sorry, that's all

I am presently drafting a missive to my MP in protest. It is a fine-tooth comb, as you say and If the entire globe stands on one side and want to fight me, they will not break me on this ...

Toothcomb is a word I would use though.

I fight these fights each day. I've got your back, man

But everyone thinks it's corn beef. I had some last week and at least maintained another tradition by not getting the key to wrap round the metal strip properly and cutting my finger when I tried to sort it out.

Fight this to the last.

English language will always be changing and that's fine. The glottal-stoppers are making alterations as we speak.

But it still belongs to my generation aswell as everone else too and we're not dead yet. It's a fine-toothed comb until we're not around to say otherwise.

(lights pipe, side-parts hair, has coronary)

want to comb their teeth?

It is important.

We attempt to stay afloat in a sea of mediocrity, our hands gripping in desperation those few scraps of life-affirming flotsam that wobble past. At times, we are pulled under by the pneumatic charms of celebrity mermaids and the fatal undercurrents of mindless pap, yet we still manage to claw our way back to the surface for a brief glimpse of the clear, blue sky.

In these moments, filling our lungs with the air of enlightened discourse, we gaze frantically across the scum-tipped waves towards those few bobbing heads who we know, in our hearts, are just like us.

Yes, sometimes it is anal and reductive to cling to minor historico-linguistic details, but the act of clinging is what keeps those few, lonely heads afloat. The more of these small details we collect, the sooner we can build a raft, haul our fellow drowning mariners aboard, and set out for that mystic continent where we know we all belong.

On the cover the version of The Word that is sent to subscribers it says Subscribers Edition.

I'm quite prepared - even willing - to be told that I'm wrong, but shouldn't that be Subscribers' Edition (or even, Subscriber's Edition, as it's my very own copy)...?

I'd argue, as it's for all subscribers, not just you

like a damp squid

oh ye of little face

Way too much.

going to Hull in a handcart.

Fight the good fight on behalf of those of us who suffer physical pain on witnessing a misplaced apostrophe....

It is 'fine toothcomb'. Tooth-comb is in the OED, where it's defined as "a small-tooth comb". Kingsley Amis in The King's English remembers it as "the sort that as well as fine teeth had an inches-long spike at one end".

This is acknowledged in the pronunciation: I've only heard fine TOOTH comb, never FINE tooth comb.

The barbarians are at the gates. Let's all get up on the ramparts and pour boiling oil on their heads.

Come on, give the boy credit - that's really very good. That's a new merch t-shirt design if I'm not mistaken.

Only this week I have seen the use of the word sea change. Most dictionaries say that is correct. Huh?

Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

I am not aware of any implement within the dental œvre (did anyone notice the dipthong there.. classy or what?) which could be called a toothcomb. Matters dental can be removed from this debate.

Whilst we're at it..

Sliver. Slither. How many times do I see these words misused? The Telegraph is particularly guilty.

Saying that, I'm not a wordsmith by trade. I'd be a tad narked if some spotty hack told me how to do dentistry. By the same token, I should probably keep my half-baked attempts at pedantry under wraps.

I am not aware of any implement within the dental œvre (did anyone notice the dipthong there.. classy or what?) which could be called a toothcomb. Matters dental can be removed from this debate.

Whilst we're at it..

Sliver. Slither. How many times do I see these words misused? The Telegraph is particularly guilty.

Saying that, I'm not a wordsmith by trade. I'd be a tad narked if some spotty hack told me how to do dentistry. By the same token, I should probably keep my half-baked attempts at pedantry under wraps.

..you've got another thing coming.

No you haven't, you've got another think coming, you idiot. What is this *thing* you're suddenly talking about? Grrr.

..but just don't shine at one thing in particular, my pal insists you are a Jack of all traits.

If it's too much bear then I'm usually in the wrong gay bar. It happens; one moves on and gets over it.

I think if someone who claims to be a "journalist" leans over you to in such circumstances and says 'Dude..Word Nerd' it is entirely acceptable to lamp the fucker.

What's got a spine but no backbone?

The OED, it would appear.

It's fine TOOTH comb, and that's enough for me.

never fails to rankle at the supermarket.

never fails to rankle at the supermarket.

but I think your post was a bit of a damp squid. I would even go so far as to say it was a bit cock-handed.

...or the magazine for which I work? Discuss ;-)

I have written acres of collateral which went to accountancy and law firms. They certainly notice any kind of solecism. Maintain the standards, say I.

I don't know if I'll have the courage to post here ever again now...
What if my autodidactic hyphenation and slim grasp of english grammar - mainly picked up from the works of P G Wodehouse - will give one of you a brain haemorrhage ?
As I don't wish to see any of you slip into a coma; if you read an especially illwritten post by me in future, please take a deep breath and remind yourself that I am but a swede...dense but very good for your health !

So nice to sea so meny felow speling pednats on this bolg.

I'm reminded of that very silly schoolboy joke:

"Antidisestablishmentarianism is a very long word. Can you spell it?"
"I, T."

that they claim is called Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past.

I've seen it (trapped on a plane back from Turkey last year - don't watch it if you have a choice) and it's a riff on A Christmas Carol. Seemed like a pretty big clanger for a national broadcaster to drop I thought.

... so you couldn't care more, eh?

I was at Lakeside shopping centre earlier today. An man passed us with the following slogan on his T-shirt:
'I'm drunk but your still ugly'

So do you have a really good comb for your teeth or not? Sometimes I struggle to keep up round here.

… use eponymous incorrectly, when referring to a band's self-titled album. (It should be homonymous.)

...says:

eponymous (adjective)-(of a person) giving his or her name to something; (of a thing) named after a particular person.

A homonym is 'each of two or more words having the same written form but of different meaning and origin', or 'a person or thing having the same name as another; a namesake'.

and shamelessly milks the weak applause as the sun rises over the gasometer here at Lords. Marooned on 99 overnight, it's taken a 6.00am bumper from Merv to see him over the line. Only his second century in 18 months playing for The Word - not sure why he's making such a fuss of it, Bumble?

- No call for it, Aggers, and I must say, deliberately relocating the gasometer to Lord's to provoke an easy volley from the pedants, not to mention the missing apostrophe... it's poor form, is that.

- Quite right. The crowd hushes as Underpants hunches over his bat awaiting the next delivery. Double ton, do we think, Geoffrey?

- No.

You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think.

(Sorry - this was meant to be a reply to a post several spots above here...)

Ever learn such a complex language as English? 100 posts, and half of them from people who have English as a first language arguing the toss over the minutiae of grammar and punctuation. My admiration for anglophones from overseas knows no bounds.

I was with a financial advisor yesterday and the first time he referred to a entry level product as 'bob standard' , I thought it was my hearing.

...but by the third time in an hour, it was starting to become clear that he meant it. Everything else he said *seemed* right, but really...

This common usage drives me mad. It is impossible to OVERestimate, its always very easy indeed to underestimate

That really annoys me.

To a certain type of mind, usually male, pedantry is highly addictive. My pet hate is the made-up word "intricle" ("intrical?"). I'm hearing that everywhere these days.