Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

From:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/24/BA4K1BMUML.DTL
Headline:
SFPD: officer killed man with machete.

www.dictionary.com says:
Idioms & Phrases
by definition
According to prior determination, as a given. For example, This

I know what a lapidary style in language is and where the expression
comes from. I just wonder
(1) how many people immediately understand it;
(2) how many would use it.

How can I express a future wish? I want to cancel my membership to a
group but want to tell them I hope in future I may be able to renew
it. I want to show them that I am sorry that I have to cancel my
membership. Is something like this good for this purpose?

It seems that the American spelling "jail" has been universally
adopted outside of the US. Just wondering how the British "gaol" ,
despite the numerous inconsistencies of English readings, could
possibly be pronounced as /dʒeɪl/ ?!

I read the phrase "I assess that team’s chances as good" and it
sounded wrong.
I would have written "I assess those team’s chances as good"
I am Italian, and in Italian the adjective "that" follows the genre

To her and her like, birth itself was an ordeal of degrading personal compulsion,
whose gratuitousness nothing in the result seemed to justify, and at best could only palliate.
--from Tess of D'urbervilles
Can the'birth' in the citation mean 'life'?

A couple of months ago we talked about "ish" as a word in itself to
meaning "somethingish".
Here's a live example I just found.  It's in Private Eye, No 1253 (8 Jan
2010):

Google has said it wants talks with the Chinese government about
solving its complaints
What do you think about the word "wants" and "talks"? Isn't it a
grammar error, is it?

Does "to go on" have the meaning of "to leave" in standard/non-
standard AmE?
---
[Huge quarrel between brother and sister, never to speak again to each

I recently saw it used in the sense of "some time in the future".

"millions of thousands of Britons"
Is this legit now? Technically correct, I suppose.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7043822/Households-
face-1000-fines-from-officials-with-police-powers-if-they-refuse-to-fill-

It this "his caring for" standard?
It seems so, just wanted to make sure.
---
[Macon yearns to hear again his sister's, Pilate's, voice, so he goes

"Congratulation!" said the TV host. I swear, I didn't hear any final
"s".
While I understand that "kudo" is not a word, and "kudos" is singular,
now I'm not so sure if the word "congratulation" used as an

James Hogg's distorted posts
----------------------------
This is not a complaint, just an observation and puzzle.  I've checked
which news client and encoding James uses but can't figure out why his