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

I don't think Duncan did make up the 'law of pedantic reverberation', I contend that he discovered it.
It's very easy to pronounce on some subjcet and make up a law (which isn't self-supporting, e.g. the legal profession).
It is much more of an achievement to observe, discover and explain a phenomonen. The law of pedantic reverberation does exist - it's not made-up. This posting is probably an excellent example of it, as the discussion bounces back and forth to the Nth degree. Well done Duncan.
So, I know 'doctorate', but not 'doctorinate' ?

Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1947

Or so it says in the dictionary.
There is also a "chadless punch" intoduced in the 50s which had a cutter like a philips screwdriver and folded the resultant 4 pie shapes in on themselves...which sould have saved the lawyesr the incongruity of talking about "pregnant chads" in front of the world's media.

Aegilops is a type of wheat. If you think this isn't a proper word, then you'll have to settle for a shorter word. The best one is Chintz, because it has no repeated letters and is generally accepted English, rather than a foreign word. Chintz seems to be loosely defined as "what you don't get in IKEA".

Indoctrinate, not indoctorinate. Derived, the former that is, from 'doctrine' - what is taught, principle of political or religious belief. My own definition of doctrine is 'that which when identified should be quarantined'.

I will go along with confetti for the little round unholes, at least in colloquial British usage. Where does confetti come from ? US, Italy ?
Why is confetti thrown at weddings ?
Wasn't rice thrown instead at some point in the past ?
What did they throw before they had confetti and could pop down to the local supermarket and buy a bag of rice ?

Confetti at weddings seems to be a bit of confusion between throwing petals on the brides path (Hindu?) to signify her purity and throwing rice on the married couple (Chinese?) to bless the marriage with good harvests evermore....or that's what I think the story was anyhow...

Sorry to interrupt everyone's train of thought, but I have a problem I can't sort out.

I want to put a link to the last posting of the British English thread on my page. But when I try, I get an unhelpful error message. I don't think it likes the ampersand. Or something.

I have no problem bookmarking the link in my - er, thingy (can't think of the word, something to do with explorer or netscape).

Any help appreciated. Oh, and Chad is a country; I think they should sue for defamation.

I am fearless when it comes to being wrong, but those nice efficient (joke! Have you tried?) Scandinavians appear to have misinterpreted the word. Chintz actually refers to a finish that is put on cotton to make it a little shiny. So you can get a chintz material in a plain colour. It is just that when the process was most widely used, the fashion then was for floral prints etc., hence the misuse.

is how my name arose!

Derivation please. Doesn't look English,does it? Is it one of those slightly altered place names? Like denim from de Nimes and damask from Damascus.
I hadn't appreciated that it was just the finish. Makes more sense of Betjeman"s "Chintzy,chintzy cheerfulness,half dead and half alive"

Arose by any other name would smell! Ah, sweet! K: Does this work??

Is 'How' your name? Mine is not 'Arose'.
Fearlessly erroneous? Phenomenally erroneus? You seem to have suffered an attack of ee cummings.

eroneous pheronomes (bad smell)

a rose was an intentional sort of a pun thing by any other name

i am subscribing to the non punctuation school of ms cummings for a while as it makes life so much easier and i live in fear of peet

i don't think ee was a ms i think he was a mr

Aren't parentheses punctuation?

Yes - but when Internet v2 is released, as well as the current smillies there will be smellies too. When that happens the (bad smell) from this thread will be overpowering

would you like some tea with those chads?saw a reference to chad eating ballot counters the other day.surely the laws of pedantic reverberation must follow the laws of acoustics,phaseing itself out from time to time or reinforceing it self in other areas.do`nt mind being correctted btw.still consider myself to be a student of the english language.oh and i do`nt useally languish long.rice throwing is by some being frowned upon,seems its hard on the pidgins,thank you all for the deeper understanding

I'd have thought throwing a bag of rice would be hard on the bride and groom - especially if you hit them on the back of the head.
Seems like punctuation these days is just a new form of spelling

What about all those new forms of spelling that have apeared with the rise of text messaging on mobile phones, w%d, c%d for would and could and MbR$d, embarrassed. Not suprisingly the people who have created this dictionary are a the mobile internet people Genie.

Thanks for the help, DJ. Alas, what you suggested is what I already tried. It was rudely rejected by h2g2.

Chad is an anagram of dach, which is part of the name of a species of animal that I'm no longer allowed to mention on this thread.

Well, it seems such a girly thing to do. (In poetry, I don't mean you James)