Obscure British/American spelling differences.
Jul 24th 2016, 7:26 am
#76
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
That's right, it's one of the (minor) pleasures of reading older novels to spot the gradually changing vocabulary, syntax, punctuation etc... but in this regard, it's hard to spot the words that are NOT used by earlier authors, because they were not yet coined (or not yet acquired a meaning.)
I have a prejudice against reading novels in translation, because unfortunately you'll never actually read the author's words.
I have a prejudice against reading novels in translation, because unfortunately you'll never actually read the author's words.
Jul 24th 2016, 8:42 am
#77
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
Also, meanings in translation are influenced by what the translator thinks the author meant, just try reading two translations of the same book by different translators, and you will see what I mean, and, if you know the original language, then you get a third version.
Jul 24th 2016, 10:25 am
#78
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
Actually, I've done that a couple of times to try to get past the translator problem. I recently read a couple of novels by Goethe, which I primarily read in one translation, but referred to a second and third translation just to get a sense of how close the translation was to the original. Fortunately, my library (the college where I used to work,) has a very impressive German literature collection built up over the years, so they typically have several German editions and most of the important translations, of all important German language literature... I'm also working my way through the Thomas Bernhardt works which is heavy going ....
Jul 24th 2016, 8:17 pm
#79
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
I am constantly outraged by the (ignorant) evolution of the meaning of "outrage." The -age is a suffix, it is not a compound of the word "rage." At least "outrageous" still means "outside the bounds of normal behavior" rather than "inducing rage."
Jul 25th 2016, 7:39 am
#80
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
Didn't know outrage had evolved ... When? From what?
It does illustrate something I alluded to in an earlier post. When we read older text (I gave Jane Austen as an example) we notice archaic words, words that had a different meaning, etc., but we obviously DON'T notice words that are absent because they hadn't yet been coined ....
Jul 25th 2016, 8:52 pm
#81
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
What is an ignorant evolution? I'm outraged by such an outrageous notion.
Jul 25th 2016, 9:07 pm
#82
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Jul 25th 2016, 9:41 pm
#83
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
Hmm .. I'm still perplexed by this. I just looked it up in the OED. It seems to be an ancient word, borrowed from a French word, first instance of use back in the fourteenth century. Ten meanings of the noun are detailed. Which meaning or recent evolution of meaning are you taking issue with?
Jul 27th 2016, 1:42 am
#85
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
"Burglarize" 
For some reason when I hear that I imagine a burglar sodomizing a house.
Anyway I remember now that back around 1991 I was installing Compuserve on a computer and it came up with something that said: "install" and I remember thinking, they've got that wrong. So I went to the Winn-Dixie nearby and bought a dictionary and it does say: "install or instal" in it.
For some reason when I hear that I imagine a burglar sodomizing a house.Anyway I remember now that back around 1991 I was installing Compuserve on a computer and it came up with something that said: "install" and I remember thinking, they've got that wrong. So I went to the Winn-Dixie nearby and bought a dictionary and it does say: "install or instal" in it.
Jul 27th 2016, 7:23 am
#86
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Re: Obscure British/American spelling differences.
"Burglarize" For some reason when I hear that I imagine a burglar sodomizing a house.
Anyway I remember now that back around 1991 I was installing Compuserve on a computer and it came up with something that said: "install" and I remember thinking, they've got that wrong. So I went to the Winn-Dixie nearby and bought a dictionary and it does say: "install or instal" in it.
For some reason when I hear that I imagine a burglar sodomizing a house.Anyway I remember now that back around 1991 I was installing Compuserve on a computer and it came up with something that said: "install" and I remember thinking, they've got that wrong. So I went to the Winn-Dixie nearby and bought a dictionary and it does say: "install or instal" in it.
