Comments on: Monthly Gleanings: September 2010

By: HarveyP

HarveyP — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:39:09 +0000

I just came across your mention of the “Recombobulation Area” at the Milwaukee airport. We live in Milwaukee and often use the airport. The recombobulation area is just past the security area where travelers have had to take off their shoes, their belts, and whatever else the security people insist on, and perhaps have had to be personally scanned by a security agent with some hand-held gizmo, and also may have had their carry-on luggage opened and messed around. The whole process may well be prudent, but by the time you’ve gone through it, you’re partly undressed and likely out of sorts, and the signs are meant to lighten the mood (and they do). The recombobulation area has a bunch of large benches and tables, and it’s where you can put your clothes back on and reorganize your luggage.

By: Stephen Goranson

Stephen Goranson — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:17:48 +0000

Here’s the verse that equates kibosh and lash, from a broadside–”Penal Servitude!”–thought by John Ferguson (Bibliography of Australia 1390a, in the National Library of Australia Fitzgerald Collection)to be printed in London ca. 1830.

The song, from one found guilty at the Old Bailey and just returned from Australia, includes the text:

There is one little dodge I am thinking,
That would put your profession all to smash,
It would put on the kibosh like winking,
That is if they was to introduce the lash.

Fitzgerald dates it ca. 1830 because another portion seems to reflect agitation before the Reform Bill of 1832. This is additional evidence that kibosh is a Cockney version of the kurbash, a whip or lash.

By: Marian Morgan

Marian Morgan — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:48:18 +0000

hah, grammar mistakes in my post…..yes, I see them.

By: Marian Morgan

Marian Morgan — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:45:21 +0000

I could hardly wait till today to see what your blog offered. You have no idea how much I enjoy reading it. I, too, have been referred to as an antiquated pedant (no one has ever added ‘charming’, I fear). Because I am almost eighty and have grown up with people who spoke English with a large vocabulary grammatically and correctly, then spent much time with those who did not, I learned to ‘go with the flow’. One must never speak down to people, and it often requires a different vocabulary plus the inclusion of idioms, and even some poor syntax, to fit in. However, it pains me terribly to hear the misuse of ‘lay’ and ‘lie’ – so common nowadays.

On that note I shall lay on my sofa for a while to savour the bliss of your lovely blog, and try to contain my anticipation of next Wednesday’s writing.

By: Richard Bell

Richard Bell — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:16:33 +0000

On number concord: I think that in the constructions ‘one in five,’ etc., the subject is not really ‘one’ but the whole noun phrase regarded as a single lexeme. One in five Americans is about 60 million people, after all. Semantically it’s plural. If it were ‘one fifth of all Americans…’ wouldn’t the plural verb be better? ‘One fifth’ is certainly grammatically singular, but ‘one fifth believes’ feels wrong. ‘One in every five believes’ has got to be singular, but ‘one in five believe’ sounds right. There’s something grammatically weird about fractions. ‘Half’ is singular. So ‘Half of them is women’?

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Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:18:26 +0000

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