a word that has been missing from the english language
This post has nothing to do with food.
You know how it's really annoying when people use the apostrophe wrong in it's and its, and you want a snappy way of saying it's wrong, but using the term "misspelled" just doesn't sit right with you? Well, this afternoon I caught one of those in our technical documentation and instantly my brain made up a new word:
misapostrophenated
I googled it and came up with nothing, so I feel safe in claiming its invention.
Typical use: "I refuse to eat at that café because they repeatedly misapostrophenate their menu items."
posted by spughy @ 4:30 PM
5 Comments:
The misplaced/missing apostrophe is one of those things thats always bothered me as well. I think "misapostrophenated" has just the right amount of high-brow insult to satisfy the users urge for self-satisfying smugness. I hope nothing I've previously written has raised Sarah's ire for it's poor usage of the apostrophe.
I am currently annoyed with the word "orientated". Although it is a word, it is a synonym for oriented, so why bother with the extra 'at'. Word's can be hugely irritating:)
The original meaning of "orientated" was "turned towards the east" (as in, the house was orientated so the morning sun would shine in the windows). The ONLY reason it's currently defined as a synonym for oriented is that people repeatedly and en mass misused it, and apparently language use is a bit democratic or something. I still think "orientated", used as a synonym for "oriented", sounds very uneducated.
I agree and I believe Mum's 50 year old Little Oxford Dictionary agrees also (I have looked this up before out of irritation). However, look at what I found through a google search:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/oriented?view=uk
Message from Mother - the apostrophe dragon - Chow Chow had better get his "its" and "it's" sorted out!!!
'Eats shoots and leaves' should be required reading in schools now.
Now off to the grocery store where they sell cucumber's, egg's etc.....
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