I should 'of'...

Pat Kenny was talking to the author of a new book on grammar.

One thing he said surprised me. The phrase 'just deserts' is correct, and 'just desserts' is not.
 
Janet said:
Is this another joke question and I'm missing it? It's definitely Portuguese in my Collins Gem dictionary from 1968 anyway.
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Not a joke question - up until the last couple of years I don't ever remember seeing it spelt with the second u...

Both do seem to be valid spellings but I had always spelt it with one u.

I thought it was another case of Geographical political correctness, where the Anglophone world changes its name for a place to the local language version (the cities formerly known as Calcutta and Bombay being the first notable examples I can remember).
 
mandelbrot said:
Not a joke question - up until the last couple of years I don't ever remember having seeing it spelt with the second u...

Both do seem to be valid spellings but I had always spelt it with one u.

I thought it was another case of Geographical political correctness, where the Anglophone world changes its name for a place to the local language version (the cities formerly known as Calcutta and Bombay being the first notable examples I can remember).
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I've always spelled it with the two u's in it, but I can understand who people might spell it with only one.
 
Purple said:
What about people saying Tenderhooks instead of Tenterhooks?
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That's a good one, I would have been an offender had I decided to use it - although its so commonplace I think the real thing would get funny looks.

Other good ones are "damp squid" instead of "squib" - I looked this up a while back and a "squib" is a sort of explosive device, so if its damp it doesnt go off, hence the meaning "damp squib" for something that never really got going.

Another one is harbinger of doom http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/harbinger-of-doom.html


People using "presently" to mean now, whereas it really means "in a short while".

The classic "fulsome" which means excessively praising/insincere/brownnosing, but it commonly used to mean "thorough or wholehearted" - which can have quite funny results. e.g. "I think he deserves a fulsome commendation for his work." However its gone to the stage of being so often wrongly said that it's being interpreted the other way.
 
I saw an article in a newspaper yesterday in which someone was quoted as saying 'they should of known better'...
 
Betsy Og said:
That's a good one, I would have been an offender had I decided to use it - although its so commonplace I think the real thing would get funny looks.

Other good ones are "damp squid" instead of "squib" - I looked this up a while back and a "squib" is a sort of explosive device, so if its damp it doesnt go off, hence the meaning "damp squib" for something that never really got going.

Another one is harbinger of doom http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/harbinger-of-doom.html


People using "presently" to mean now, whereas it really means "in a short while".

The classic "fulsome" which means excessively praising/insincere/brownnosing, but it commonly used to mean "thorough or wholehearted" - which can have quite funny results. e.g. "I think he deserves a fulsome commendation for his work." However its gone to the stage of being so often wrongly said that it's being interpreted the other way.
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I hear "damp squid" quite a lot and I always have to stop myself correcting it.
Then again, words mean what people think they mean.
 
Betsy Og said:
The classic "fulsome" which means excessively praising/insincere/brownnosing, but it commonly used to mean "thorough or wholehearted" - which can have quite funny results. e.g. "I think he deserves a fulsome commendation for his work." However its gone to the stage of being so often wrongly said that it's being interpreted the other way.
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AFAIK, 'fulsome' is one of those words where the common mis-use has led to a revision of its meaning so that it's now OK to use it to mean "thorough or wholehearted" :rolleyes:
 
Betsy Og said:
Other good ones are "damp squid" instead of "squib" - I looked this up a while back and a "squib" is a sort of explosive device, so if its damp it doesnt go off, hence the meaning "damp squib" for something that never really got going.
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That fits nicely in with Hoist with one's own Petard since a Petard and a Squib are essentially the same thing.
 
TarfHead said:
Pat Kenny was talking to the author of a new book on grammar.

One thing he said surprised me. The phrase 'just deserts' is correct, and 'just desserts' is not.
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That is interesting. I always thought that was desserts...although desserts are (usually) nice :D.
Another I often notice, in papers etc, someone is described as trying to 'diffuse' a situation, instead of 'defuse'.
 
I do. I have a rather unfortunate tendency to minic my boss' s writing style to ensure he approves my documents first time. As he is a devotee of hyphens it has obviously worked its way into my unconscious. However I have persuaded him that in Ireland we refer to "trade unions" whereas in UK it's "trades unions"
 
I have just come across this list of English misspellings on Wictionary

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_misspellings

It might be a bit too comprehensive though.

Here are some online spelling tests

The Guardian website, I got 4 wrong out of 20.

This OED test is better. It pronounces the word and you have to spell it.

At the basic test, it classified most of my answers as wrong, although they were all correct bar 2. (I may have been putting in a space at the end of the word )
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I have just come across this list of English misspellings on Wictionary

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_misspellings

It might be a bit too comprehensive though.

Here are some online spelling tests

The Guardian website, I got 4 wrong out of 20.

This OED test is better. It pronounces the word and you have to spell it.

At the basic test, it classified most of my answers as wrong, although they were all correct bar 2. (I may have been putting in a space at the end of the word )
Click to expand...

You misspelled Wiktionary there... ;)
 
The Dukes of Hazzard have a lot to answer for... It is moral hazard not moral hazzard!

(Though the image of cowboys riding rough shod over the local law enforcement who are invariably asleep and tangling with corrupt politicians is eerily appropriate...)
 
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