Whose in charge of the English Language?

[Andromeda321]

This thread reminds me: anyone here ever read the book Frindle? For those who haven't, it's a middle school book about a kid who has a grammar Nazi type English teacher who is in love with the dictionary. In order to retaliate he decides to make up a new word, Frindle, which means pen, and hilarity ensues. Really a cute little book.

 

[Danger]

In order to retaliate he decides to make up a new word, Frindle, which means pen, and hilarity ensues. Really a cute little book.

Puts me in mind of my grade 10 Marketing course. Nobody else in class had ever heard the word 'widget', which the teacher used when setting up a hypothetical situation. I got into a public, year-long conversation with him regarding what kind of widgets we preferred, and ideas for design variations, and speculation about the future of widgets... The other students were going nuts trying to get us to tell them what the hell a widget was. We never did.

 

[brewnog]

Ahhhhh Danger. You're missing out. A few years back, John Smiths (beer) had a lovely advert, showing off the new inclusion of a Widget in their cans. Just a plastic ball which released nitrogen (I think) into the beer when opened, making it lovely and smooth. Mmmmm.

The song went something like this:

"Widget! It's got a widget, a lovely widget, a widget it has got"

Try and sing along!

 

[Danger]

Try and sing along!

Hi Noggie;
I've been known to demolish a pint or two of Smith's bitters whilst playing darts. Haven't had any in over a decade, though. Guinness uses those (what we call 'squibs') for their canned draught, but I didn't know anyone else did.
Some of our language differences put us about half way between you and the Yanks. A lot of our everyday language is shared with them rather than you. I still remember a joke that I thought was hilarious and none of my friends got it. It was in one of Ronny Corbett's monologues from 'The Two Ronnies'. He mentioned that he'd "got a traffic summons for parking on the pavement. Well... I didn't really park, you know, on the pavement. I was overtaking an omnibus on the near side and ran out of petrol." Of course it was his totally benign, innocent delivery that really made it funny, but I had to translate the terms before my mates could get it at all.

 

[brewnog]

Good old Ronnie, bless his socks.

I almost wonder if he did it on purpose...

 

[Danger]

Good old Ronnie, bless his socks.

I almost wonder if he did it on purpose...

I don't believe that's something that we mortals are meant to know.