Ok, here is one:
"et.al."
The Latin word "et" is a whole, entire word, not an abbreviation. It means
"and."
"Et al." is short for "et alii," meaning "and others." No period in the
middle.
The peeves I have seen reported so far seem to range from misunderstandings
of legitimate differences in meaning to out-and-out ignorance of the
language. "To think [something]" does not actually have quite the same
meaning as "to think to oneself [about something]," as the former suggests
*holding* a belief (in that sense, "I think" is the same as "I believe"),
while the latter refers to the *process* of mulling over a thought, and
sometimes could be rephrased "I was thinking [something or other]." That
is, the phrasing emphasizes the process. It is hard to see a legitimate
gripe with "I thought to myself." (Granted, *sometimes* it may just be a
redundancy; the devil is in the details.) Take a look at the variations
listed under "think" in a good college-level dictionary for a notion of the
shades of meaning that attach to different uses of the word.
On the other hand, some of the examples cited suggest that the speakers
quoted are unschooled in standard English. Others sound like local
dialect. Some are just plain weird.
Interesting mixture of walnuts and lugnuts in this thread. Not both really
in the "nut" family!
Of related interest for wordsmiths (in the U.S., anyway): Brian Garner, A
Dictionary of Modern American Usage.
All IMO FWIW.
Ken
--
Kenneth W. Umbach, Ph.D., Policy Analyst
California Research Bureau, California State Library
900 N St., Suite 300 -- Sacramento, California 95814
E-mail: kumbach@unlimited.net or kumbach@library.ca.gov
Phone (voice) 916-653-6002 (fax) 916-654-5829
Personal Web page and selected papers: http://home.inreach.com/kumbach
This message reflects my opinion, not that of my employer or anyone else.
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