What's with these new fangled words ?
A year ago I'd never heard the word FERAL before in my entire life ,, and that's been a while now !
Nowadays you can't avoid it ,, feral children, feral dogs, cats, gardens, you name it everydamnthing has suddenly become .,.,., WILD !
I know I shouldn't ask, since I have a daughter Lexicographer who is, in fact, responsible for such additions / subtractions to our language ,, but I will anyway...
Who decides, and on just what basis, to add / subtract new & old words from our everyday already wonderful language?
To whoever it is I say .,.,., Bugger off -- Leave our English alone ya interfering shower !
Wild is more than adequate to describe ,, WILD !
For some people English is already difficult enough !
Here's a wee add on to this blog to illustrate my point ,,,
Phyl, the beautiful daughter, was once "involved" with the Police ,,, Can't remember if she was a witness to something or if someone had driven into the back of her car ,, I checked & someone indeed had banged into her beloved little Italian Chuggy Fiat 500.
A young Bobby, let's call him PC Dumb, was allocated at the scene to take her details ,,,
He started in the usual fashion ,, Name please ?.,.,.,.,
Phyllis she replied ,,
Right that's FIL,, eh how do you spell that name .. Try PHY.... officer she said.
Ok Surname ?,,, Buchanan .,., OK, right .. That's eh, BUCK,, eh can you spell that please miss !
Occupation ? he asks next ,,,, At this point the we'an, having got the measure of her man, decided on her career title Sunday name ,,,,
Eh I'm a Multi-Lingual Lexicographer, she replied :)
At this juncure in proceedings PC Dumb looked like he might actually cry ,,, gave up the ghost, tore the paper out his pad & crumpled it into the nearest bin ,,,,
Maybe you should come down to the station Miss & explain it all to the Sarge !!
So, albeit our Coppers are possibly a little on the thick side, can you smart Alex's leave our language alone ,,,
If you check you'll find out that the Feral word appears only in the Collins English dictionary ,,, there's no mention of such an abomination in either the Scots gem or indeed the Larger Concise Scots Dictionary.
I rest my Scottish case !
2 comments:
Dear, dear, dear!
Feral doesn't mean wild - it's more specific - a cat say - it isn't a wild cat - it is an offspring of a domesticated cat that has re-turned wild - that's why you keep hearing it - given these thugs prowling about shouldn't be wild but are...
And as for who adds words - at work we used to follow words in the media - written, spoken, papers, literature etc - once something appeared in 32 different sources, it could be considered for addition to the English language (based on checking a corpora of 220Million words on a daily basis). That way no one source (eg the Murdoch empire) could prescribe the changing of a language. But of course it means that more and more US English will officially come into UK English over the next generation - I can easily hear 32 different Scottish kids say 'awesome' in a single day so it is therefore now officially a UK English word - sorry.
And my own take? I love the way language mutates through the ages - wonderful! Sorry, dad! :-)
Ach, ya big grump.
but I kind if agree with you {and a bit with Ohyll too}
Just set you a challenge at mine if you're up to it!
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