Span
Posted in Linguistic Annoyances at 22:56 on 11 August 2008
I know it’s in the dictionary but it’s marked archaic damn it!
That means it hasn’t been in use more or less since printing came to Europe. So why am I reading it in a contemporary novel? Why am I reading it in a Science Fiction novel?
Come on guys and gals. It just sounds so wrong. The modern word is spun. Let’s leave span for gaps, bridges and hands. OK?
Tags: Linguistic Annoyances
The Opposite of Span - A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton
10 September 2008 at 15:17
[…] is almost the reverse of the case of span (see a previous annoyances post) except that rather than being full past tenses (preterites,) sunk and shrunk are now, in the main, […]
redRobe By John Courtenay Grimwood - A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton
12 October 2008 at 14:32
[…] instances of âsatâ instead of the more correct âsitting.â (And, sadly, there is a âspanâ count of 1. […]
BSFA Short Story Competition 3 - A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton
19 May 2009 at 21:22
[…] sentence the neologism skool but later in the story the usual spelling appears. And there is a âspanâ count of three. […]
When Time Winds Blow by Robert Holdstock – A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton
24 April 2010 at 14:19
[…] is a âspanâ count of 2 (though one instance of âspunâ) plus two cases of flaunting the […]
New Model Army by Adam Roberts – A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton
25 August 2014 at 19:31
[…] there was a span count 3, though; plus 1 […]