[OT] The state we are in
Metman2012 scrive:
Good there other pedants as well. I looked it up on the online OED.
That there are (: I had access to that when at uni here.
However, I agree that minuscule is correct, but unfortunately for us
pedants, most (all?) dictionaries are now descriptive rather than
prescriptive and as the wrong spelling is gaining in use, they will
eventually stop calling it wrong. It's a bit like infer and imply, less
and fewer, disinterested and uninterested. Does Italian have the same
issues (I'm assuming you're Italian - if not then I humbly apologise)?
I am, in part at least, (opinions differ on which half is the good part)
so no need to apologise.
Italian does not have quite the same issues because the scale is
different. The largest dictionary (also on my shelf) is in one, rather
fat, volume ... not two or twenty.
English tends to have many words with the same meaning, and individual
words with many meanings. It is also much more absorbent of 'foreign'
phrases, especially American, which has become the leading world English
(sadly). There are a number of English words that have found their way
into Italian (eg computer) and that can be unhelpful as English has more
letters in its alphabet. An obvious example is my name which in Italian
begins with G and in Scottish, begins with J (a letter which does not
exist in Italian).
I am pedantic in any language but perhaps more in English as I write in
that language.
--
Gianna
Peterhead, Scotland
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