[Homer Simpson]
Webster’s defines a wedding as “the act or process of removing weeds.”
[/Homer Simpson]
I was having a conversation with a friend (who I thought up until then was reasonably intelligent).
I coined a word by adding ‘-ishness’ to an existing noun.
he: That’s not a word.
me: It is now. I just made it one.
he: You can’t just make up a word.
me: Yes you can. I just did. Where do you think words come from?
he: The Dictionary.
me: Who wrote the dictionary?
he: I don’t know. I guess Webster.
me: So Webster made up all of our words and before that we just grunted?
At which point he stalked off.
I could have gone on for hours.
No, to get that effect you need to look up “recursive.”
-Friedo, Vice President of the Department of Redundancy Dept.
I’m not sure why, but this bugs me too.
I once had a job correcting newspaper proofs prior to publication. A lot of the work involved dealing with “run-on” advertisements which were taken over the phone by other staff. I was kept really busy at times and paid a good wage. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, American spelling is construed as mistaken spelling. One day I wandered out to the telephone department and found out where 40% of the mistakes were coming from. The workers there had a Websters dictionary. It was old and it was their only dictionary. I bought my computer with some of the money I earned at that job. In a way I still pay my ISP charges with it. Thank you Websters dictionary.