Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 41 total)
  • You keep using that word…
  • Cougar
    Full Member

    … I do not think it means what you think it means.

    There is no such word as “loosing” (or if there is, it’s not in any sort of common usage that I’m aware of). If something is becoming lost, you are in the process of “losing” it. And I know how you feel. (-:

    Loose = adjective = not tight.
    Lose = verb = to mislay.

    As an aid memoir, pronunciation is a false friend here; the longer word has fewer letters.

    You’re welcome.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Thanks, Cougar, absolutely drives me nuts!
    I blame the parents, the education system, Facebook… 😉

    mogrim
    Full Member

    There is no such word as “loosing” (or if there is, it’s not in any sort of common usage that I’m aware of).

    That would be the gerund of the verb “loose”, as in “loosing off a gun”. Not a common usage, I’ll grant you, and nothing to do with “losing your trousers”, but still a real word.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    There is no such word as “loosing”

    Only loosers use that word.

    tenfoot
    Full Member

    My mum used to live in Loose, just outside of Maidstone. That made her a Loose woman

    teasel
    Free Member

    I think someone from these parts explained it reasonably well not so long go. The theory was the way the two words are spoken, though not the “error” word itself – lose is more drawn out than loose when spoken.

    The best explanation yet, IMO.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    And Rambo.
    As he’s loosing off a few rounds!

    molgrips
    Free Member

    That would be the gerund of the verb “loose”, as in “loosing off a gun”.

    More like loosing an arrow. Which makes sense – you are letting it loose.

    porter_jamie
    Full Member

    some managers at work say ‘pross-cess’ instead of process. they must have heard an american director say it in a meeting once.

    oh, and levver-ridge instead of leverage. argh etc.

    edit add: i know these are supposedly the same word/meaning, but it still annoys me

    edit again add: there is someone who is nearly forty, appears to be intelligent and educated, and he actually says brought when he means bought.

    klumpy
    Free Member

    There is no such word as “loosing”

    You loose arrows with a bow, so could definitely be said to be ‘loosing arrows’. (Confusingly, you might also ‘lose’ some of them and so be simultaneously loosing and losing arrows – which is where the confusion originates I imagine.)

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    If you’re planning on pedantry, you could at least learn to spell “aide memoire” properly.

    Ewer well come.

    andybrad
    Full Member

    While I appreciate your concern over the degradation of the English language. I’m afraid it’s probably language evolution. In short, you’d better start using these words or know 1 will no wat ur on abt.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    You loose arrows with a bow, so could definitely be said to be ‘loosing arrows’.

    A very good point and one which, as a lapsed field archer, I should have thought of. One does not ‘fire’ a bow, one ‘looses’ it. Though I did say ‘not in common usage’ and that is a pretty specific application.

    However,

    If you’re planning on pedantry, you could at least learn to spell “aide memoire” properly.

    Guilty as charged. Muphry again.

    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    its rediculous!

    DezB
    Free Member

    Definately!

    One does not ‘fire’ a bow, one ‘looses’ it.

    I believe one “shoots” a bow, but “looses” an arrow.

    MTB-Idle
    Free Member

    I pacifically asked people to stop using that word

    Jamie
    Free Member

    ti_pin_man
    Free Member

    ahhh be quiet thee pedants, back to hell scurrrvyyy.

    your welcome.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    “aide-mémoire” has both a hyphen and an accent in my English dictionary, Flash.

    IHN
    Full Member

    Surely there is such a word as losing?

    If, for example, you had a hole in your pocket through which your loose (ahem) change was falling, it could be said that you were losing money through that hole i.e. you’d be using the whatever-the-word-is-for-an-ongoing-action tense of the verb ‘to lose’.

    IHN
    Full Member

    Oh, hang on, you’re problem is with the spelling.

    As you were.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Indeed it does, was posting from a tablet. Mea culpa.
    Foisted on my own Petrarch.

    BruiseWillies
    Free Member

    May I also add the use of the sounds “pacifically” and “acrosst” for specifically and across.
    Also, “would of” is another annoyance.

    Three_Fish
    Free Member

    I blame the parents, the education system, Facebook…

    I blame people for not thinking about what their* saying.

    I pacifically asked people to stop using that word

    I saw an instruction written for an audio engineer in which the word ‘pacifically’ had been written in the place of ‘specifically’. One would expect something of a eureka moment when they actually scribed it; but, perhaps not.

    *deliberate

    molgrips
    Free Member

    If you are lapping slower than someone else in a race, you are losing time.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Or they’re gaining it.

    Wait… what?

    Olly
    Free Member

    Confusingly, you might also ‘lose’ some of them and so be simultaneously loosing and losing arrows

    While the waiter faffs about preparing your bill, in that moment do you not become the waiter?

    Deeeeeep

    kayak23
    Full Member

    You loose arrows with a bow, … – which is where the confusion originates I imagine.)

    Unless this is Sherwood Forest, and a large percentage of the population are merry men, I’m thinking it has little to do with archery…
    😀

    Moses
    Full Member

    Can someone explain the significance of Jamie’s squid, please?

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    Squid? I thought it was the defeated baddy from R-type.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Can someone explain the significance of Jamie’s squid, please?

    squids in general or pacifically Jamie’s?

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    A very good point and one which, as a lapsed field archer, I should have thought of.

    Finishing a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    Definately!

    This is one I think will become formalised in our language fairly soon. Notwithstanding the obvious loss of the original’s logical inevitbility.

    geoffj
    Full Member

    it’s nearly as annoying as those folk who insist on putting their smilies the wrong way round.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    it’s nearly as annoying as those folk who insist on putting their smilies the wrong way round.

    They’re not the wrong way round. They’re left-handed.

    chipster
    Full Member

    “Should of” is the one that tends to squeeze my nipples quite firmly.

    Jamie
    Free Member

    Can someone explain the significance of Jamie’s squid, please?

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnXKVY-_i2c[/video]

    jag61
    Full Member

    is disappointed by jamies non dancing gif-squid 😉

    Jamie
    Free Member

    is disappointed by jamies non dancing gif-squid

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 41 total)

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