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Thread: English can be a funny language
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31st May 2007, 06:48 PM #31
I've been looking too and found this:It doesn't really support my questioning of "near miss" but it seems it is an issue that has been raised by many.
I might did out my copy of "Eats Shoots and Leaves" (I prefer "Eats roots and leaves") as I recall it had something about this issue in it.
"Idiom" seems to be a relevant word.
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31st May 2007, 06:59 PM #32
What about 'upside the head'. What the hell is that? Alright, already!!
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31st May 2007, 08:27 PM #33
Yeah, no, upside the head is grammatically correct and makes sense
Mick
avantguardian
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1st June 2007, 09:44 AM #34
[quote=silentC;520090]I actually doubt mishit is a word. quote]
Macquarie Australia's national dictionary, third edition 1998,
I'm stunned. Mishit - To hit faultilyMick
avantguardian
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1st June 2007, 09:50 AM #35
Is it in there? This is what I get from their online version:
Macquarie Dictionary Online
Sorry
We could not find "mishit".
Try Fuzzy Search by selecting the box at the top of the page
For help on improving your search results go to our Search Help page.
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1st June 2007, 10:01 AM #36
My wife went to bingo last night and she told me she nearly won the jackpot.
I asked her how she "nearly won" and she said I was waiting for just one number to be called out but it didn't get called but if it had been called I would have won.
Is that the same as a near miss?Reality is no background music.
Cheers John
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1st June 2007, 10:12 AM #37
No John, that's called bad luck
I found mis-hit, so I guess it must be a word:
The Macquarie Dictionary
mis-hit
// (say mis-'hit) verb, // (say 'mis-hit) noun Cricket, Golf, Tennis, etc.
--verb (t) 1. to hit (the ball) faultily, as when batting.
--verb (i) 2. to make a faulty stroke.
--noun 3. a faulty stroke.
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1st June 2007, 10:41 AM #38
Still stunned by this apparent usurption of proper english by the vernacular.
I offer mny most hearty contrafibularities.Mick
avantguardian
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1st June 2007, 10:49 AM #39
Well, they don't call it the living language for nothing. My English teacher Mr Gilmour would turn in his grave. If he was dead. In fact I reckon if he saw that entry in Macquarie dictionary, he would say "Lord, take me now!". The he would turn in his grave...
I suppose if people use a word enough, it eventually passes into legitimate usage. And as long as we have people like Macquarie running around rewriting history (and let's face it, they have to sell dictionaries) then it will never end.
It should have stopped with Samuel Johnson:
When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetick without rules: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection; adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity; and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writers of classical reputation or acknowledged authority.
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1st June 2007, 11:14 AM #40
Also in the Chambers dictionary. Sorry pic is not too clear
Reality is no background music.
Cheers John
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1st June 2007, 11:21 AM #41
How old is your Chambers? It's not in my copy.
It's not in my copy of Websters either. So we know it wasn't in common use back in 1894
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1st June 2007, 12:08 PM #42
The edition I have was published in 1998
Reality is no background music.
Cheers John
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1st June 2007, 12:10 PM #43
Yes...(on-line version).
mishit, n.
Sport (orig. Cricket).
A faulty, mistimed, or misdirected stroke or shot.1882 Australians in Eng. 25 He made two mishits which fell harmless.1898 Westm. Gaz. I Jan. 5/1 Caught at mid-off by Hirst, off a mis-hit.1928 Daily Tel. 11 May 18/1 Lyon has never played a better innings... I did not notice that he made even a mis-hit.1963 Times 11 June 4/6 Bear's bold effort ended in a mishit to leg slip.1991 Golf for Women Apr. 86/2 Designed with perimeter weighting to correct mis-hits, these clubs are available in right-hand or left-hand models.
mishit, v.
Sport (orig. Cricket).
trans. To hit or kick (a ball) in an unintentional manner or direction; (also) to strike a delivery from (a bowler, etc.) in this way; to misplay or mistime (a shot, stroke, etc.).
And, under "special uses" definition of "near":
"In the sense ‘situated nearby’, ‘within close proximity’"... near miss, (a) a shot that only just misses a target; also in extended use; (b) a situation in which a collision is narrowly avoided.
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1st June 2007, 12:11 PM #44
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1st June 2007, 12:21 PM #45
I might have known. Just another example of journalists inventing a word. Show me a citation from a proper literary source, like Shakespeare, and I'll accept it.
Herbert Coleridge would be horrified! Sports commentators defining the language. What next?
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