On the news this evening, the correspondent was reporting on a multiple homicide. She scratched the blackboard for me with deaves. It doesn’t even look like a word, however, it is, just not the meaning she thought, and not pronounced the way she did. Deave
How did she use the word?
Very meta! Her usage of the word accomplished its definition!
Did you think we’d know what word she meant to use?
You’re deavin’ us, dude…
I just don’t get a lot of performance art.
Are you sure you did not just mishear her, or maybe she mispronounced some other other word? That is a very obscure word for a broadcaster (I take it we are talking about a broadcaster) to use, or even to misuse. (Unless, perhaps, she was a Scot broadcasting from Scotland, but my guess is that most present-day Scots would not know the word either.)
Anyway, what do you think she thought it means? You have given us no context here.
Made ye want to haver?
Deves, short for deviants? They were killed under d’eaves of the house?
Oh, and what kind of phonetic notation is that? If IPA, then the “i” is pronounced “ee.”
I know what she meant.
I guess I wasn’t clear. She used deaves instead of deaths. She very clearly said, “The deaves were caused by carbon monoxide.”
Sorry, I tend to expect people to read my mind. 
Huh? It sounds like she bumbled the words coming out of her mouth in that case, not like she was deliberately using the obscure word “deaves”. If she had written it down, she would probably have written “deaths”. Do you never get that, you’re trying to say something perfectly normal, when for some reason it comes out as “gblyurghawuz”?
Anyway, words and usage that hurt? Why don’t native English speakers understand then/than?! For Dutch people I’ll make an allowance, both are translated as “dan”, so it’s difficult for them.* Native speakers of English have no excuse.
Also, Americans and adverbs. It’s your tv’s fault that my students get this stuff wrong. -ly -ly -ly -ly!! And well well well!! Phew. That’s better.
*Then - en dan… (ezelsbruggetje: “then” ends in “en”)
Than - groter dan
You’re welcome.
Me and all my friends agree. Or, whatever.
Using ‘I’ in the compound object of a preposition, as in “with my friend and I” or “just between you and I” .
Also, using loan as a verb.
Aargh.
I try not to watch the Bachelor/ette, yet it’s sometimes on in the other room. That show is the only place that I’ve heard a strange construction, multiple times and seasons. Someone will say something like, “It was her and I’s something something.” That’s pronounced “eye-ziz.” :smack:
“Death” is a rare surname. It’s usually pronounced something like “dee-th.”
People who use a certain Ohio Valley idiom to avoid having to say a couple of extra words (i.e. something “needs fixed” or a job “needs completed”) needs kidney removed.*
*tother kidney I fried and ate it was very nise.
Listen, bumblefucker. It is perfectly possible to effect change. If you smugly inform me I meant to say “affect” one more time, I’m going to telepathically banish you back to middle school English class.
Don’t get too worked up. I can see it in your affect.
No, this woman always makes the plural of death sound like the plural of roof.
The thing that gets me is hypercorrection. Three examples:
- A professor who corrected a sentence like, “Since communism is bad, Cuba is a lousy stinkhole.” He said that “since” meant “after,” and marked off. No, idiot, it has multiple meanings, and “because” is perfectly cromulent. (The actual sentence was better than that one)
- A professor who marked off for my colon usage in a sentence like, “I knew his ugly face: he was one of the enforcers for the Munchkin Brigade.” She thought a semicolon was necessary. I had to bring in Strunk & White to show her proper colon usage in this context.
- A boss who insisted that all business letters be sent out full-justified. I mentioned to the secretary that this was not proper form, as I’d worked in administration for many years and knew business letter format inside and out; she just rolled her eyes and told me not to make waves. Gah!
I’m getting more and more bemused over this whole thing about this strange rendering of “deaths”. Could wish that things might be put more clearly. picunurse, how about trying to tell us in terms of “rhymes with” ?
Are you sure she said deaves? Could it have been deathes? Like wreathes, or sheaths?
Because if she’s a slow reader, she might have seen the dea- and started saying the word before seeing the -ths.
Or maybe the teleprompter showed “deathes”?
Cuz deaves is just weird.
Another vote for teleprompter problem. Either it had a typo or she misread it.