Before I started this blog, I posted a few times on the Macmillan Dictionary blog, on Google the verb, Geoffrey the subtle salmon, and so forth; in a spirit of connectedness, here is the link.
4 thoughts on “Macmillan dictionary blog: AK archive”
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aha, so, Adam, you have blogged before. I thought it was coming very naturally to you, now we know why.
It is late now and Wolf Hall is over for another week, but I shall look forward to reading about Geoffrey the subtle salmon and Google the ecosystem tomorrow.
Have a good night’s sleep…?
Serena x
So what is the ELF way to say Geoff ?
I was Googling (sorry!) recently to see if I could discover why Pierre Boulez pronounces his name that way rather than Boulay (is poetry allowed in these pages ?) (are these pages ?)
I did not find a clear answer but it seems that there are alternate spellings of “the same” name that would obviously be pronounced so as to rhyme with Les as in Les Dennis.
Usage rules OK, so how Pierre says it (another rhyme !) is how to say it.
I also applaud banning adverbs. I’d throw out adjectives as well, or most of ’em.
If Adam is still listening to BBC Radio 3 he’ll be hearing lots of stuff like this : “The great Austrian composer W. A. Mozart …”
Who listening to Radio 3 is unaware that Mozart is considered great and that he was Austrian ?
On “The great Austrian composer W. A. Mozart …” – do see Geoff Pullum on Dan Brown, here.
Stop hitting me ! I confess ! I read The Da Vinci Code ! I had an ulterior motive. I enjoyed another “best seller” (should that not be “better seller” ? – how can there be more than one ‘best’ ?) “The Holy Blood & The Holy Grail”. I was curious to see how much of it Dan had ripped off. Bet you can’t guess !
I then read Dan’s second novel because I found it hard to believe how bad the first one was.
Another truly terrible thriller : “Gone Girl”.
Don’t read it. My wife suggested I read it so we could compare notes. I’m now reading “Finnegan’s Wake” so I can get my own back. (just joking)