Interesting Factoid of the Day
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Dalek Dave wrote:
we do not say two thousand and six hundred and forty seven
But to clarify, you would say "two thousand six hundred and forty seven".
Correct. Although see below at an earlier response by myself.
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Counting Virgins? Or using AND? If it is a question of Language I use the stock answer. The Language is English, as in from England, as in everyone else in the world uses the newer updated versions, we use the Queens! Labour, not Labor. Colour, not Color. However English 2.0 (previously marketed as US English) seems the dominant tongue, a shame really as it leads to much confusion. In the US, one could never say " I am nipping outside to suck on a fag". Well, you could say it, but it wouldn't mean you are going for a cigarette!
As I have often said, it is actually surprising even speaking English we still understand each other. Just walking about the USA, you can hit regions in the north and south that are still speaking english, but the dialect has drifted so much to be nearly incomprehensable.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Counting Virgins? Or using AND? If it is a question of Language I use the stock answer. The Language is English, as in from England, as in everyone else in the world uses the newer updated versions, we use the Queens! Labour, not Labor. Colour, not Color. However English 2.0 (previously marketed as US English) seems the dominant tongue, a shame really as it leads to much confusion. In the US, one could never say " I am nipping outside to suck on a fag". Well, you could say it, but it wouldn't mean you are going for a cigarette!
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Dalek Dave wrote:
we use the Queens!
Dalek Dave wrote:
n the US, one could never say " I am nipping outside to suck on a fag".
I'm pretty sure that "fag" (either meaning) isn't exactly Queen's English either!
Fag is Definately Queens English. When one is at boarding school, one has one's muffins toasted by the fag. He is the youngest boy in the dorm who is enslaved by the seniors for running messages, cleaning shoes etc. The fag must also supply cigarettes, and is harshly beaten if he fails to do his duties (cf Tom Browns Schooldays). At the end of the day he is tired, or "Fagged Out", thus the end of a cigarette is the Fag End, the useless used bit that is left. Thus comes the word Fag. PS I was never at boarding school!
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Fag is Definately Queens English. When one is at boarding school, one has one's muffins toasted by the fag. He is the youngest boy in the dorm who is enslaved by the seniors for running messages, cleaning shoes etc. The fag must also supply cigarettes, and is harshly beaten if he fails to do his duties (cf Tom Browns Schooldays). At the end of the day he is tired, or "Fagged Out", thus the end of a cigarette is the Fag End, the useless used bit that is left. Thus comes the word Fag. PS I was never at boarding school!
Had you been at boarding school you would definitely have learned to spell "definitely".
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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dan neely wrote:
Next time fact check the stupid crap you get in your email from idiot friends before passing it on
This time pull out whatever it is stuck up your arse making you so uptight and chill a bit. The word Octillion is hardly well known.
I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. - W. Somerset Maugham My New Blog
"hardly well known" (fortunately for you*) is not the same as "does not exist". * Otherwise you would not exist!
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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dan neely wrote:
*Cough* oCtillion *Cough*
actually, even before that... score (a score is 20). Four score and seven years ago.... http://www.imustread.com/html/gettysburg_address_text.html[^]
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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True. I avoided it for the same reason as I didn't say anything about the "...and..." or "dozen" answers.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
dan neely wrote:
I avoided it for the same reason as I didn't say anything about the "...and..." or "dozen" answers
I do understand, the problem is that we all have different interpretations of the English language, and different references. In reality, it is what we grew up with that defines what we know of English counting. If we were never exposed to dozen, or score, we wouldn't know what they were. And is pushing it as it is just a concatenation (sp?) phrase, you could just as easily say four score plus 7 years -- it is only upbringing that defines what you say and how you say it. To that extent dozen, couple, pair, etc. are all legal counting. When we changed from stones to pounds and hands to feet (high) is simply a matter our combined experience. If we don't know it, it is because we haven't been exposed to it. Googol did not exist, until it did, then it did. Which pretty much accounts for much of the way language is. New words, new phrases, and exchanged phrases happen all the time. Regionally they stick or not, based on how that region views it. The long and the short is, there is no such thing as "English Counting" there is only the combined methods of counting for everyone who speak any variety of English, and then there is the scientific "norm" which controls absolute meaning for exchange of data. The latter have to force changes to stick, see the controversy over billion and trillion. For better or for worse, the scientific community cannot allow changes in mathematics or language for counting, so they have one definition, but common language may have any definition it wants. And this it will have.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Brady Kelly wrote:
And Letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in the spellings of the entire English Counting
*Cough* oCtillion *Cough* http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Octillion.html[^] Next time fact check the stupid crap you get in your email from idiot friends before passing it on, or better yet just delete it unread.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
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Had you been at boarding school you would definitely have learned to spell "definitely".
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
Do you know as soon as I saw it I realised I had mis-spelt it! However thank you for pointing out my mistake, I shall complain to my school about their poor teaching methods. I am so ashamed, it's not as though it was a hard one to spell!
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Frank Kerrigan wrote:
That was a little harsh.
Harsh but fair i'd say.
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dan neely wrote:
Next time fact check the stupid crap you get in your email from idiot friends before passing it on, or better yet just delete it unread.
That's what I always said to my family when they used to send me crap like that. After a dozen (huh, Dozen!) or so times they got the message.