..."to all intensive purposes..."

[BelfastBloke]

Anyone notice this yesterday in a thread?

I kept waiting for a pedant to jump in, but you didn't.

What are some other comedy mishearings?

V. amused by this thread
Anyone else been made an escape goat lately?!

This will only work if you speak French (or I explain it).

Set year 7 homework to design a menu. Some "clever" kids have used an internet translation tool (btw they are crap).

His meal is "du boeuf avec il fait pipi"

He had typed in "beef with pees" instead of 'peas', so the end result was

beef with he does a pee.

Dh does a lot of these - especially as he runs everything he writes through a spellchecker which can only rarely decipher his true intent

Confession:

I frequently mispronounce words in conversation because I have only ever read them.

A ghastly woman I had some dealings with a few years back, whose crimes against the English language would fill a book, was talking about a company whose name consisted of a group of surnames, one of which was Annis - you guessed it, she pronounced it anus

No MARRIED but I have had an interior motive on several ocasions.

My highly educated and extremely clever best friend, who writes for a living, used the expression 'site unseen' in an e mail to me a few months ago. Yes, she was talking about something 'property' related, but . . .

Intrigued by thought of rummaging in your innards looking for a motive SUDA.

Slight (sleight) of hand just infuriates me.

Didn't realise I was so pedantic but when you Google thesaurus and pedant together, one of the resulting links features ads for pendants fgs.

I keep my motives well hidden Married. If anyone ever wants any motives smuggling out of the country - I'm your woman.

An (American) acquaintance of mine wrote on her Facebook page "please say hi once and a while"...

I deleted her

May I add misuse of the word literally.

A dear lady I knew often did this. Once she was speaking about a Nobel winner's trip to the USA where they literally crucified her. I had to stifle my giggles and leave the room.

Loopyloops I now have tea up my nose.

Dont know why but started thinking in Inspector Clouseau voice now !

You av tea up your nus ??

Going to run the risk of ridicule here and ask why literally in that context was inappropriate?

But Maisie, if she'd been literally crucified, at best she would have been nailed to a cross as a form of punishment - and at worst she would have died as a result of being nailed to a cross.

My sister once gave her boyfriend as 'ultimation' (ultimatum).

The one I really hate is when people say 'The proof is in the pudding'. I do literally scream at them 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

Ah, but literally in this sense is perfectly fine - used informally to emphasise meaning, and crucified (again used informally) means to severely punish or damage someone or somethingsee here

Although for all we know, she was actually nailed to a cross

I used 'cast nasturtiums' the other day, but in full knowledge of its being a malapropism. Its one of those odd phrases we used in our family, mum's fault for enjoying silly wordplay rather than ignorance.

Maybe its thought inappropriate to use the word 'literally' in front of 'crucified' and other words with extreme meanings because its enough of a humourous exaggeration without adding 'literally' to exaggerate further.

So maybe Dione's irritation at the use of literally, in the context she described of being crucified, was that she meant it shouldn't have been "used informally to emphasise [another] meaning"? We all use expressions that aren't really true - 'she was crucified' - to express an extreme view, but perhaps 'literally crucified' was one step too far for Dione?!

Ah, but literally in this sense is perfectly fine

Not if you're a true pedant, no matter what dictionaries may say!

Whoops! X-post with Suda. But, quite.

I used to think prafeta rolls were a dessert of greek origin

In my defence, I was young and had never seen it written down.

marenmj
"
Confession:

I frequently mispronounce words in conversation because I have only ever read them"

Me too.
I think of it as a sign of being a well-read indivdual - I think i'd sooner it that way round than get the word wrong - at least people are free to conclude that you're pronouncing it that way on purpose.

hyperbole, anyone?
antipothy
epitome

it took me years to realise that epitome was pronounced ee-pit-om-ee.
(but I always knew the meaning of both words - I knew the e-pi-tome was the perfect example of the thing....)

You need to read and listen to Radio 4