Links

[ewx]

• The language of the Picts. Probably a Brythonic language.
• Darkness
• Dear Merriam-Webster. A lexicographer’s lament.
• Nearly all marine fish came from freshwater ancestors
• Sealand, HavenCo, and the Rule of Law
• Why stricter rules threaten the eurozone
• Ron was wrong, Whit is right. Sanity-checking online public keys.

Comments

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

Dear Merriam-Webster - quote:

It always comes as a shock to our correspondents that the dictionary is not a book most holy and inviolate, delivered unto us from On High, verily divine. It is written by real, live, completely fallible human beings. These human beings have been known, while proofreading 2,000 pages of 4-point type, to miss a thing or two. There is no need to panic: the English language is not falling all to hell simply because I yawned at 6:00pm two days before the manuscript had to be at the typesetter’s and therefore missed “falllible.”

A book once pointed out that it was odd that we say "the dictionary" and not "a dictionary", and noted that another example of this was "the bible". I suspect "the telephone book" might fit in this category too...

[baljemmett.livejournal.com]

"The newspaper", similarly, I think -- perhaps it's to do with things being seen as authorities? Pondering that thought further, if one stands accused of mischief one might be "seen by the judge" or "appear before the magistrate" in "the court", rather than "a judge" or "a magistrate" at "a court"; or am I just getting myself muddled now?