<p>As a regular viewer of Brit TV aka PBS, I’ll defend “went missing” an established idiom.</p>
<p>Even more narrowly idomatic is “go up to” which, I believe, takes only “Oxford” or “Cambridge” as the object.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>I hate hearing a Rhodes scholar say “the quarterback threw under duress.”</p>
<p>“transpired” for “happened” is sloppy but pretty common</p>
<p>====</p>
<p>Anent song lyrics:</p>
<p>I was shocked while flipping through a book of Bob Dylan lyrics that the line is “split up on a dark sad night” [“Tangled Up in Blue”], not “split up on the docks that night” as I had heard it for years.</p>
<p>And the song about “Sister Golden Hair” that I heard 3,498,149 times while driving across the country in 1975 has the lyric “…Sister Golden Hair so bright,” not “Sister Golden Hair surprise.”</p>
<p>Makes me more sympathetic to the chap who thought the Madonna song was “Lack of Urgin’.”</p>
<p>Late to this thread, surprised no one has mentioned mine (count me as one who cringes when he reads so and so is definately applying to Harvard):</p>
<p>OK once and for all, if you are a female and graduated from a school you are an alumna. Several women graduates are alumnae. A male graduate is an alumnus; several men, or a group of men and women together are alumni. It makes my skin crawl when someone refers to himself or herself as an alumni of a school.</p>
<p>I only skimmed this – my number one peeve is here (using “less” when the correct word is “fewer”) – Has the confusion of “advise” and “advice” shown up yet? If not, I’ll add it to the growing list of painful usage errors…</p>
<p>I also hate some of those stupid web abbreviations like ne1, or ru. I confess to actually using quite a number such as LOL, BRB, W T F, (now so common CC’s filters actually block it) BRB, etc. My biggest pet peave is the “urban slang” (I call them “whiggerisms”) that many of you speak of. Since when did cousin become “cousint” with a “t” on the end. Also, boo is used to scare someone, not as a term for someone’s significant other. Also I thought a “diva” was a female opera singer, not a word to describe every female who does anything in the entertainment business. More botherences (word?) are misplacings of the letter “s”. I have to deal with “K-Marts” “Wal-Marts” “JC Penneys” day in and day out. Since when did Illinois start being pronounced Illinois? The ultimate grammar peeve is use of the word “finna” or “finsta.” Example: I am finna go to the sto’ OR I am finsta go to the sto’. Is it that hard to say going to, or even the grammatically incorrect gonna go to???</p>
<p>But let’s not forget the grand English tradition of butchering French pronounciation with perfect grammatical correctness. Ford Maddox Ford and others write about it–a sign of, not quite contempt, but that charming English sense of superiority, as in “All wogs begin at Calais,” which is pronounced “KAL-ay” unlike Calais, ME, which is pronouced “Callous.” Or maybe it’s in VT.</p>
<p>idler, fair enough. My S, who has visited Montpelier (France) went to a Summer camp in Vermont this year. The first time he mentioned the Vermont state capital he was roundly razzed for his mispronunciation.</p>
<p>We butcher Spanish as well. Not too far away from where I live is Refugio (reh-foo-he-oo) which is referred to as Re-fear-ee-o aka the birthplace of Nolan Ryan. :)</p>
<p>In the original Latin, “diva” means a divine woman or simply a goddess. So that can be applied in modern English to just about any field, not just opera.</p>
<p>We have just returned from VT. A plethora of French names, all pronounced in a highly idiosyncratic manner (at least to my ears). Very bewildering experience.</p>
<p>I believe “gone missing” may have to do with soldiers being gone (whether AWOL or not) and then later being (found) missing. In “found missing,” the '“found” has the same meaning as in “the defendant was found guilty” rather than as in “Aha! I found it.”</p>
<p>In Chinese, I’m told, it is not possible to say “I don’t think he’s arrived yet.” The reason is that one cannot not think (nice to know! Cogito, ergo sum turned on its head: sum, ergo cogito)). So one must say “I think he has not arrived yet,” which has a slightly different connotation.</p>
<p>As for the English tradition of butchering French, it’s not a patch on the French butchering English both in usage and pronounciation. My brother does “le footing” which is different from le “foot” (short for football) and seems to mean what you and I would call power walking, though as performed by him, there does not seem to be much power involved; he is a born flaneur. “Le Look” migrated from the fashion lexicon (Dior’s) to political jargon (what we would call “image”). I have not-quite fond memories of riling my oral examiner at the Bac because, while discussing the Pacific War, I tried to pronounce Gen. MacArthur’s name correctly (in anticipation of going to an American college). After she frowned ferociously, I decided I’d rather pass my Bac than be correct, and firmly put out of my mind all the sessions spent in front of the mirror sticking my tongue out in order to produce the “th” sound.</p>
<p>It’s funny how some foreign words and phrases that have entered our lexicon sound silly when pronounced correctly, and yet others must be said properly to avoid sounding like a dunce. For example, I cringe at hearing an entry hall called a “foy-AY” (many realtors seem to have this problem), and of course, no one calls Paris “Pah-REE” in the States unless they’re trying to be funny. On the other hand, if you insist on saying denouement when you mean outcome or resolution, then give it the old French try, and don’t say “denewmint,” as I’ve heard before. And please don’t speak of your “raisin duh etter”</p>
<p>Kingsley Amis, in his hilariously crusty “The King’s English,” a gloss on Fowler, has a long list of French words and their proper (according to K.A.) English pronounciation. Impossible to discern any principles, just a case by case thing.</p>
<p>He also says that the word “whom” is obsolete, except when speaking of the Queen.</p>
<p>You have to have lived in England to know that Beauchamp is pronounced Beecham, Belvoir is pronounced Beaver, Grosvenor Groznor, and so on. As for the battle of Agincourt, go to France via Calais and you’ll see a sign pointing to Azincourt.</p>
<p>idler: I’d need that. As someone who learned French before I learned English, I usually give up and use the French pronunciation (in the rare cases that I actually need to use the word “croissant” in casual conversation, that is). ;)</p>
<p>All sorts of foreign words have taken American pronunciations. Lafayette, IN is pronounced like the French general’s name. In Louisiana, the city is pronounced, “Laugh’-aye-et” and in Alabama, it’s prounounced, “Le-faye’-et.” Have you ever traveled to “My’-lin” (Milan) TN or Nak’-a-dish (Natchitoches) LA? OH has “Roo’-shee” (Russia). Then there was “Bur-bone’-is” (Bourbonnais) IL, officially changed by city edict a few years to the French pronunciation.</p>
<p>Anent fractured French, Missouri includes Creeve Core (Creve Coeur) and Ver-sales (Versailles). Being linguisitcally ecumenical, there’s also New May-drid (New Madrid).</p>
I’m surprised there isn’t an internet abbreviation for fixin’ to. </p>