06-27-2020, 11:40 PM
(06-27-2020, 03:56 PM)Mystic Wanderer Wrote: What about you? Do you have any pet peeves?
As a matter of fact, I do! Folks trying to sound like their vocabulary is bigger than it really is by misusing "wreak", as in "to wreak vengeance". It's wreak, not reek - reek is an objectionable scent.
Furthermore, they misuse the tenses of it. The past tense of "wreak" is "wrought", not "wreaked" - yet I see even alleged journalists abusing it as in "Party A wreaked havoc on Party B's widgets". There is no such sentence construction in proper English, no such word as "wreaked". Proper English would be "wrought havoc" when speaking of past events.
"Wreak" is from the Old English for "work". The past tense of modern "work" is "worked", but the past tense of "wreak" is "wrought" as in "wrought iron". Word and sentence construction rules were different in it's day.
Just use words you know how to use, and all will be well with the world.
Don't even TRY to use Elizebethan English unless you are well versed in it! I cannot count the times when I have seen and heard - even preachers - abuse Elizabethan English - especially "thee", "thy", and "thou" - when trying to make up Bible quotes that don't exist, or Shakespearean quotes that can not be found in Shakespeare anywhere...
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’