Category: Spelling - Reading the Signs

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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

Silencing The Drum

14/11/2014

Corcomroe, Co. Clare

The drum may have
been silenced,
the strings of the lyre
may have been loosened,
but the song of the skylark
cannot be stopped.

May his spirit live on.

On our visit to Corcomroe Abbey, I did take a stroll around the cemetery.

This was added to my list of inscriptions that provoke contemplation – even some months later.

It reminds me of the scene in Jean de Florette that remains readily accessible in the brain when they stop the clock – the first time such a custom registered with me. A custom I like.

Using Protection

23/10/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Chapter 12

When I read the sign on the van, it didn’t look right and it didn’t sound right. It still doesn’t.

The Health & Safety Authority uses the term ‘Personal Protective Equipment’ – as does Wikipedia, the Health & Safety Executive in the United Kingdom, and even Centres for Disease Control & Prevention in their recent Ebola notices.

When one asks Google with regard to “Personal Protection Equipment”, one is asked in return ‘Did you mean: "Personal Protective Equipment"’.

The M J Scannell website describes them as specialising in Personal Protection Equipment – so maybe it is ok to have two consecutive nouns.

After all it is used for ‘protection money’…….

“protection noun 1 the action of protecting or condition of being protected; shelter, refuge, cover, safety or care. 2 something that protects. 3 (also protectionism) the system of protecting home industries against foreign competition by taxing imports. 4 colloq a the criminal practice of extorting money from shop-owners, etc in return for leaving their premises unharmed; b (also protection money) the money extorted in this way. 5 insurance cover. protectionist noun.”

Chambers Dictionary

An Irish Day

22/10/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Ch. 11

Today is further proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing………..and that I have too much time on my hands.

While enjoying my coffee at the weekend, I had to run out to photograph the coach.

DAILY: At first, I did wonder why they did not use ‘daily’ but then I thought that the tours did not happen every day and so that this may be misleading

BUT…… Chambers Dictionary also defines DAILY as ‘relating to a single day’. After some deliberation over the remainder of my coffee, I became convinced that as they must have spent some time thinking of the words to place on the coach, the selection was considered and deliberate so there had to be a reason why they used the word ‘DAY’, and then I had my Eureka moment.

The wanted to make sure that any potential customer was fully aware that the tour was for an ‘Irish Day’ as opposed to an ‘English Day’, a ‘French Day’ or even ‘an American Day’.

Whatever day you are having yourself, have a good one.

“daily adj 1 happening, appearing, etc every day, or every day except Sunday, or now often every day except Saturday and Sunday. 2 relating to a single day. adverb every day; every weekday. noun (dailies) 1 a newspaper published every day except Sunday. 2 colloq a person, usually a woman, who is paid to come in and clean and tidy a house regularly, but not necessarily every day. 3 (dailies) cinematog the rushes.
ETYMOLOGY: Anglo-Saxon dæglic.”

Chambers Dictionary

Not a Strange And

5/10/2014

I always understood the sign that looked a bit like the number 7 to be just Irish shorthand for &. It would regularly have been used in school.

Its most common use now would be in ‘P ˥ T’ on post boxes. It would also be on Civil War/War of Independence Memorials.

Thanks to Sentence First, I now know it is a Tironian et.

Still learning every day.

Bandon

Kinvara

Legless in Dingle

30/9/2014

When at the Dingle Aquarium, we did not spot any starfish regenerating their legs but I thnk we spotted an extra ‘o’ floating around the place.

Made by Maids

30/7/2014

With thanks to Joan for the submission

It appears that in Wisconsin that the sweets are made at home by the maids.

Or is this another example of American English………

Raison d'être

26/7/2014

When Doc forwarded these photographs to me last week, I could not wait to get to a French – English dictionary to see if Rum had a different meaning in French a so possibly creating an ice cream for philosophers.

Alas, Rum translates as Rum so another possible blog withered down to this.

An Affront to Self

6/7/2014

I would have been with the likes of Ted O’Driscoll Joinery, Crossan Joinery, Lohan Joinery, and also Meath County Council.

To me the timber or plastic surrounding the window in a commercial premises is a shopfront. It is not a shop front.

I spotted this sign last weekend in Carrick-On-Shannon and was planning a blog on the wisdom of using a sign-writer who puts in gaps in words that they write.

I am glad that I checked the online dictionaries before continuing too far with that planned blog.

Maybe it is my construction training, maybe it is my sense of being right, but I find it difficult to accept shopfront as being an incorrect spelling. It might go in the same folder as window sill and window cill – that of multiple spellings in regular use.

Or maybe I will have to accept that I was incorrect……

“Sorry, no results for “shopfront” in the Collins English Dictionary.”

Collins Dictionary

“Sorry, no entries for shopfront were found.”

Chambers Dictionary

Stationary affects.....

1/7/2014

Early Saturday morning in Manorhamilton, I did stand stationary taking this photograph but am still at a loss as to how Party affects Toys.

As the shop is now closed down, maybe this riddle, or telling the public to stop, put off potential customers.

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity - Ch. 10

27/6/2014

I suppose that if you are looking to have work done on your bike, you are probably more concerned with their ability as a mechanic rather than their spelling.

I sometimes wonder if anyone might deliberately include a misspelling in a sign to make it more memorable or to have the likes of me comment on it

Or maybe it is to trap anyone who might call in to comment and allow the owner to ‘go spare’ or accuse the pedant, like me, of being a ‘spare’