I used to spell this word as CONGRADULATIONS till I was 54 years old!
13 thoughts on “Spelling!”
I still sometimes trip up on embarrassment and harassment. The English language is so inconsistent and illogical I can only admire those who manage to master it as a second language.
LOL! ditto to all above. and for that matter… where does ‘ditto’ come from? a lazy way of saying I agree or I say the same thing? I had a friend who always said ‘volumptuos.’ it you think about it… it actually sounds better and softer than voluptuous.
Ditto comes from Italian ditto, a dialect variation on detto, meaning “said,” the past participle of dice, “to say.” It was used in Italian as in il ditto libro, “the aforesaid book.” In English, it came to be used in the 17th century to avoid having to repeat words and phrases in accounting and commercial language.
I spent ages the other day on a blog comment trying to find in my “still spinning head” a word related to photograph…ended up putting something else that read “he is very photographic (I don’t think that’s the right word)” the blog poster came back with “photogenic” – which was the right word.
I often leave out little words or I forget that I wanted “NOT” and some how it gets left out. This last week I was explaining to someone about “crossing a road” and what I wrote was “could a road” – leaving “could cross a road” – I think they knew what I meant.
Of course if I was to write/type here how it works on my really bad days of hand-2-keyboard – you would never understand … my hands and the dkyeboard do not always put the the words in order…”I blame the keyboard it moves the keys around so that my fingers which are attahced to my wonnky hands can’t find the keys…”
I would usually fix all that…before commenting and I have in the first paragraphs… Catherine de Seton recently posted..It’s Friday and it was Doctor T
I still sometimes trip up on embarrassment and harassment. The English language is so inconsistent and illogical I can only admire those who manage to master it as a second language.
Completely agree!
It is particularly difficult for Indians because our languages use phonetic spelling.
I’m stealing this. Hysterical!
XO
WWW
Please feel free and have fun with it.
LOL! ditto to all above.
and for that matter… where does ‘ditto’ come from?
a lazy way of saying I agree or I say the same thing?
I had a friend who always said ‘volumptuos.’
it you think about it… it actually sounds better and softer than
voluptuous.
Ditto comes from Italian ditto, a dialect variation on detto, meaning “said,” the past participle of dice, “to say.” It was used in Italian as in il ditto libro, “the aforesaid book.” In English, it came to be used in the 17th century to avoid having to repeat words and phrases in accounting and commercial language.
A slight correction, Ramana. Dice means he or she says, while dire means “to say”. But your explanation of how ditto came about is most interesting.
Got it. Thank you.
Well, a bit late, but Kangradualations! On discovering the spelling
Thank you!
I spent ages the other day on a blog comment trying to find in my “still spinning head” a word related to photograph…ended up putting something else that read “he is very photographic (I don’t think that’s the right word)” the blog poster came back with “photogenic” – which was the right word.
I often leave out little words or I forget that I wanted “NOT” and some how it gets left out. This last week I was explaining to someone about “crossing a road” and what I wrote was “could a road” – leaving “could cross a road” – I think they knew what I meant.
Of course if I was to write/type here how it works on my really bad days of hand-2-keyboard – you would never understand … my hands and the dkyeboard do not always put the the words in order…”I blame the keyboard it moves the keys around so that my fingers which are attahced to my wonnky hands can’t find the keys…”
I would usually fix all that…before commenting and I have in the first paragraphs…
Catherine de Seton recently posted..It’s Friday and it was Doctor T
Welcome to the club Catherine. I would be up the creek without a paddle without Uncle Google alongside on my computer screen or on my mobile phone.