From: "Owen McShane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] said:
>
> > Owen, if I believe the BBC news articles about the state of education in
> > England and given the state of education in the US I'd be surprised if a
> > significant proportion of native English speakers had ever run across
the
> > word "mendacious" let alone knew how to use it properly in a sentence.
I'd
> > certainly be being mendacious if I declared otherwise. And I don't like
being
> > accused of mendacity.
>
> Wasn't me that was talking about mendacity.
>
> I was merely pointing out a (relatively common) misuse of the
there/their/they're variants.
>
> Bought myself a copy of "Eats, shoots and leaves" by Lynne Truss today, so
I can be more authoritative in my pedantry soon. ;-)
A person determined to be insulted can be insulted by comments as simple
as, "Good day, mate!" {^,-}
I certainly meant no disparagement to you. I was explaining that I made
sure how to use "mendacious" properly in a sentence lest I be declared
to have indulged in mendacity myself when I implied I could use it
properly.
As Jeff pointed out in email that it's Civil Engineers who are called
when you need to mendacity. (And, I noted, vets when you need to
mendakitty.) But this is getting silly.
{^_-}
