Good point, Jez; and I’ve spotted your joke with the speeling :-)
Chris
> On 1 Mar 2015, at 10:16, Jez Cunningham <jez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Good job he wasn't lying prostate...
>
> On 1 March 2015 at 07:08, ChrisB <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>> I look forward to your finding it, Bob. One of the worst assaults on
>> English by the military (mainly the US military) is the “as of” phrase.
>> Originally intended to give a precise timescale (in the UK accountants used
>> to use “as at”), it has strayed into everyday use and gives rise to the
>> foul “as of yet”. It’s foul because “yet” means exactly the same thing,
>> but the expansion of our language with unnecessary prepositions (whether or
>> not the turn up at the end of a clause or sentence :-)) ruins the
>> simplicity and elegance of many of our words.
>>
>> On a slightly different thread of linguisticts, yesterday I listened to a
>> pretty good radio play as I was driving, enjoying it until . . . I heard
>> the phrase “a boat ricocheting against the rocks of the reef” (completely
>> ignoring the meaning of ‘ricochet’) and then a minute or so later, “he was
>> lying supine in the bottom of the boat”; how else would he lie, or what is
>> supine but lying?
>>
>> I managed to forget these errors and enjoyed the rest of the story :-)
--
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