English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

[Jdsk]

Indeed.

Fortunately many of the posts in this thread are now about the English language itself, rather than some perceived misuse by someone else, many of which turn out to only differ in some way from what the poster was once told was CORRECT.

Jonathan

[marquis26]

My Windows spellchecker doesn’t recognise the word “effected” and always wants me to replace it with “affected”…

[Jdsk]

It works as it should in Word for Mac 16.78.3, UK English.

What are you using?

Jonathan

[marquis26]

Office 365, whatever the current version is…

[Cowsham]

My American Smart Keyboard Pro recognise both

( 10 key pad for phone -- has a very good predictive text -- much faster and easier than using the silly full keyboards you'll see on most smart phones. )

[DaveReading]

My Windows spellchecker doesn’t recognise the word “effected” and always wants me to replace it with “affected”…

Silly question, but is it capable of recognising the context in which the word has been used?

"Effected" has a much more limited usage than "Affected".

[Mike Sales]

I see many adverts for products which promise 'freshness', which is conveniently undefined. Whatever freshness is I am sure it is not produced by a petro-chemical concoction in a plastic bottle.

[Bmblbzzz]

I see many adverts for products which promise 'freshness', which is conveniently undefined. Whatever freshness is I am sure it is not produced by a petro-chemical concoction in a plastic bottle.

What they call "air freshener" I experience as "air disguiser".

[Manc33]

Calling coleslaw "slaw".

Is time so important to these people that they must save 0.1 seconds saying "slaw" instead of it's proper name?

I think they think they are being trendy, but it's another step towards Idiocracy!

Soon kids will be asking "Dad, what do you mean coleslaw?" when that's the actual word to describe the food.

This stuff needs outlawing or maybe that's 'lawing

[Bmblbzzz]

There are so many regional variations around slaw. Round here, people don't like too much mayo in it. How do they have it up in 'hester?

[Jdsk]

I'm not clear about the derivation of slaw in modern English. It might be a contraction of coleslaw/ coleslaw or it might be directly from slaw (salad).

And it might differ between US English and UK English.

Wiktionary isn't great on derivation, but at least we can all see it:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/slaw
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coleslaw

I'll look in the full OED later.

Jonathan

[Paulatic]

In these parts you can be gaun slaw but you’d never eat it.

[Jdsk]

I'm not clear about the derivation of slaw in modern English. It might be a contraction of coleslaw/ cole-slaw or it might be directly from slaw (salad).

And it might differ between US English and UK English.

Wiktionary isn't great on derivation, but at least we can all see it:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/slaw
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coleslaw

I'll look in the full OED later.

First recorded as cold slaw in 1794. That is a type of slaw (salad). Slaw then seems to have been more common in US English and than In UK English.

I'd guess that its recent usage in UK English comes from recent US English.

But I've no idea what "proper name" means in this instance. OED has cole-slaw rather than coleslaw.

Jonathan

[Manc33]

"Umami"

Food reviews where they are complaining that it didn't have enough umami.

What?

That has been described as the 5th taste ... but you know what that taste really is? A savoury salt flavour like Soy Sauce or maybe "Aromat".

Come on with this umami and stupid reviewers saying food didn't have enough. Guess what? Just put some salt on it, or soy sauce (salt with flavour) or Aromat (salt with flavour) and BOOM you have more of your daft umami nonsense! Wooooo MSG!

[Jdsk]

Why umami is now often considered to be a basic taste, mostly because of how it is detected:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

Includes a bit on the etymology, its recent invention and the absence of an equivalent in English.

Jonathan