Grammar that makes you cringe

[jsabine]

But it probably was a count of vehicles: I doubt they counted every bus passenger.

[mattc]

As we're doing numbers ...

5Live Tennis commentator, describing a close line call:

"...by the square-root of an inch."

[We're allowed any old rubbish in this thread, IIRC]

[Gareth Rees]

Surely 'stamina' is singular (and uncountable)? As in "Stamina is what you need in long distance cycling."

Yes, that's right—it's become a "mass noun"—but formerly stamina was plural:

1782   H. Walpole Let. 11 July in Corr. (1965) XXXIII. 345   Though the relapse will be much more dangerous to Mr. Fox than to Mr. Fitzpatrick, whose stamina are of stouter texture.
1791   W. Maxwell in J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1770 I. 344   [Paraphrasing Johnson:] He said..it was the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, were never rectified.
1823   J. Gillies tr. Aristotle Rhetoric i. v. 180   If the stamina are not sound, disease will soon ensue.

[clarion]

So what was the singular?  And was that ever used?

[Gareth Rees]

the 2nd grates too - _I_ would have written " are cyclists" - cos we know there are more than one.

So you prefer (2) over (1), is that right?

(1) One in four road users is a cyclist.
(2) One in four road users are cyclists.

How do you feel about (3) versus (4)?

(3) One road user in four is a cyclist.
(4) One road user in four are cyclists.

[Gareth Rees]

So what was the singular?  And was that ever used?

The singular was stamen, and the OED quotes a few uses:

1701   C. Wolley Two Years Jrnl. N.-Y. 13   A person seemingly of a weakly Stamen and a valetudinary Constitution.
1753   L. M. tr. J. Du Bosc Accompl. Woman I. 246   Bad example hath not less influence upon education than a bad stamen upon the constitution.

(The word comes from Latin stāmen meaning "the warp on a loom; a thread or fibre" via the mythological metaphor by which a person's life was a thread on the loom of the Fates.)

[clarion]

Same as for the stamen of a flower, then.

Thanks.

[jsabine]

As we're doing numbers ...

5Live Tennis commentator, describing a close line call:

"...by the square-root of an inch."

[We're allowed any old rubbish in this thread, IIRC]

Obviously that's nonsense - but it's a nice turn of phrase, and more broadcastable than 'a baw-hair'

[Biff]

Could sell a few of these on here

[Andrij]

We considered buying those for everyone in my previous team, on account of the two sisters we had working in said team.   Bright girls, but listening to them speak was often cringe-worthy.

[rogerzilla]

http://www.happyplace.com/24894/brazilian-schoolkids-are-learning-english-by-correcting-grammar-in-celebrity-tweets

The Boys From Brazil - little (grammar) Nazis, the lot of them.  Technically, some of these are spelling errors, but "their" still funny.

[rogerzilla]

It seems that Nouvelle have employed the same copywriter as Tesco (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2205.msg1456401#msg1456401)


Fewer_2 by Oranj, on Flickr

Same product, less lorries, smaller tube, fewer options when the roll runs out and it's cardboard or hand time.

[Auntie Helen]

They make nice cakes though!

[Auntie Helen]

[clarion]

Ah.  I see the error.  It should be

Partie's catered for

[Arch]

Ah.  I see the error.  It should be

Partie's catered for

Yes, why is it that some people stick a greengrocers' apostrophe in some things in a list, but not others?

[Butterfly]

They missed the one in roll's too

[Biggsy]

"The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son".

This makes me cringe, whether or not it's "correct".  "Delivered of"?  What nonsense.

[hellymedic]

"The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son".

This makes me cringe, whether or not it's "correct".  "Delivered of"?  What nonsense.

That is, indeed, correct. Pregnancy is a parlous stated and the labouring woman is safely delivered of the infant who threatens her existence.
Obstructed labour still kills women.
A live-born baby is a bonus.

This is the correct usage.
You may not like it.

[Gareth Rees]

This makes me cringe, whether or not it's "correct".  "Delivered of"?  What nonsense.

Yes, this phrase is a bit of a "fossil", isn't it? You'd never use it conversation, but it somehow survives in the "births, marriages and deaths" newspaper columns for posh people. Here's a chart from Google Ngrams:

[Biggsy]

They could just say that the Duchess "delivered a son".  Actually, I suspect she just despatched it.  Probably the midwife delivered it from the bed to the cot.

Anyway, the notion that grammer and spellin can be correct or incorrect makes me cringe more than anything!

[pcolbeck]

Presumably it's "delivered of" because the mother gives birth and its the midwife or doctor that does the delivery.

[Biggsy]

Oh.  Ok, if that's what "delivered of" means!

[Gareth Rees]

This sense of the word comes from deliver meaning "to set free, liberate, release, rescue, save" as in "deliver us from evil". Hellymedic makes the point above that "pregnancy is a parlous state and the labouring woman is safely delivered of the infant who threatens her existence".

[HTFB]

They could just say that the Duchess "delivered a son".  Actually, I suspect she just despatched it.  Probably the midwife delivered it from the bed to the cot.

Anyway, the notion that grammer and spellin can be correct or incorrect makes me cringe more than anything!

"Despatch" more usually refers to removing someone from the world, rather than bringing them into it. You may want the POBI Monarchy thread.

The Christmas story has "the time came that she should be delivered" in the King James bible---there's "delivered of" here and there in the Old Testament too---and my guess is that that keeps the usage alive.