Category: Spelling - Reading the Signs

Search the site

Walk In To The Dictionary

6/4/2015

Walk-ins Welcome

Every year or so, I hear or read about new works being added to the Oxford English Dictionary – many of them are regularly from social media; texting ; or, new computer terminology.

If you want to be distracted on recent additions to the dictionary, you could have a look here or here.

The Chambers Dictionary does not have any entry for ‘walk-in’. Collins Dictionary does list it, but as an adjective.

The Beauty Spot may have deliberately started a campaign to get ‘walk-in’ into the dictionary as a noun based upon regularly use – but then again, maybe not…….

Mistreatment

5/4/2015

I remember a lecturer, many years ago, commenting when spelling a word aloud, ‘m’ as in ‘mnemonics’. Thirty years later, it still floats about my grey matter.

I would often place words such a ‘pneumonic’ and ‘psalm’ in a similar grouping but have not yet created an alphabet of silent first letters. This week in Merchants Quay Shopping Centre, I was reminded as to another candidate for the ‘p’ entry in the dictionary.

If I were in need of treatment for psoriasis, I think I would be a bit more confident of a successful outcome if the practitioner actually used the same spelling as I did.

Maybe that is just me.

Limited Irish

1/4/2015

Yesterday DH sent me this photo taken at Cork University Hospital. DH well knows my interest in signs and matters lost in translation.

It landed on the phone and I got thinking of the word ‘Teoranta’ which I have only seen used in respect of a Limited Company – such as Tinteain Mhuscraí Teo.

I registered a reminder to check the dictionary today as to whether it was used for in a sense of ‘limited supply’. I have learnt that it is.

What I had failed to spot in the photograph was the missing ‘r’ and the missing ‘síneadh fada’ in ‘Páirceáil’.

Once again, the HSE provide the thought for the day….

Sex Change on the Northside

27/3/2015

Another namesign spotted on a walk.

I remember a while back hearing a resident of St. Luke’s Cross referring to Alexandra Road as School Hill – probably a throwback to the old location of St. Patrick’s School.

As for why there is a plaque saying Alexander Road, I have no explanation.

Help.

Pulling The Chocolate Over Your Eyes

25/3/2015

Uniform standards for the Certification of Food Products as Organic, I understand, was introduced in U.S. only in 1990 and the following year in the EU. Fairtrade was launched in 1988 and standard certification was introduced in 2009.

For the purpose of this blog post, the web has provided me with more knowledge on the subjects than I had known before. They both are titles that I had assumed the standard without actually knowing what it means – in exact detail as to standards.

So before the adoption and implementation of uniform standards, any company could claim to be ‘organic’ by their standard which might differ from another – and if their standard differed from mine as a consumer, that was just a matter lost in translation.

It appears that ‘ethically sourced’ is not yet certified and is, somewhat, at the discretion of the company.

When I saw this sign in the English Market earlier today, I thought that there were two possibilities.

Maybe the chocolate is not ethnically sourced but there was a desire to get aboard the ‘ethically sourced bandwagon’ and so a deliberate decision was made to use the word ‘ethically’ rather than ‘ethnically’. Many will not spot the odd word. Most of those who do will assume a typo.

But having read of lack of standardisation regarding ‘ethically sourced’, I do not think it is a deliberate typo – just a normal typo.

p.s. I like the ‘Love & Laughter’

Until Spelling Do Us Part

14/3/2015

Since starting this blog, I have learnt much but have especially learnt not to leap in with both size 9’s.

This sign is on the Gala Shop on Camden Quay. I spotted it last week.

Since then I have learnt that I was wrong – not the sign.

I would have thought that ‘til was the accepted shortening of the word ‘until’ but Chambers do not agree. Collins are on my side though.

Chambers confirmed that ‘till’ is correct and similar to ‘until’.

I do not think I will be using ‘till’ but good to know.

Extensions

2/3/2015

I have blogged on this spelling before.

Working in construction, I thought that cill/sill and lintel/lintol were the two words where the spelling was in the hands of the writer but ‘extension’ may be creeping up….

Discrimination in Dingle

26/2/2015

The owners of the shop, Finn McCool’s, thought that they were deserving of an apostrophe.

They also granted an apostrophe to ‘men’.

‘Ladies’ were not so honoured.

If you know why, you know more than me……..

You might also know why the extra ‘l’ in ‘apparel’…..

An Acknowledgement

22/2/2015

Acknowledgemen Cards

I would have thought that, of all enterprises, a printing company would be one of the most diligent with regard to spelling, grammar and proofreading.

Obviously, I was wrong.

PrintSave have opened recently on Cornmarket St – I hope that they have a spare ‘t’ hanging around. I suspect that every time I head to the Coal Quay Saturday Market, I will be looking o see if the ‘t’ has been added.

More Medical Negligence

19/2/2015

Last Friday was the 13th. Not a day some may select to visit a medical consultant but it was the day that the consultant chose to see me.

Trying to Work Out EBS

17/2/2015

I spotted this sign at the weekend and was planning a blog pondering what EBS were asking me to ‘work out’ (as in resolve).

“workout noun a session of physical exercise or training. See also work out (sense 2) at work.”

Chambers Dictionary

“work out 1 to be successfully achieved or resolved • It'll all work out in the end. 2 to perform a set of energetic physical exercises • She's working out at the gym. See also workout.”

Chambers Dictionary

However, I have now learnt that ‘work out’ and ‘workout’ are interchangeable when referring to resolving or calculating. I am not sure if I know of any other word that can be split in two and retain the same meaning. (Note Collins insist on there being a hyphen as ‘work-out’)

It could be argued that the interchangeability is restricted to use as a verb and so EBS’s use is suspect but one would need a more qualified judge than yours truly for that.

Patience

17/1/2015

Last week, I spotted these signs adjacent to the Mercy Hospital and it reminded me of a story that I heard a while back which I risk sharing.

Frank and Mary were enjoying dinner at a lovely restaurant. The food was great and the conversation was flowing. This was their fifth outing – what some might call their fifth date, but neither had yet used that word.

Both had been single for many years – one widowed, one divorced. Both had thought that they were looking at a solitary life for the rest of their time but then they met at a house party and had begun chatting and got on well.

The follow-up meetings, or dates, all went so well and they appeared to have sufficient interests in common to promote mutual interest as well as other activities to maintain one’s independent life as well as a source of discussion.

All appeared to be going so very well and the topic of possibly living together had been discussed in terms of preferred location and house type. The matter of intimacy, in typical Irish fashion, had not yet been breached. Frank had mentally tussled with how to introduce this into conversation and eventually just decided to go straight for the jugular.

While enjoying the coffee Frank steered the conversation. “Mary, we have not discussed intimacy and love-making.”

Mary took a longer sip from her tea than she had planned and replied, “I like it infrequently.”

Frank paused momentarily before asking, “Is that one word or two?”

The Real Thing

11/1/2015

Marlboro Street, Cork

No Such Thing as Bad Publicity - Chapter 22

Dry Cleaning One’s Vegetables

3/1/2015

Mill Road, Ennis

I suspect that no customer has brought a turnip in to be cleaned – yet.

Sometimes I wonder if some spelling errors are deliberate to provoke debate. I wonder what the reaction might be if I went in and advised of the spelling.

I have not yet been brave enough to try this.

suede noun originally kidskin, but now any soft leather, where the flesh side is rubbed or brushed so that it has a velvety finish.
ETYMOLOGY: 19c: from French gants de Suède gloves from Sweden.

Chambers Dictionary

Swede noun a citizen or inhabitant of, or person born in, Sweden, a kingdom in N Europe.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from Dutch or Low German.

swede noun 1 an annual or biennial plant, widely cultivated in cool temperate regions for its edible root. 2 the swollen edible root of this plant, which has orange-yellow or whitish flesh and a purple, yellow or white skin, and can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable.
ETYMOLOGY: 19c: from Swede; the plant was introduced to Scotland from Sweden in the late 18c, and was originally known as the Swedish turnip.

Chambers Dictionary

Daily Fresh

16/11/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Chapter 17

No it is not a new newspaper.

Just something spotted recently on Devonshire St