'Dialogue' as a noun. Or possibly not

Spotted in a recent piece of corporate communication:

I have already made a personal commitment to dialogue with the union about the changing environment we face

Is this an example of 'dialogue' as a verb or just an example of 'commitment to' + noun?

I've never come across the former before, although it is listed in my Concise OED: "v. chiefly N Amer. take part in dialogue."

Thursday roundup: MasterChef, NUJ, old words

A Thursday roundup rather than the usual Friday one.

It's the final of cookery gameshow MasterChef tonight here in the UK, and anyone who's a fan of both the programme and language use might briefly enjoy the 'MasterChef: the best lyrics' gizmo on guardian.co.uk. Thanks for that one, Sarah.

Why would the chair of the National Union of Journalists' professional training committee write that "bloggers rejoice in low standards"? I'm still not sure, but you can track the discussion leading up to this comment on my colleague Adam Tinworth's blog, One Man and His Blog, or read the guardian.co.uk account. As an NUJ member and a fan of new and social media, I've been engrossed by the whole affair.

Lastly, another of my colleagues drew my attention to a BBC News article on the 'oldest English words'. All the talk of Indo-European languages made me flash back to my university days. Thanks, Ro!

Stan Still, Annette Curtain, Dick Trickle...

Regular readers of The Engine Room will know that we're fans of unusual or amusing personal names. Recently, for example, I've written about a hangman called Ed Roper while Apus has told us of a certain SM Allcock.

If you're of a similar bent, you may enjoy a current BBC News article, 'Most unfortunate names' revealed, which includes such gems as Stan Still and Annette Curtain.

It's also worth reading the comments following the article, especially the fourth (and currently final).

While I'm on the subject, I should mention that my colleague Clutchslip once met American racing driver Dick Trickle...

Nissan NV200: guess what 'NV' stands for

Nissan's new van is called the NV200. One of our news editors pointed out to me that the 'NV' part of the name stands for, er, 'new van'. Brilliant, huh?

I suppose it could equally stand for 'Nissan van' or even 'Nissan vehicle'.

In Nissan's defence, it would appear that 'NV200' was the codename the manufacturer gave to the van when it was still a concept vehicle. That's the thing with names – sometimes they stick when you don't mean them to.

(Picture courtesy of Roadtransport.com: 'Nissan to create new segment with NV200')

Six-yearly, bi-monthly, every two months

Working on a magazine supplement this evening, I was surprised to read in the small print at the bottom of the flannel panel: "This supplement is published six-yearly."

The writer meant 'six times a year', but of course his turn of phrase could be taken to mean 'every six years'. So I changed the wording to 'every two months'. (It helped that I knew the supplement was published at regular intervals...)

One of my colleagues did suggest 'bi-monthly', but I decided not to use this as there seems to be some disagreement over whether it means 'twice a month' or 'every two months'. The OED Online concurs, saying "the ambiguous usage is confusing".

On reflection, 'every other month' might have been my best option. Not that it matters much, anyway - who reads the flannel panel?

Spendthrift: not what I thought it was

A confession: until very recently I thought a spendthrift was someone who was careful (thrifty) with money.

In reality, as I'm sure you know, a spendthrift is the very opposite - "one who spends money profusely or wastefully; one who wastes his patrimony by foolish or lavish expenditure; an improvident or extravagantly wasteful person" (OED Online).

World Wide Words: Spendthrift

What words have you misunderstood (or if you prefer, reinterpreted)?

A pint and a half, or a pint in a half

I was in a busy pub in central London last night and went up to the bar to buy a couple of drinks.

"A pint and a half of Coors*, please," I said to the barman.

He went off to start pouring the drinks and then came back to ask me: "Was that a pint and a half, or a pint in a half?"

A pint in a half? A half in a pint (glass), possibly, but not the other way round. I would have liked to see him try, though.


*Just to clarify - I don't normally drink this watery, bland lager.

Words of the day, 1755

Here's a challenge – see how many of these word's from Dr Johnson's dictionary you can work into conversation this weekend...

bedpresser a heavy, lazy fellow
fopdoodle a fool
kicksy-wicksy a word in disdain or ridicule of a wife (but not Mrs Apus, obviously)
fleshquake a tremor of the body
dandiprat an urchin
jobbernowl a blockhead
giglet a wanton

Come to think of it, when was the last time you heard anyone say "fellow" (in the sense of chap), "urchin" (in the sense of scamp), "blockhead" (in the sense of dunderhead) or, more's the pity, "wanton"?

Odd AdSense advert for Bupa

I spotted an odd AdSense advert (say that 10 times quickly!) on this very blog a while back:



Is it just me, or has something gone very wrong with this banner for Bupa? It looks like a Mac user – possibly called A Haydn Jones – is responsible...