Pronunciate. *ZAP*

On 3-11-99, you wrote: "This discution reminds me on some words that
usually puzzels me a little when I'm reading English: aestetics and
inhabitate, after they seams to me they have negating prefixes to the
Spanish cognate: est=E9tica and habitar.  Even more, in Spanish, the word
"inhabitable" means a place you can not live in."

not to criticise a non-native speaker, but it's "aesthetics" and "inhabit."
Inhabitate is a predictable error, but is considered painful to the ear
(much like the common error ironical - which I have seen in the newspaper!
is a most egregious error for ironic, adv. ironically. It's a parsing=
 error).

What does este'tica mean? The opposite of aesthetic? Is there an opposite
to aesthetic? The English term is used to refer to a style, mood, or
feeling, usually in reference to some artistic endeavour. It's not a word
used in daily discourse, and its exact meaning is unclear to many people.
Like me.

On a different, note, I am a US citizen. I wasn't even aware of the
difference between inflammable and flammable until now - how's that for
ironical (heh heh). I also come from RI, where people say nucular for
nuclear. Yes, they do. The whole damn state. I didn't even know I was
making an error - Harvard'll sure cure you of speech 'impropers' real
quick, though.

The misparse that really gets my dander up, however, isn't ironical. It's
pronunciate. Damn it! I *hate* when people say that. Pro-nounce.
Pro-nounce. Pro-nun-ci-a-tion. Pro-nounce. Everyone, now. Say it together.

If I were the Lord, I would permit people to speak as they wish - except
for the use of ironical and pronunciate. That'd get you a painful
lightening bolt every time. Zap!

BB


*********
I'm a kinky, queer, bisexual genderfucker. And they say, "write what you
know." -Cecilia Tan, 'Writing  Sex,' OutWrite 1999

You need to have a magpie mind. I think you need to like shiny things.
-Samuel R. Delaney on what it takes to be a scifi writer, OutWrite 1999

Only 296  shopping days left before the end of the world.