<p>No matter who is being referred to, eminence takes the feminine (I’d put in the acute accent on eminence but for some reason that would truncate my post).</p>
<p>The Cardinal de Richelieu was known as the Red eminence. His aide, a Capuchin monk, who therefore wore grey robes, was his eminence grise. </p>
<p>If I used the term “auctorial,” I’d likely qualify as a pedantic chandelier.</p>
<p>Touchee. “grise” it is…funny, I actually thought about it and then decided to go for conventional agreement. I hold no brief on French usage and grammar. :)</p>
<p>Once, after I ordered in a French restaurant, the waiter merely bowed almost imperceptibly and said, “Very good, monsieur. And how would you like your tractor broiled?”</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve given up on accents on most websites.</p>
<p>
I suppose it is barely possible that we have been misled, that the “monk” was actually a woman in service of the Church & State and therefore “grise” was correct in the conventional sense? No? I’m sure Dan Brown might provide some illumination.</p>
<p>I’d say that, after our kids and spouses, CC parents love language the most.
Rock on!</p>
<p>I have a problem with the word “finalize.” I hear this at least once a day at work. For some reason the people who use this word are the ones who have never finalized anything. I guess this word usually means to complete or to implement. Often it is seems to be used when a committee has a half-baked proposal and is waiting to see if it will be approved by upper management.</p>
<p>My two least favorite words are “ah” and “er.” You almost never see these words in written communications, but many people sprinkle these words generously into oral communications. I do admit I sometimes find amusement value in these words. When I am really bored during during meeting or presentation, I count them. It is common to find the frequency to be from 12 to over 20 times per minute. The ah-er syndrome is often most noticeable for the nervous public speaker. Apparently, stress interferes with the ability of the brain to connect with the vocal apparatus. The ah’s and er’s are used to fill in the uncomfortable delays. Once the habit starts, even experienced public speakers often rely on them. Friday I sat through a full day presentation by an experienced sales representative. This rep was obviously experienced and the presentation was well rehearsed. Even so, I was able to count a minimum of 12 ah-er’s/minute. Most listeners seem to be immune to the ah-er syndrome. I will warn you that, once you start to pay attention to this syndrome, you will have a hard time ignoring the ah-er’s. If you are sitting at a meeting and someone notices that your notes are full of hash marks, it is best not to explain why.</p>
<p>Flair and flare …
Pique and peak – not to mention peek.</p>
<p>TheDad:</p>
<p>LOL. No, eminence is feminine. Docteur is masculine, no matter who wields the stethoscope. Ditto Mme le professeur, and a slew of other words denoting occupations (who said the French were not sexist?)</p>
<p>The monk in question was Francois Leclerc du Tremblay. Here’s a painting of him by Gerome (in the Boston MFA).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=91[/url]”>http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=91</a></p>
<p>But surely, “ah” and “er” are far preferable to “you know” and “like”. No?</p>
<p>re; ah, and er:</p>
<p>I had a Latin teacher who ended practically every sentence with “n’est-ce pas?” We were so mesmerized by her quirk that we did not pay attention to what she was actually trying to convey. She flunked 2/3 of the class on the first quiz. We learned to disregard all those “n’est-ce pas.”</p>
<p>I once had a Physics prof who said “You see” as a verbal tic. We once clocked him at 81 times in 27 minutes. I struggled to get a “B” in the course but that had nothing to do with not paying attention.</p>
<p>Marite: who said the French weren’t sexist? Not me. Vive la difference.</p>
<p>I had a profesora at the University of Salamanca who ended every sentence with “vale?” (sorry, don’t know how to make the inverted question mark on my laptop), which, when used with the interrogative inflection, is basically a slang filler meaning “Do you know what I mean? Do you agree? Are you with me?” etc. and is derived from the infinitive “valer,” which means “to have value or worth.” We all took to counting each “vale,” and the only time in my entire life that I was kicked out of class was for laughing out loud during one of her lectures when a classmate passed me a note: “Esta mujer vale mucho pero no vale mucho” – “This woman says “vale” a lot but she’s not worth much.”</p>
<p>I believe George Bush must spell the word nuclear as nucular.
Every time I hear him say that word, I want to scream!!!</p>
<p>Ah, said teacher clocked in at 54 “n’est-ce pas” in one hour. But grading in Latin was such (2 points off for solecisms and 4 points off for barbarisms–words that don’t exist in either Latin or French) that half the class ended with negative scores. On a scale of 20, one student got a -36. The principal made her give us another test, but it did not cure her of her verbal tic.</p>
<p>Ah. Speaking of Bush and therefore politics, “Democrat” used as an adjective.
As in, “the Democrat party.” </p>
<p>I suppose I shouldn’t complain: it gives me an opportunity to nail the users as illiterate and ignorant. But it’s a small-caliber shot and I’d rather direct my fire to more important issues.</p>
<p>“nucular” is bipartisan; both G.W.Bush and Jimmeh Carter burn my ears with it</p>
<p>I believe the usage “nucular” is regional, covering the southern US as far west as Texas. To my knowledge, it does not extend as far west as New Mexico and Los Alamos; I could be wrong, in which case I must entertain the image of the nation’s first nuclear scientists mispronouncing their profession.</p>
<p>I think we Democrats should start talking about the Republic Party. It has a nice ring doesn’t it? ;)</p>
<p>How about knowing the difference between “jive” and “jibe?”</p>
<p>^^or knowing the difference between flout and flaunt, as in “flout the rules.”</p>
<p>Who has read about a historical period known as Midevil? One so-called because every one was middle-aged then? I kid you not.</p>
<p>Not to hijack the thread from spelling to grammar, but I can’t resist…</p>
<p>When I say “Thank-you” to anyone under the age of 30, the usual response is “Yeah” or “Yup”. What is that supposed to mean!!! Whatever happened to “You’re welcome”?</p>