[mallumowgli]

Definition of namesake
: one that has the same name as another; especially : one who is named after another or for whom another is named
His grandson and namesake is the spit and image of him … —Robert Graves

Source
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/namesake

Just search our forum for the word 'namesake' - used liberally to mean 'just for the sake of it'

Probably misunderstood from the Hindi phrase 'naam ke vaaste'

[Thad E Ginathom]

Curious. What catches my eye there is spit and image, which I would have thought absolutely wrong.

However, it seems to be quite right, and an interesting progression is suggested on this Stackexchange page

• metaphor: “it’s like he was spat out of his father’s mouth” (1689).
• metonymy: “he’s the very spit of his father” (1825) — when the metaphor is commonplace enough, it no longer gets spelled out in full.
• idiom/cliché: “the spit and image of his father” (1859) — a particularly effective wording of the metonymy solidifies into a widely re-used phrase.
• corruption: “the spitten image” (1878) — the original analysis of the phrase is lost.
• reanalysis: “the spitting image” (1901) — this strange new word “spitten” gets replaced by something which is at least syntactically more comprehensible.
• further reanalysis/eggcorning: “the splitting image” (1880(!?), 1939) — the phrase changes to something which is more semantically plausible — it’s easier to imagine ways that “splitting image” could have arisen than “spitting image”.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Curious. What catches my eye there is spit and image, which I would have thought absolutely wrong.

I missed seeing that - I read that as 'spitting image'

And surprised to know that spitting image, which seems logical is an evolution of 'spit and image'. Though looking back, this seems more effective

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Curious. What catches my eye there is spit and image, which I would have thought absolutely wrong.

However, it seems to be quite right, and an interesting progression is suggested on this Stackexchange page

Amazing, isn't it? What extraordinary lengths academic hair-splitting can come to!

Reminds me of reading a long while back in some literary critique about a student's submission of his doctoral thesis - his chosen topic : "The significance of bird-song in Shakespeare's plays".

[Thad E Ginathom]

... Someone who doesn't know what to do with a hyphen probably doesn't deserve a PhD in an literature-related subject!

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

... Someone who doesn't know what to do with a hyphen probably doesn't deserve a PhD in an literature-related subject!

Thad, you really should proof read your posts before submitting them.

BTW, what is the significance of this "bird song"?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Ha ha! Caught out. Every post on the internet criticising somebody else's grammar must contain a mistake itself! It's the law!

I think I edited my original sentence, and forgot to change the article. No excuse. Maybe the bird-song man also edited, and forgot to take the hyphen out. We're human. But hey, we're not all writing PhDs!

I have a new keyboard. Unlike my previous backlit thing, which was quite expensive, this was very cheap. It's advantage is that I can actually see the key-cap letters. Hoping for fewer typos now!

[silversteed]

I don't know if it's the printer's devil, or a bad proof reader:

...and 40 dumber vehicles to remove boulders have been working round the clock

dumber than what?

From The Hindu

[Thad E Ginathom]

From The Hindu

The Hindu has no good proof readers and few accurate writers.

In this instance, though, I have to admit that this is just the sort of "mental typo" mistake that I would make

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by silversteed

I don't know if it's the printer's devil, or a bad proof reader:


dumber than what?

From The Hindu

This is what happens when your proof reader is MS Word Spellcheck.

I was actually going to comment on the wrong usage "dumper vehicle", but Google seems to suggest that it is correct. Other examples being ambulance vehicle, tanker vehicle, etc.

Is that correct?

Police Vehicle sounds right though.

[binand]

Originally Posted by samaspire

I was actually going to comment on the wrong usage "dumper vehicle", but Google seems to suggest that it is correct. Other examples being ambulance vehicle, tanker vehicle, etc.

I think dumper (= container for refuse) vehicle & police (= law enforcement agency) vehicle are fine.

But ambulance (= vehicle to carry sick people) vehicle and tanker (= vehicle to carry liquids) vehicle aren't.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by samaspire

....BTW, what is the significance of this "bird song"?

Baffled me too! During my school days (I'm 66) we had "Merchant of Venice" in our curriculum. After reading about the bird-song/birdsong scholar, I went over the text of the play - no mention of any particular birdsong that I could spot. And to be honest I hadn't the patience to read through all the plays written by the great bard (having to go to a proper library being the first hurdle!)

[dailydriver]

A phrase used in a film review in today's Bangalore Mirror sent me on a futile google search. Any help here?

Tagaru is a bull in a china shop and a tiger in a chicken soup. It is mayhem.

Could the reviewer have meant to write tiger in a chicken shop/coop and either the auto correct or the proof reader souped it?

Originally Posted by shashanka

having to go to a proper library being the first hurdle!

A hurdle that can easily be overcome by getting something like this, a book containing all the works of The Bard. Just saying .

[binand]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Could the reviewer have meant to write tiger in a chicken shop/coop and either the auto correct or the proof reader souped it?

Even if autocorrect is the culprit, as far as I know the phrase "tiger in a chicken coop" does not mean general mayhem like "bull in a china shop". Instead is is used to indicate the futility of trying to put something big in a small container. In car terms, "driving a Bugatti Veyron on the Bangalore-Mysore road is like trying to raise a tiger in a chicken coop".

I could be wrong, of course.

[Thad E Ginathom]

a tiger in a chicken soup

I doubt that auto-correct produced this one. I have never heard of a tiger in a chicken coop, but binand may well know better.

What produces these errors is half knowing several sayings or metaphors and mixing them up. Combine this with an unwillingness to even type the word g-o-o-g-l-e, and we end up with the garbage that claims to be English that we see in the "English-Language" media. Essentially, it is illiterate. Literate means more than the simple fact of being able to read and write.

There is a simple cure that I can prescribe to these writers: read English literature. Then they will better understand the language and how to use it.

By the way, in an answer to one of my rants about this, I was told that, yes, writers in the vernacular media are often just as bad. It must be just to easy to become a journalist these days!