I’m always banging on about misuse of language, but my current beef is with the word ‘mischievous’.
Who put the ‘i’ in it and made it ‘mischiev-i-ous’?
It doesn’t really fall into the category of language reshaping itself with use. It doesn’t make it easier to pronounce, better to look at, easier to spell, or give it a softer or sharper meaning than the original. It’s just a rogue letter stuffed into a word for no reason. I blame Judge Judy for it. Partly. And at a salary of $54,000,000 a year she should know better. In the same episode I watched she also used the word ‘bring’ instead of ‘take’, 3 or 4 times. She rubber stamped the idea that you ‘bring’ your kids to school, rather than ‘take’ them. Why does it bug me so? I haven’t the faintest idea.
I should have realised long ago that it’s a losing battle…
