Pet Peeve, Cavalry and Calvary

[John Barleycorn]

CAVALRY is a mounted military unit.  CALVARY is the name of the location where my Lord and Savior died. ehhh,  Just a pet peeve of mine  it drives me nuts when used incorrectly.

[E.R.Beaumont]

Well Pard we know you ain't lisdixic.

[Goatlips]

Not like loose and lose, though. 

Goatlips

[Advertising]

[Be-A-triss Bandit]

Right on!
My dad was a minister and always made a point of that.  One of my pet peeves, too.  Just as Armaggedon is a place not an event.  Revelation 16:16
BB

[Camille Eonich]

Let's shoot this over to the saloon and see if you can get more discussion on it.

[Delmonico]

Well the problem is our durn mongrel pieced together language we speak here in this country.

The soldier who was about to desert ate his dessert in the desert.

[Books OToole]

That deserter was leaving the Calvary because they didn't serve pasketti.

Books

[Be-A-triss Bandit]

And another of my peeves is the use of "bullet" in popular language denoting a cartridge rather than a component thereof.

[Dr. Bob]

BB,

I'm sure with you on that one.  Man, it's ammo or cartridge.  Bullets are the projectile portion of a cartridge, or round of ammunition!

[Coop Trawlaine]

Here is another of those common grammatical errors   "your  or is it you're?"  One you own the other you are "there - where?"


Language and its usages can be a real pain because it's so confusing....

[St. George]

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France (Surprise!). Sweetmeats are Candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

P.S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Sgt. Manse Jolly]

John Barleycorn,

Yea, this is a common mistake and I gree that there is a great difference! There is a pastor on the radio I listen to as often as I can he uses the word "Cavalry" for "Calvary". My son and I cringe eveytime he says it.

[The Elderly Kid]

My favorite pet peeve recently is the word "wreaked" as in "Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on New Orleans." There is no such word as wreaked. The past tense of "wreak" is "wrought." Does anyone here have a wreaked iron fence? Did Morse telegraph "What hath God wreaked"? Yeah, it's a hybrid language, but there's no need to make things worse.

[Be-A-triss Bandit]

So much!  I'm getting brain-lock.
Why is it my late wife came from Korea and learned to cope with the oddness of American English (although she laughed and shook her head sometimes) and people who grew up here can't use correct verb tenses?

[Delmonico]

You can add another one, "Point Blank Range."  Was watching a Cops type show earlier while I worked upstairs, they had a robbery when they said the gun was held at "point black range" the video showed the suspect holding the gun about 6 inches from a clerk.

Point Black range it the distance that a target can be hit with a firearm without hold over or hold under.  It varies with the size of the target and the trajecory of the bullet.  My 243 when I sight it for deer hunting has a point blank range of about 0-250 yards, My 375 Winchester has from 0-125.  My Sharps 45-70 has about 150-250 by the way I sight it. 

So yes they were right, that distance was point blank range, but the narrator had it out of context because 25 yard would have also been within point blank range.

[Judge Jake McCord]

And another of my peeves is the use of "bullet" in popular language denoting a cartridge rather than a component thereof.

Mine too.

However, you don't hear very much about "automatic revolvers" these days, so there's some improvement! 

Judge Jake

[Guns Garrett]

A friend of mine had two pet peeves - one was "irregardless" - no such word - if so it would mean "not regardless" or rather, "with regard"

Another was the word forte - if spelled with an accent over the "e" (I don't know how to insert one), and pronounced "for-tay", it is a musical term signifying to play certain notes louder or stronger.  The most common error is for people to use the same pronunciation to signify a strong point or area of knowledge ("That's not my 'for-tay'").  This is incorrect usage.  The word can be used this way used, but in this case mis-pronounced.  In this instance it would be prounced "fort" - the "e" is silent.  I believe some of the newer dictionaries show either pronunciation for this use.
Language evolves - When I was in school, "ain't" was forbidden, because "it isn't a word in the dictionary" - Well, now it is.

[Judge Jake McCord]

I find it very annoying when news people speak of a murder committed in the course of another violent felony as being a robbery or a burglary "gone wrong". As if it was something other than "wrong" to begin with! 

Judge Jake

[Be-A-triss Bandit]

Another case of common usage being legitimized is the adverb "hopefully" as a disjunct.  "Hopefully, my ankle will heal quickly."  It is in Webster as acceptable now, much to my chagrin.  It just grates after a lifetime of being told "I hope" is correct in that sentence.

[Be-A-triss Bandit]

Judge Jake,
I know what you mean about the media applying "automatic" to any firearm to make is sound like a sinister, assassin's machinegun.  Ooooooh.
The Brits did issue a semiautomatic revolver about the end of the 19th century.  But, who besides a handful of nuts like us know that?  Certainly not the average guy on the street.  Uh oh, there's one of my adjucts again.