XP: Written Word/English Language&Reading Material

I just had a real-life case. I often have lunch sitting at a bar area in a dining room with a friend. He wrote to tell me he was unable to join me as he was at home caring for his wife. He closed by saying...

Keep my stool warm for me...my bar stool, that is.
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. . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Really people: Il y avait un sot avec un sceau dans un seau sur un cheval. Le cheval a tombe avec le sot, le sceau, et le seau. There are others.
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Indeed; a french equivalent to the color of the caller's collar might be "un bon jambon en vin blanc". The difference between -am, -on, -en and -an are very clear to a native speaker in most of France, but subtle and tricky for many English speakers. Including this one.
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If you can remember un bon vin blanc, you'll get all those different sounds. Some of them have two spellings--en et un--may the sentence gets you all the sounds. I learned that one in high school.
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It's a good one, I use it to tune up when I know I'm in for a long spell of speaking French. I've always been fascinated by the difference between how my wife and I hear that phrase, and inversely the caller's collar's color.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Reine, reine,
gueux éveille.
Gomme à gaine,
en horreur, taie.

You people are patzers.
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Where did you find that one?
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I own a copy of Mots d'Heure: Gousses, Rames.

If you google around you can find five or six of them made available by various bloggers.
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Ah, that explains it. It makes no sense in French. The translation I found by googling was, shall we say, willful. Knowing that it's Rain, Rain, go away, explains it.
 
ibeforee.jpg
. . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I'll give you caffeine though.
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Yet the origin explains it all:

caffeine (n.)

Trimethyl-derivative of xanthine, 1830, from German Kaffein, coined by chemist F.F. Runge (1795-1867), apparently from German Kaffee "coffee" (see coffee) + chemical suffix -ine (2) (German -in). So called because the alkaloid was found in coffee beans. The form of the English word may be via French caféine.
 
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I'll give you caffeine though.
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Yet the origin explains it all:

caffeine (n.)

Trimethyl-derivative of xanthine, 1830, from German Kaffein, coined by chemist F.F. Runge (1795-1867), apparently from German Kaffee "coffee" (see coffee) + chemical suffix -ine (2) (German -in). So called because the alkaloid was found in coffee beans. The form of the English word may be via French caféine.
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This is why many of us in the organic chemistry biz pronounce it with a diaeresis, likewise with cocaine.

Mark Lipton
 
Not sure I'm adding anything of value to this discussion, but I've always found it odd that the word "science" violates the full "i-before-e rule." I think that's because it comes from the Latin word 'sciens,' and so is exempt from the usual (stupid, ridiculous) English spelling rules.
 
originally posted by Andrew Zachary:
Not sure I'm adding anything of value to this discussion, but I've always found it odd that the word "science" violates the full "i-before-e rule." I think that's because it comes from the Latin word 'sciens,' and so is exempt from the usual (stupid, ridiculous) English spelling rules.
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Also, and for the same reason, conscience. As a rule of thumb, it helps learning spelling but English has too many foreign imports for it to work as anything more than an approximate rule of thumb.
 
Also interesting...even though conscience and nescience just incorporate "con" and "ne" respectively, the two words are pronounced differently. ˈkän(t)SHəns versus ˈnē-, -sē-ən(t)s

. . . . . Pete
 
In case anyone is wondering...

What is the etymology of the word analysis? Why does it start with anal-?
Joe Devney
Joe Devney, Professional writer and editor, Master's in Linguistics.

The "anal" part is just a coincidence of spelling.

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
"1580s, 'resolution of anything complex into simple elements' (opposite of synthesis), from Medieval Latin analysis (15c.), from Greek analysis 'a breaking up, a loosening, releasing,' noun of action from analyein 'unloose, release, set free; to loose a ship from its moorings,' in Aristotle, 'to analyze,' from ana 'up, throughout' + lysis 'a loosening,' from lyein 'to unfasten.'"
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. . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:
In case anyone is wondering...

The "anal" part is just a coincidence of spelling.

. . . . Pete
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That is just so fucking lame. And wrong. It is ana- + lysis etymologically speaking.
 
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