verbingnouns

Ooh, somebody's bitter, angered, ticked, peeved, annoyed, excedra.

Do you have a problem with the spelling, or the pronunciation?

The pronunciation: I've never seen anyone spell it that way, but if I did, I would have a problem with that too.

Christin, you are in the South. Many of us are merely repeating what we've heard our entire lives. I promise, they aren't trying to upset you on purpose. Byd'way, jyeetyet?

Actually...
Sorry to be negative on my first post, but "expresso" is actually an accepted alternate form. At least according to dictionary.com. :) But seriously I don't like acting that smart. I only knew that because I had to check it myself a while back. You have a cool blog. Are we related? I attend Westminister in Kingsport, TN, and you're a graduate of New St. Andrews...the reformed circles are so intertwined I'm sure we've run across each other before. Or I know someone who knows someone who loves you. I linked here from honi's blog. Anyway it looks like I'll be spending a while reading your blog...with an edgy picture like that how could I refuse?

I'm sure we at least know some of the same people. I go to Auburn Ave. Presbyterian. Surely you know someone from there, huh? I don't know Honi either, but I kept seeing her linked by people I know, so I figure there must be a connection somewhere.

And I still object to the word expresso, even if it is technically acceptable ; )

Well I won't fight you for it, I like drinking espresso anyway it comes. :)

Looks like I'll be a regular reader now...somehow...

First, I'm not sure I really care what dicitionary.com says because it's an American thing. The word espresso is an Italian word that is deffinitely not pronounced expresso.

Second I'm really a fan of supposably.

I love dictionary.com. I go there several times a week, though I'll admit it's no Oxford English Dictionary.

I say supposably a lot. I said it as a joke at first, but now I find myself saying it in regular conversation and realizing later that whoever I was talking to must think I'm uneducated.

if it is possible to over-annunciate something, i do it with et cetera.

Irregardless, one should not ever say "expresso" when ordering a single shot, a double shot, or whatever shot. Forgive my poor attempt at humor with my use of "irregardless", there are 4,000 comedians out of work and I am trying to be one. I should just stick to my studies :).

so is expresso minus the presso?

Okay, so what's the prob with supposably?

Also, regarding espresso, who cares how its pronounced in Italy? Since when has foreign usage necessarily dictated English usage. This should be immediately evident upon even the most cursory investigation, but some examples might help: Mexico or Meh-hee-koh? Garbage or gar-Bahzj? Aluminum or al-Yoo-mihn-ee-uhm? Japan of Nihongo?

p.s. speaking of irregardless, did you know that to unthaw means to thaw?

I have the same pet peeve. Thanks for posting the PSA.

As something of an inside, on the English language, I've beat that horse around the bush with the red-headed step child as an English tutor at school, and I say maybe we should just throw confections to the wind and say whatever we want in long run-on sentences if we defer since you can never no for certainly how things are supposably to be said and accordion to this e-mail I posted on my blog you might not even have to:

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According to this...it really doesn't matter if you can spell or not!

On the paomnnehil pweor of the hmuan mind:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

amzanig huh?
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I say we get a little Tolkien with it and let language evolve...hopefully there will be enough smart people to counter eubonics, but language is merely an expression. Or at least I think it should be. It's when it becomes a science that I feel darwinized.

:) yes I've been reading too much Scott Adams

Yeah, but I bet you pronounce the "cet" of et cetera like "set". Most people do. If you're going to be picky about how it is said, perhaps you should go back to latin and have "et keh-ter-ah"

Language does evolve. No question about it. But by being as careful as we can with the meanings, pronunciations, spellings, uses, et cetera of words, we allow our language to be as useful as possible for as long as possible for the purpose of language: COMMUNICATION. Babel happened because of a curse. Might that teach us that it would be better for language not to become so confused?

And here's some trivia. Et is Latin for and. The ampersand (&) is an adjoined E and T -- et. So sometimes you'll see &c; rather than etc.