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There Their They're

Schadenfreude

John Solomon (38)
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te·mer·i·ty/təˈmeritē/
Noun:
Excessive confidence or boldness; audacity: "no one had the temerity to question his conclusions".
Synonyms:
daring - rashness - audacity
 

matty_k

Peter Johnson (47)
Staff member
Has anyone else noticed that Melbournites have started to pronounce Melbourne as Malbourne?
 

lincoln

Bob Loudon (25)
I have ethnic Chinese News presenters who cannot pronounce Beijing correctly (it's a hard j btw)
 

lincoln

Bob Loudon (25)
Also one that came yesterday in conversation here with locals is the correct pronunciation of Brisbane - is it a ban or a bane?
 

Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
How about our nation's capital? I have heard it as "Can-bra" with a very soft "n" and "Can-ber-ra" with a hard "e".
 

lincoln

Bob Loudon (25)
How about our nation's capital? I have heard it as "Can-bra" with a very soft "n" and "Can-ber-ra" with a hard "e".
Old timers may use the latter. Another good one from the ACT is Manuka - local pronunciation is someways away from the Kiwi flower pronunciation. Use to crack us up as kids when the commentators on World Championship Wrestling used the latter pronunciation.
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
Wikipedia says this:


The word Canberra is said to be derived from the various renditions into written English of the name of the indigenous people of the area, the Ngambri. The region's first non-Aboriginal landowner, Joshua John Moore, named his property "Canberry Station" and it was first shown on the 1837 survey of the area conducted by James Larmer. Moore's name was one of the first English transcriptions of Ngambri.

Explanations have been put forward that the name means 'meeting place' in the Walgalu language, with reference to the various transcriptions of Kambera (alternatively spelt Kamberra, Nganbra or Nganbirra). Alternatively, the name was apparently used as a reference to corroborees held during the seasonal migration of the Ngambri people to feast on the Bogong moths that pass through the region each summer.

The Molonglo River was recorded as the "Yeal-am-bid-gie" in 1820 by the explorer Charles Throsby. This was probably the collective Aboriginal name for the river. The Moolinggolah people of the district around Captains Flat probably gave the Molonglo its name. Where the river flowed through what is now Canberra, it was most likely known after the Ngambri people, transcribed as Kembury, Canberry, and other similar variants.

Locally, we have the Kedumba River run through Katoomba. They're (thread title reference) both renditions of the same Aboriginal word, but these days are pronounced completely differently.
 

BPC

Phil Hardcastle (33)
Not as good as Microsoft Works
failure-is-not-an-option-bsod-microsoft-fail-demotivational-poster-12097007091.jpg
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
I was about to write that the one I was using incorrectly was "moot", but the OED tells a more subtle tale:

1. Originally in Law, of a case, issue, etc.: proposed for discussion at a moot (moot n.1 4). Later also gen.: open to argument, debatable; uncertain, doubtful; unable to be firmly resolved. Freq. in moot case, moot point.

1563 L. Humphrey Nobles or of Nobilitye sig. Vviv, That they be not forced to sue the lawe, wrapped with so infinite crickes and moot poyntes.
1577 R. Stanyhurst Treat. Descr. Irelande ii. f. 9/2, in R. Holinshed Chron. I, The like question [sc. whether ‘fish’ or ‘flesh’] may be mooued of the sell [= seal], and if it were well canuassed, it would be found at the least wyse a moote case.
a1650 S. D'Ewes Autobiogr. & Corr. (1845) I. 240, I was scarce come into commons, but‥I was set at work, arguing a moot-point or law-case on Thursday night after supper.
1658–9 in T. Burton Diary (1828) III. 46 Jersey is part of France; so it is a moot point whether a habeas corpus lies.
1732–3 Sir C. Wogan in Swift Wks. (1824) XVII. 460 ‘My lords and gentlemen’, says he, ‘it is a very moot point to which of those causes we may ascribe the universal dulness of the Irish.’
1797 Encycl. Brit. XII. 271/2 Particular times are appointed for the arguing moot-cases.
1876 A. D. Murray Charnwood 110 It remains a moot problem to be guessed at.
1899 Arch. Surg. 10 190 Those who are already well informed in essentials and quite prepared to discuss moot and difficult points.
1932 P. G. Wodehouse Louder & Funnier 77 An age full‥of Moot Questions—some mooter than others.
1956 G. Durrell Drunken Forest x. 199 Whether he could have bitten us successfully‥was rather a moot point, but it was not the sort of experiment I cared to make.
1990 Economist (BNC) 24 Mar. 125 Midland seems likely to be heading for the altar before long. Whether the Hongkong Bank will be the one waiting is a mooter question.

So over time it shifted from a literal expression to a figurative one. The way people use it now means "well, we could argue it but we won't (probably because it's not relevent)."
 

Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
In my line of work 'moot' is most commonly used to describe the least likely category of potential outcomes. By example, the supply of new office space in the CBD is categorised as that which is either under construction, approved (but construction not yet started) or mooted (i.e. not approved but consent may be sought sometime in the next 5 years or so). This is quite industry specific but based on the link I posted I think it's okay as it implies something that is "open to discussion". I have always felt uncomfortable using the term mooted but continue to because that's what the industry knows - I guess that's how language evolves.

Farther v further was the one that got me. My Blaxland dialect is more further from correct than I thought.
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
I think that use of mooted is perfect. Literally: it has been scheduled for discussion in the moot (n.). Figuratively: it's still in the discussion phase.
 
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