h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Then for tea you could have roasted chestnuts!

Just having a grouse about reports of someone's death. I've seen several recently that say 'so&so sadly died'. Quite likely they were sad to die, but shouldn't it read 'Sadly, so&so died'?

Sadly - so&so HAS died (or passed away), even perhaps. Sadly s&s died could also describe their death as sad . . . I never know what to say though - "passed away" is gentler, but seems so pretentious, but "died" just seems so blunt . . . . .

I've never been very sad about deaths . . . just personal belief stuff so I'm maybe not appropriately sad about it - but when you hear news reporters mention that someone "died", it just seems so clinical.

I know what you mean about being clinical or euphemistic, there doesn't seem to be a suitable midpoint.

Some deaths seem sadder than others - depends on your personal involvement, age of deceased & manner of death.

Which brings us back to "hopefully" -

"So and so has hopefully passed his exams". Why has this word recently changed its meaning? Are people just too lazy to say "I hope so and so has passed his exams". Or do they mean, "So and so has passed his exams. He was hoping he would"

TC,

Again you have highlighted one of my pet peeves: the hated "hopefully".

The customary Anglo-American usage is the perverted opposite of the apparent juxtaposition of subject / verb and adverb; simultaneously defying grammar and embracing ambiguity.

- quotation from respected local founder of "Fruits in Suits".
Hopefully has now fully changed to meaning 'I hope', so much so that 'to travel hopefully is better than to arrive' has lost its force. I think the change came from America because of the large number of German speakers who thought they were saying 'hoffentlich'

hoffentlich - pronounced hopefully?
Miss Saigon - pronounced success!
Why do foreigners struggle with English?

Freud: some pronounce him "Froyd" and some "Frood". I pronounce him fraud.

I can't remember who said that, but my father used to quote it regularly.

"Fruits in Suits"

What a great name.
I'd not heard of it before. Most of the links I found seem to be in Australia and New Zealand - but there are not all that many suits in the photos.
Have you now abandoned the inscrutable orient for the slightly less obscure orient?

My fruity friend (who was a first class ugly sister last year) came from OZ originally.We are both scutably still in Honkers

Scutably?

But even with this change of meaning, the word order in "So and so has hopefully passed his exams" seems wrong to me. I would still interpret that as meaning that "so and so" was hopeful. I would expect to see the adverb detached from the verb in this case:

"Hopefully so and so has passed his exams."

Mind you, just as with infinitives (look, see, I reopened an old chestnut), I tend to try to avoid splitting the compound verb under any circumstances.

I'm curious about the etymology of the word 'volume', when used in connection with 'magnitude of sound' and 'capacity'

Googling << etymology "the word volume">> returns only 10 hits, none of which look promising, although I have learned that volume "is derived from the Old French term of the same name, which was borrowed directly from the Latin volumen meaning a coil, wreath, or roll as in a manuscript. This meaning comes from the Latin volvere to turn around or roll"


Googling <> returns "about 48,600" hits, the 1st 30 of which seem to be focussed on 'sets of books' (comprised of volumes) and, for some reason, books get quite a bit of coverage on the internet

Anyhow, as I'm reluctant to trawl through the other 48,570 pages, I thought I'd ask here



Speak up!

Just a quickie going back to plurals.

The business request you to...
The business requests you to...

Since the business is a single entity (albeit made up of many people) then there is only one request, not many. So surely it should be the first one? The meaning of business here is a particular department we do work for.
Or am I getting hopelessly lost again?

You're getting hopelessly lost.

Request in this case is a verb. Since the business is singular, you should use the singular, third person form of the verb, which is "requests".

You would say "he requests", so it should be "the business requests".

Thanks Gnomon!

I have noticed that even news announcers on the BBC get this wrong - especially if they are talking about a trade union or political party. "The Labour Party want..." rather than the Labour Party wants..."

I think it would be a bit pedantic to correct it in a conversation but on the News.

It's acceptable in modern British English to treat groups such as the Labour Party, the company etc as both singular and plural depending on which sounds best.

The Labour Party is an historic institution.
The Labour Party are a crowd of leftist idiots.

Only a pedant would insist on:

The Labour Party is a crowd of leftist idiots.

In the context of this particular thread define, "a pedant" and "modern British English," innit.