in both American and British usage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15009436120689317702007-10-16T23:04:00.000+01:002007-10-16T23:04:00.000+01:00Ah, nice catch on pernickety, John C...Ah, nice catch on <I>pernickety</I>, John C...lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-86209762471752145412007-10-16T22:20:00.000+01:002007-10-16T22:20:00.000+01:00The Websterisms which survived were a matter of el...The Websterisms which survived were a matter of eliminating pointless distinctions: there really is no reason why some words should have <I>-or</I> and some <I>-our</I>, nor why some should have <I>-re</I> and some <I>-er</I>.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-57784185301239640072007-10-16T22:17:00.000+01:002007-10-16T22:17:00.000+01:00Webster must have had a cloth ear. If you wanted ...Webster must have had a cloth ear. If you wanted to change the spelling of endeavour on pronunciation grounds, you'd go for endeavur. Or endevur. Or Scottish endevur, English endevuh, (and prob the latter for Boston too?) To try massive reform on pronunciation grounds probably implies he had a cloth brain too: whose pronunciation, for heaven's sake? How often to reform? Twittery of the first water.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-78315600638697346162007-10-16T22:05:00.000+01:002007-10-16T22:05:00.000+01:00Late 19th c. library pioneer Melvil Dui was also a...Late 19th c. library pioneer Melvil Dui was also an advocate of spelling reform, but his ideas largely went nowhere. And American spelling still has a more conservative flair in at least the conservative religious arena, at least amongst those Christians and churches that still use the 'Authorised' KJV Bible. Not only are the archaic spellings obviously preserved in that document, but many KJVers regularly refer to the 'Saviour', and many hymns, even written in the 20th century here, still get written with KJVish language and spellings. We can discuss, perhaps, why this is, but it certainly is.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-87073323588937619922007-10-16T21:07:00.000+01:002007-10-16T21:07:00.000+01:00Oops. The OED does indeed have an entry for PERSN...Oops. The OED does indeed have an entry for PERSNICKETY, though without a cross-reference from PERNICKETY, confirming the etymological connection.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-56571564356291760972007-10-16T21:01:00.000+01:002007-10-16T21:01:00.000+01:00I have always understood that the persnickety is ...I have always understood that the <I>persnickety</I> is the AmE equivalent of BrE <I>pernickety</I>, and the OED (draft of June 2007) backs me up here, saying <I>colloq.</I> (orig. <I>Sc.</I>). Many spellings are listed, though <I>persnickety</I> is not one of them; however, the semantic match is perfect.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-29804598245427424512007-10-16T20:35:00.000+01:002007-10-16T20:35:00.000+01:00Spelling reform in English seems to have been a po...Spelling reform in English seems to have been a popular project for quite a few well-known persons. I knew about Robert McCormick's attempts to change spelling through his newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, but many of the others on <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_spelling_reform" REL="nofollow">this Wikipedia page</A> were previously unknown to me.Doug Sundsethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01848091504066560951noreply@blogger.com