Fortnight and other old words

[Anonymous]

English is so weird.

Gross can mean: 12 dozen, total before taxes, and disgusting? How is that possible?!

And don't get me started on the myriad meanings of "make up/make-up"

[Anonymous]

You guys should follow merriam webster on instagram - their posts go into words like this, and they are amazing!

[Anonymous]

Can we also talk about pronunciations? Just this week I heard Irish speakers on NPR pronounce Gaza with a nasally a in the first syllable "GAAAAH-zah" and "HBO" with a very pronounced "H" that I don't know how to write phonetically. It was super off-putting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:English is so weird.

Gross can mean: 12 dozen, total before taxes, and disgusting? How is that possible?!

And don't get me started on the myriad meanings of "make up/make-up"

Comments like this always remind me of the classic poem "The Chaos".

https://people.cs.georgetown.edu/nschneid/cosc272/f17/a1/chaos.html

Just a warning, it is long, but here is a teaser of the first verse. It's a classic and great.

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we also talk about pronunciations? Just this week I heard Irish speakers on NPR pronounce Gaza with a nasally a in the first syllable "GAAAAH-zah" and "HBO" with a very pronounced "H" that I don't know how to write phonetically. It was super off-putting.

Haych? Haych is how many British speakers will say "H".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rod, as a unit of distance. 1 rod = 5.5 yards.

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s they way I likes it!

Back in the day... Our Quetico maps' portage lengths were in rods. A five hundred rods with a 75 lb canoe on your shoulders is a long way...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we also talk about pronunciations? Just this week I heard Irish speakers on NPR pronounce Gaza with a nasally a in the first syllable "GAAAAH-zah" and "HBO" with a very pronounced "H" that I don't know how to write phonetically. It was super off-putting.

Haitch

[Anonymous]

Heterosexual

[Anonymous]

Please provide an example of using alight with regard to an idea, without using the word idea, to help me work it in next week!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please provide an example of using alight with regard to an idea, without using the word idea, to help me work it in next week!

After a burst of innovation with no initial purpose, the AI initiative alighted on the TACOMA project and we now have concrete strategies in place for targeted use of AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please provide an example of using alight with regard to an idea, without using the word idea, to help me work it in next week!

After a burst of innovation with no initial purpose, the AI initiative alighted on the TACOMA project and we now have concrete strategies in place for targeted use of AI.

Excellent. Thank you