ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends

not sure “formula” needs pluralizing

it doesn't, and in terms of style, it oughtn't.

I quite agree with Aimles. I often want to stop people from pluralizing loanwords according to the pluralizing conventions of the source language. Especially when they are wrong. But people mistakenly think they're being scrupulously correct, which is sad. Pedants have misled them.

I dislike "syllabi," "octopi," "memoranda," and (perhaps especially) "matrices."

"octopi" is wrong anyway, even with the Greek origin it's "octopodes"
But with the voucher text, you wouldn't have a problem with "does not include fruits and vegetables" right?

I dislike "syllabi," "octopi," "memoranda," and (perhaps especially) "matrices."

Syllabi and memoranda are way more elegant than buses and dums. Octopuses also sounds terrible, imo octopi is the correct English plural and octopodes is an also-fun technically-correct plural. Matrices is elegant, but matrixes is simple and clear, I’d allow them both.

I also strongly endorse one Aimles, two Aimless.

But with the voucher text, you wouldn't have a problem with "does not include fruits and vegetables" right?

actually I'd go with "fruit" for that as well, fruit being a mass noun

I don't mind Latin plurals - it was only recently my workplace style guide stopped using 'data' as strictly plural, and not without some mutterings - but I don't expect to see it on a supermarket voucher so it kind of made me smile

it's good, english needs more inflective noun endings, it's a mongrel language and shd flaunt this

a pod of octopus is an octoplural, this is obvious and transcends rules or style

I also strongly endorse one Aimles, two Aimless.

As Aimless, I contain multitudes.

What the heck is a “breakfast bar” anyway?

The "breakfast bar" was named via analogy to the "salad bar" and consists of a variety of foods commonly eaten at breakfast, made available for one to serve to oneself.

Ok, I’d call it a breakfast buffet.

Bbbbbut how can a breakfast bar also be a drinking den? One is a collection of foods or a piece of equipment, the other is a type of room.

breakfast bar = a variety of syrups, preserves, multiple meats, a protective sneeze guard

a breakfast bar is a long shallow shelf section you sit at in a domestic kitchen, typically on a stool

at this rate, it will also qualify as a laxative, an epithet, and a cosmology

shitting the bar high there

http://groceries.iceland.co.uk/medias/sys_master/root/h99/h34/8837336432670.jpg

(Aimless ticks 'laxative' off his list.)

lol

It’s also, of course, the place you pregame before moving on to the breakfast club

unlike others itt i have a bit of a prejudice against nu classical or inflected endings. often seem to originate from a position of wanting to be more academically *correct* than the next person so

The ECB today announced that it has appointed temporary administrators at Banca Carige, the most current Italian banking conundrum in a long and growing list of Italian banking conundra.

immediate response:NO
next response: is conundrum even latin?
action: go to OED:
Etymology: Origin lost: in 1645 (sense 3) referred to as an Oxford term; possibly originating in some university joke, or as a parody of some Latin term of the schools, which would agree with its unfixed form in 17–18th cent. It is doubtful whether Nash's use (sense 1) is the original.

...


†1. Applied abusively to a person. (? Pedant, crotchet-monger, or ninny.) Obsolete.

1596 T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden sig. V4v So will I..driue him [sc. Gabriel Harvey] to confesse himselfe a Conundrum, who now thinks he hath learning inough to proue the saluation of Lucifer.

...

†3. A pun or word-play depending on similarity of sound in words of different meaning. Obsolete.

1645 Kingdom's Weekly Post 16 Dec. 76 This is the man who would have his device alwayes in his sermons, which in Oxford they then called conundrums. For an instance..Now all House is turned into an Alehouse, and a pair of dice is made a Paradice, was it thus in the days of Noah? Ah no!


all in various ways amusing or ironic considering the context.

final response: actually if this is a joke or parody latin word it is *far more legit* to use “conundra” as in the spirit of the original thing

final final response: still absurd.

so many conundrae in those etymologia

FP

the original meaning is clearly describing the median ilx poster

we pompous panjandrums

crotchet-mongers all.

often seem to originate from a position of wanting to be more academically *correct* than the next person
please don’t describe my life without my permission

So will I..driue u to confesse urselfe a Conundrum, who now thinks he hath learning inough to proue the saluation of Lucifer.

oh leaue av

ap style guide . . . welcome to the resistance

SPLIT FORMS: In many cases, splitting the infinitive or compound forms of a verb is necessary to convey meaning and make a sentence easy to read. Such constructions are acceptable. For example: Those who lie are often found out. How has your health been? The budget was tentatively approved. Let readability and comprehension be your guide.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

i've begun leaving off full stops in my work emails sometimes, even to important people. i do capitalise though. what does this mean??

it means my work is done here

do you replace them with,,,, ? if so,,,, I have the facebook group for you!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5GscCfWkAA_Ybc.jpg:small

subtle commentary on the inconsistency of americans

Probably not the right thread to ask this, but oh well: what's the term for words that are principally known for some characteristic other than their meaning (e.g. antidisestablishmentarianism)?

examples

Well, antidisestablishmentarianism is known for being long rather than whatever it's supposed to refer to.

yes it's an example of a very long word

i mean, i know that's probably not what you're getting at -- but is this other word one that definitely exists (but you forgot it) or are you just asking *if* it exists (in which case what is it)

I'm pretty sure the term exists, as I saw a listicle about it. Can't remember any of the other words on it, though.

ah ok

this sent me off on a 20-minute puzzle trying to remember the word that we now use in a different sense, that used to mean -- in classical pedagogy -- types of example, viz of grammatical usage

(where the point of the example is not the meaning of the sentence or sentence fragment but the grammatical rule it demonstrates and exemplifies)

anyway i just remembered what this word is: it's paradeigma, or paradigm… which we now almost entirely associate with thomas kuhn and changing models of knowledge

Found the listicle, and I was wrong, apparently, there is no term for what I was looking for: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/internets-favorite-words/antidisestablishmentarianism

A debate in the office just now - how would you write out the expression 'Catch some Zees'?

catch some z's

That apostrophe is contentious

Catch some Zzzs

Yes, that's how I had it - I think I got it from comic strips

http://www.comicbookfx.com/images/12-1.jpg

I'm guessing the entire shorthand started with comic strips

it just occurred to me that non-Americans might pronounce it "catch some zeds"?????