These are two commercial units on Shandon Street. Maybe they want to discourage the Southsiders from taking out their passports to cross over. Maybe English is not the first language of the business owner and so not a bad guess – it happens. If so, maybe this is how words enter the dictionary. Or maybe they do fit barbs and spikes to their customers…. | barb - definition noun barb noun 1 a point on a hook facing in the opposite direction to the main point, which makes it difficult to pull the hook out. 2 a humorous but hurtful remark. 3 one of the threadlike structures forming a feather's web. verb (barbed, barbing) to fit or provide something with barbs or a barb. See also barbed. |
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Last week, having a morning meeting in North County Dublin, I spend the night in Skerries and had an enjoyable hour the following morning walking around the town and beach – expect more from there than this blog entry.
There are four signs on the toilet block on the beach road and they did provide some opening for thought: Irish appears more consistent than English What are ‘Mens’? Who proofread that sign? Am I the first person to read the sign and be puzzled by ‘Mens’? I had thought that the Irish on public signs needed to be at least as large and prominent as the English – on this occasion, size does not appear to equal right. I think that this is the third blog post hereabouts on the simple Thank You – Céad Míle Fáilte. This one started when I was heading over town for lunch one day last month. I spotted two gents standing next to the ‘Céad Mile Fáilte’ sign, which had not been there the day before. I was walking past but backtracked a bit to advise them of the missing fada. Their English accents suggested that they were not well versed in the Irish language. Their expressions when I tried to explain the elongated sound ‘meee-le’ needing a fada suggested that they had not much interest in becoming well versed. I made matters as simple as I could and said the mark over the ‘a’ on the first line ought also to be over the ‘I’. They had the fada in the van and my intervention avoided its return, unused, to UK. The following day, passers-by may well have been impressed with Holland & Barret promoting Gaeilge – and error free. My work there is done. Is ‘Artisanal’ a recognised word? After my lunch inside today, I stopped and chatted with the lady writing up the new sign outside the door of the Natural Foods Bakery. The word looked odd to me. I had quickly checked Chambers and Collins online – neither had ‘artisanal’ in the dictionary. When I mentioned this to the message writer, it sounded even worse when I pronounced it as ‘art-is-anal’. I was told that ‘artisanal’, pronounced ‘r-tis-in-al’, is a word used by many small craft bakers and food producers and would be regularly observed at the likes of Farmers’ Markets. My (limited) web searching this evening did find many Irish ‘artisan’ producers but no ‘artisanal’ but it was interesting to note that ‘artisanal’ is in the MS Word dictionary as well as many online dictionaries including Wiktionary, Free Dictionary, and Dictionary.com. That quote included in an earlier blog - “Words are in dictionaries because they exist – they do not exist because they are in dictionaries” Máire Nic Mhaoláin – once again may be appropriate. Once more the spelling skills of those involved in construction caused me to stop and record. The word ‘opening’ has long been shortened to ope when used on building sites, as in forming or creating an ope (opening) for the likes of a door or window. This is the first time I have seen a requirement for a new ‘Old Aged Pensioner’ on a building site.
Then Eureka, Mr McCarthy does not call it rithmetic in class. It is mathematics. Or is it matemathics. He was sure there was a ‘h’ in the word but as to where it went, he was no nearer getting something written on the page.
Then he remembered first class when big words like rithmetic, matemathics or even mathematics were not used. Relief at last. Shorter words are much easier. The words written on that blank page were: Mick O’Keeffe – SUMBS I spotted this van on Patrick’s Street yesterday and it immediately reminded me of the story of Mick O’Keeffe. I imagined the thought process when considering what to write on the van. There was something at the back of his mind that when a word ended in ‘f’, the plural changed the ‘f’ to ‘ve’. He remembered the example of ‘hoof’ and ‘hooves’. On that basis, it should be ‘Rooves’ but that didn’t look exactly perfect. Neither did ‘roofs’ because the ‘v’ was too prominent in the brain. Just like Mick, Eureka struck with the idea to introduce an apostrophe – sure, no one will know the difference. Wrong – there is at least one looking for flying apostrophes!! I always understood that it was two separate words – Land Rover. The Land Rover website does confirm this. It does make one wonder as to how much of a specialist they might be. Is it actually a specialist of Land Rover vehicles? A while back I was thrown somewhat that the word ‘till’ is in some dictionaries as a shortening of ‘Until’. I spotted this sign on Blarney Street and was wondering if ‘Untill’ had made an appearance – Chambers and Collins say no, so far. I suppose the customers will get the message regardless of the spelling. ‘Launderette’ was, and continues to be, one of those play words among our family members. ‘Minestrone’ is not pronounced ‘Min Ess Throw Neigh’. It rhymes with stone and is simply ‘Mine Strone’. Elsewhere an egg may be boiled, hereabouts it becomes a ‘baldy egg’ I am sure that there are a few more that will only come to mind after I hit the ‘post’ button. ‘Launderette’ is pronounced as ‘Lawn Der Et eeee’ as if to rhyme with the former Chelsea goalkeeper, Peter Bonetti. Maybe it is because of this word play, but I have never had difficulty with the spelling of these words. But if ‘Launderette’ is to be misspelled, I would have thought ‘Launderet’ was more probable than ‘Launderett’, but I was wrong.
No Such Thing as Bad Publicity - Chapter 24 They may well build perfect pillars but I am not sure I would trust their spelling enough to ask them to engrave it. It appears that they are specialists in only one wall – if this wall is already built, not a lot of comfort for a new customer. It appears that candidates do not need to be ‘experinced’ in spelling ‘experienced’. They may need the experience to distinguish between a ‘Poter’, ‘Porter’, ‘Potter’ and ‘Poster’ when all the clues are unavailable. I suspect anyone who can determine what a ‘dynamic tean team’ might be is a shoe-in for employment. I used to go for a haircut.
For some time, I have realised that reseeding is a word used for grass and receding is the word that applies to my head – thus rendering the scissors useless, replaced by a couple of minutes with a razor. Head shave is my present and my future. Last week, as well as my head shave, I also spotted a new variation on the alternatives for Coburg Street. |
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