I just received an email from the university where I'm taking a few classes. The subject was "cougar siting near campus." I thought "who would want to place a cougar near the campus?" Then, of course I realized that a cougar had been sighted. :-)

When I was much younger, in a presentation I used the word "misled". I knew what it meant because I had read it in books, etc. As far as I knew, I had never heard it said aloud. I pronounced it "missled" or "miss-ld", if you will. It's hard to write it out. So my co-presenter pipes up, ""Did you mean to say "miss led"? I was mortified.

Here are a couple of "High Maine" words.

At least now, one of them has found its way into the dictionary.

spleeny -- behaving in a cranky, whiny, petulant manner.

"You are being very spleeny; I think you need a nap."

spleen. 2 New England : peevish and irritable with hypochondriac inclinations.

Spleeny | Definition of Spleeny by Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com › sple...

---

barmess -- to move in an imperiously clunky way, particularly in an intrusive fashion. Imagine a bull-in-a-china-shop sashay. Maybe a Eudora Welty character could pull this off nicely.

"Lola slammed her church hat down over her head, let out an audible huff, and barmessed into the living room where the Daughters of Granobilla were holding their annual poker game."

edit --

"As I mentioned up thread, flounder is used frequently for founder. I hear well-regarded (?) public speakers and news anchors say "flounder" for "founder quite regularly. "

floun·der1

ˈfloundər/

verb

1. struggle or stagger helplessly or clumsily in water or mud.

   "he was floundering about in the shallow offshore waters"

   synonyms:struggle, thrash, flail, twist and turn, splash, stagger, stumble, reel, lurch, blunder, squirm, writhe

   "people were floundering in the water"

• struggle mentally; show or feel great confusion.

  "she floundered, not knowing quite what to say"

  synonyms:struggle, be out of one's depth, have difficulty, be confounded, be confused; More

• be in serious difficulty.

  "many firms are floundering"

  synonyms:struggle financially, be in dire straits, face financial ruin, be in difficulties, face bankruptcy/insolvency, founder

  "more firms are floundering"

Oh my gosh! "SPLEENY" is my new favorite word...!

dragonflywings, I made the same error as a child; fortunately I figured it out before I ever said the word!

I also often hear and see written either a mismatch in pronouns within the same sentence or incorrect use entirely of the pronoun they, usually when talking about a person but not a specific person (grammarians, perhaps you can recall the term for this -- I can't). "When someone takes a drink of water, they should make sure the glass is clean"

raee, the issue you bring up is subject verb agreement. It is with deep regret that I inform you it no longer matters with respect to the plural pronoun 'they.' Here is an article explaining that it is acceptable to use a plural pronoun in order to be gender neutral. There are other work-arounds, as I mentioned upthread. But apparently they are unnecessary.

https://www.copyediting.com/subject-verb-agreement-and-the-singular-they/#.WsjzvS8lSEI

I thought 'they' has become acceptable in use now?

Lexicon Valley is a podcast from Slate that delves into words and their usage, for anyone interested...

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley.html

Another "get off my lawn" moment, LOL

It used to be "If someone takes a drink of water he or she should make sure the glass is clean" except this is no longer exactly gender neutral either since the male is given first position. Sometimes in writing, I write "s/he" . "If someone takes a drink of water, one should make sure the glass in clean." would also be proper but seems so stiff.

What to do about gender-neutral pronouns?

• Ey/em/eir/eirs
• Ne/nem/nir/nirs
• Xe/xem/xyr/xyrs
• Ze/hir/hir/hirs
• Ze/zir/zir/zirs

You "flounder" if you are physically struggling, like staggering through mud.

Talks, plans, discussions, (and ships) founder.

Hmm, palimpsest, two of my dictionaries also give "struggle mentally; show or feel great confusion," and "be in serious difficulty" for flounder. I would have said that a talk or plan may flounder for a while before it founders.

Pal, my frosh rhetoric prof told me to flip flop the he/she issue and when just using he or she, switch from one to the other from example to example.

Lexicon Valley is a podcast from Slate that delves into words and their usage, for anyone interested...

I recently discovered Lexicon Valley, and have been working my way through the archives. I have listened to a couple of the more recent episodes, and it's not as entertaining with the new host, compared to the banter between the two previous co-hosts.

"If someone takes a drink of water, one should make sure the glass is clean."

I do not find that stiff at all, but then I am used to hearing it, as that is what my grandmother would say. You could also say, "If someone takes a drink of water, that person should make sure that the glass is clean," but that sounds more awkward to me, although I do say it both ways, depending on the situation.

My grandmother taught English in college (even though her first language was German), and she was very strict with grammar.

I agree, terriks! Bob Garfield is so darn funny, if perhaps a bit too profane for some. He is a co-host of On The Media, where he often provides some great rants.

How about those who say ‘expresso’ or ‘expecially’. And, the name of the store is Nordstrom, not Nordstroms.

On the news this morning I heard the perfect example of the misuse of "they" that I've been hearing: the reporter was describing the status of a victim of a shooting, already identified in the segment as a sole female, and repeatedly referred to her as "they" ( "they are in critical condition...in hopes they will survive")

OT. Ingrid had a thread called "How a decorating site helped me without my spending penny" that folks have been commenting on. When I followed the notification, I got "page not found". What's that about?

Maybe because it recommended a design site not affiliated with Houzz or any of the pros? Someone probably flagged it so it could be gone for good or could reappear.

Dragonflywings, my bet would be that it's because it's promoting a competing site. On the other hand, a lot of threads have been disappearing during the weekends and reappearing on Monday lately. That used to happen when threads were flagged, but I don't see how some of the ones that have done this could have been, like the positivity thread in Kitchens.

That was my thought. They didn't want any competition.

Perhaps someone was posting or editing a comment at the same time you tried to pull up the thread? Did you try again yet?

Thanks Sherry and WB. Yes I did Carol. No luck yet. Maybe Monday.

Perhaps someone was posting or editing a comment at the same time you tried to pull up the thread?

FWIW, that shouldn't affect anything. I often find new posts (more in number) that didn't show when I first clicked on a thread, once it opens.

Not necessarily grammar connected, but definitely this forum connected...I dislike when someone says "we're painting the living room" rather than "we're having the living room painted"...

So often I get excitedly caught up in a thread where a poster is "remodeling" (substitute any other word that's similar) only to find out later that there is no diy involved whatsover....

Bummer.

I Googled the title and it brought up the first part of the post. There are also four pictures just below it. When you click on any of them, it takes you to the not found page.

Yes, it is for a competing site.

https://www.google.com/search?q=How+a+decorating+site+helped+me+without+my+spending+penny&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwissemj2avaAhVQX60KHSKXC3kQgwMIJQ&biw=1921&bih=928

I got 'page not found' when I clicked your link, Sherry.

This is not quite on topic, but there is a patient who just registered in our clinic and his name is spelled incorrectly.

It's not a made-up name or one of those names that can be spelled imaginatively, it's a basic, old-fashioned boy's name that they just spelled wrong.

I was just going to encourage you to share the name but then I realized it would probably violate HIPAA.

My first name is an odd spelling of an uncommon name. Phonetically it is very easy to pronounce but people don't believe what they read or they decide that it must be wrong. So, my name is often mispronounced.

Why do I have this oddly spelled uncommon name? I have no idea. I asked my parents a few times and have never gotten a good explanation. I think it was an anesthesia issue.

penny, actually, The Toronto Maple 'Leafs' is grammatically correct, although it certainly looks odd. Being from Toronto, it's a question we hear now and then. The one I can't figure out, is why the plural of roof is roofs, rather than rooves. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2017/04/17/the-less-than-thrilling-history-of-why-theyre-not-the-toronto-maple-leaves/?utm_term=.4722079d191b

It's not a made-up name or one of those names that can be spelled imaginatively, it's a basic, old-fashioned boy's name that they just spelled wrong.

But there are cultures in which this sort of thing is deliberate, a way to give your child a unique name that isn't too weird or different in daily use.

Yes, but this looks like a mistake: they just transposed two letters in a common way that vowels are sometimes transposed. . I checked the various documents and that's how he signed his name.

Yes, to mainstream culture it usually does look like a mistake. I had a Deovn, a couple of Jhons, etc. in my classes.

I'm guessing the name is Michael :-) And transposing the 'a' and 'e' is more common than you think and IS an accepted spelling. It is the traditional Gaelic spelling of that name and has filtered down into both modern Irish and Scottish spelling.

Yes Carol, that is what I meant. My link takes you to the Google page. The first one shows the first part of the post. You can see the name of the company. If you click on that link, it does say the "page not found" where Houzz deleted it.

how-a-decorating-site-helped-me-without-my-spending-a-...

2 days ago - I've been struggling with some small issues in regard to home decorating and looked for on-line sites that were reasonably priced and could help me. I came upon ******* which has several different price packages depending on the level of help needed, with the lowest price package being $79. However, ...

Under that, there are pictures. The first four are associated with the post that is missing. You can click on each picture and look at it, but if you click on visit site, you get the page not found again.

I saw that post and wondered if it was spam.... a brand new poster just signed up to advertise a site. Maybe someone else (not me) marked it as spam.

The post in question was by someone who is here often. She mentioned the site saying that you can pay for service, but you can also post a question and get advice for no fee. The rest of the post was regular people sharing photos and asking questions just like most of the posts on this side of the forum. This was not spam.

Then I was thinking of something else, another post from someone just registered.

Even the Google search doesn't come up this morning

Thanks for your responses clarifying "flounder," gardengal48 and writersblock. It seems I've been mistaken in thinking the verb had to have some physicality associated with its use.

As for "founder," it is restricted to taking on water literally or metaphorically?

I think that it would be an archaic word known only to students of history and a few marine experts if it were only to be used literally.

To compound the founder issue even more, let us not forget that an individual who starts an organization, for example, is also a founder. Love the English language and all its glorious confusions.

I was thinking of this conversation yesterday, as I listened to 'Invisibilia', about a gender non-conforming person. Of course, 'they' was the pronoun used throughout...

https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia

The missing post is back:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/how-a-decorating-site-helped-me-without-my-spending-a-penny-dsvw-vd~5235827?n=16

Someone (not me), must of flagged it as spam and it was removed until it was reviewed. That's good. It makes me feel better about Houzz.

I was also thinking about this thread after hearing the the News Quiz on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. One of the items on the News Quiz asked something to the effect of "This influential individual died 50 years ago this week", of course Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the correct answer, but my objection was to the usage of "died". Yes, he died, but more importantly, he was murdered, nay, assassinated, and their use of "died" sounded beyond non-optimal, it sounded WRONG.

This thread remains very thought provoking, and I appreciate everyone's musings.

Palimpsest and d_gw, way way back when I was working my way through school I spent time as the clerk on the hospital maternity ward. Part of my job entailed filling out the forms for naming the child. At this time the practice of adding D to the front end of names was becoming popular for boys, so many parents chose this but didn't know how they wanted it spelled. I would write down all the variations I could think of (D'-, De-, Da-, Du-, Dee and so forth), show it to the parents, and they would pick the one they liked the look of best. True story.

Great thread.

my favorite is the misuse of "ton/tons".

i have tons of friends.

i have tons of time.

Hmm - don't you think if the question had used 'assassinated' or 'murdered' it might've given away the answer, lakeeffect?

And this just made me chuckle a bit (emphasis added by me). From an article about Aldi stores:

“[My] least favorite is GT Cola. They really missed the mark on that (assuming they were trying to make it taste like American Coca Cola and not mop water.) There isn't enough whiskey in the world to make it palpable.” — Reddit user and Aldi employee