<p>Perhaps it should be visa and visae? ;)</p>
<p>I thought the multiple of visa was visas.</p>
<p>I’ve looked it up in quite a few dictionaries. Not only England, but also France is calling it a visa. I couldn’t find its French plural (indicating that it is ‘visa’ as well). It seems that only some Northern Continental European countries stick to visum (plural: visa). </p>
<p>I’m a bit confused about the etymology of the word visa. Both the Latin word ‘visum’ (vision, mental image) and the Latin word ‘visus’ (seen, having been seen) are mentioned on Wikipedia. As the international bureaucratic language used to be French (and in a way it still is), I’m inclined to believe that the word ‘visus’ is the real root of the modern word ‘visa’ (short for ‘charta visa’ - charta is a feminine word and therefore ‘visus’ becomes ‘visa’). If this is the case, it doesn’t make sense that we are calling it a ‘visum’.</p>
<p>My apologies for all this.</p>
<p>As for “dreamboat” – that word has been used for at least a hundred years. I think it was popular with teenagers back in the 50’s or thereabouts. I’ve seen scenes in old movies where the girl moons on about some boy being a “dreamboat”. It’s a silly word if you ask me.</p>
<p>This isn’t exactly wrong, but I get super annoyed when people say “No problem”, when I thank them.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard “verse”, but I’ve read a lot of posts on CC lately from applicants who have been “rejected to” various colleges. It bugs me that it bugs me. I’m becoming my parents.</p>
<p>^^Haha. We get you sooner or later!</p>
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<p>It is. Visas is correct. “Visum” is incorrect and is an example trying too hard to wrongly impose Latin noun endings on English words. </p>
<p>“Visa” is of Latin origin, but it’s from a Latin verb, not a noun. It’s the feminine form of vīsere, meaning “to look into.” Related to the verb “videre” - “to see.”</p>
<p>Many English words have lost their original Greek and Latin singular and plural forms and are properly made plural in English by adding an s or es. Examples “virus” and “campus.” Plurals in English are viruses and campuses, not viri and campi or viro and campo as in Latin.</p>
<p>I’m not an expert, but I believe the correct phrase is “get your goat”, and has nothing to do with goads. The explanation I heard was that the phrase came from the world of horse racing in the 1700 or 1800’s. Horses are social, and develop bonds with other animals. The other animals are normally other horses, of course, but not always because race horses are stallions, making both mares and other stallions pretty problematic. In order to keep their nervous race horses calm, their owners/handlers would keep docile farm animals around because they’re smaller, cheaper, and easier to manage. So stealing the goat companion of a race horse was apparently an effective way of disturbing a race horse, and affecting the outcome of his performance. So to get someone’s goat is to annoy or disturb the person. Not saying this is true, but it is what I have heard. </p>
<p>English is such a strange language. The plural of mouse is mice, but the plural of spouse is not spice. We say someone is “uncouth”, but no one is ever “couth”. A teenager might be “ungainly”, but no one is ever “gainly”. How does anyone ever learn this language !</p>
<p>The verse phenom:</p>
<p>Reminds me of the video game when the kids were little. The box said “Mario Bros.” and they always called it Mario Broze. I thought it was a cute misunderstanding, but DS is 19 now and still calls it that.</p>
<p>My D and her friend used to play a video game called Crash Bandicoot in elementary school. There were boxes marked TNT that would blow you up, and she and her friend would yell, “Watch out for the tint!”</p>
<p>But eggmom, the term “bros”(pronounced broze) is used by teenage guys to refer to each other, close friends, teammates, etc. Guys who play lacrosse are called lax bros. So your son may very well know that it’s Mario Brothers, but call it Mario Bros because of that.</p>
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<p>And makes zero sense. When you consider that “beau” means “handsome” or “male suitor,” then logically you see how the term “dream beau” came about-“dream beau” meaning an ideal handsome male companion or boyfriend. Referring to a handsome male as a “dreamboat” makes no sense at all and probably came about as a result of unfamiliarity with the word “beau” and was simply substituted for the closest word from a pronunciation viewpoint. Much like the word “versus” is being adapted to verse due to young people being unfamiliar with the original word.</p>
<p>I found this entry from the Oxford Etymologist to be interesting:</p>
<p>Dreamboat. No examples predating 1944 have been found, and I have not been able to find any quotable information on the word’s origin. As early as 1945, dreamboat was used as the name of a perfectly designed automobile or aircraft. It follows that the meaning “an ideal sex partner” need not have been the original one. Dictionary of American Regional English has dreamboat “a pedal-operated pleasure boat on a small lake or pond.” Such slang phrases as boat ride “a pleasant, leisurely task; an easy task” may have reinforced the figurative meaning of dreamboat, but this is all guesswork.</p>
<p>The term “dis” as in disrespect. The Phila inquirer actually had this in a headline. It really bugs me.</p>
<p>I’ll have to ask kids about verse as this is new to me.</p>
<p>The students where I work don’t converse, they conversate.</p>
<p>When asked, my son said verse is short for versus the same way stat is short for statistics, with either being perfectly acceptable (as he rolled his eyes and gave me that how dumb can you be look).</p>
<p>thanks, lafalum. i am so clueless.</p>
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<p>Seriously?! That’s kind of funny actually.</p>
<p>[Words</a> That Changed Their Meanings](<a href=“http://www.neatorama.com/2009/06/29/words-that-changed-their-meanings/]Words”>Words That Changed Their Meanings - Neatorama)</p>
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As a corollary, it is commonly writtten and spoken that administrators administrate rather than administer.</p>
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My favorite line of the day.</p>
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<p>It’s also common for people to “orientated” instead of “oriented.”</p>