dbd33

Ah, big error on our part with the firewood. We put a cord or so in the basement and the rest in the woodshop (a shed under which no opposums or other smelly egg stealing creatures are allowed to live). The woodshed is now under a snow drift.

Oink

Cue the Monty Python jokes.

dbd33

I did, btw, make several attempts at a cheery "winter in Canada's not so bad" post but, all the good things I can list, fires, stews, roast dinners, red wines, cognac, would be better enjoyed in a pub on a moor somewhere in the UK.

MarylandNed

It's a noun and a verb.

to golf (verb) = to play golf (noun)

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...n/english/golf

iaink

At least someone here accepts that gentlemen play golf

I aspire to be more of a gentleman

Jingsamichty

Just because something is allowed doesn't make it right. Tailored shorts, for example.

The dictionaries probably also say that "medal" is a verb as well now; as in, "Canada tipped to medal in golfing this Olympics."

Oakvillian

Now that's something on which I think Gordon, the Big Engine, would have an opinion. "It isn't wrong, we just don't do it," he said.

Gentlemen, as Jings so aptly pointed out, would not use "golf" as a verb, even though grammatically speaking there's no reason not to.

Novocastrian

However when used in connection with golf, Gentlemen and Players share the same distinction which the terms used to have in cricket.

MarylandNed

Correct - 'medal' is a noun and a verb.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de.../english/medal

English is an ever-changing language. That's the beauty of it. How we speak drives the dictionary - not the other way around.

Anyway, back on topic. 'Winter' is a noun, verb and adjective.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...english/winter

Jingsamichty

Perhaps, but by their very nature, dictionaries are for people who don't know better.

MarylandNed

That's why I was referring you to it.

Jingsamichty

Very good.

But you're still wrong. It's possible to be technically correct and yet quite wrong.

MarylandNed

It's not really a question of being right or wrong. It's just how people use words. I've heard people say "Did you golf today?" (verb) and I've also heard "Did you play golf today?" (noun). Whatever people use will work as long as it is commonly understood. That's the beauty of a living language. It changes.

dbd33

I trust you shuddered and scurried away to the company of nice people.

Jingsamichty

True, but one of those two questions sounds like a nail scraping down a blackboard, while the other one doesn't. Both are correct, but only one is right.