Tree hugging gone mad

[Mogga]

Swapping the heads? :)

[Owain]

Yup. :-)

Owain

[Andy Dingley]

No, scientists just used to die of obscure occupational conditions, but being geeks they didn't seem to mind.

Who was the Oxford chem. prof with the Gibsonian mirrorshade eyeballs, from osmium poisoning?

[Mary Fisher]

Wouldn't know the difference between a candelabrum and two candelabra either ...

Mary

[Tony Williams]

14713 this morning so it looks like some of them have been timed out. AIUI Demon will delete the whole contents of your mailbox if asked.

Or :(.

Demon's spam blocker means that I get about 50-200 per day atm. Which is much less than it used to be, but still enough to be an irritant.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's been common to use candelabra as the singular and plural for many a year. As an ex journalist you should know this. I refer you to 'Only fools and Horses' for proof. The case rests there, M'lud.

[Andy Dingley]

Sprues.

Top bit (the pouring bowl) is the cup. The sprue goes vertically downwards and ought to taper so that it narrows. Runners go horizontally around to distribute the metal. Gates are the connections into the mould cavity.

On the way out, risers allow metal to flow out of the mould (so that the casting itself doesn't have the surface crud on it). Vents are similar, but only intended to let gas out.

[Dave Liquorice]

So I imagined it then? And the excruciating pain of getting Dead Sea water in my eyes. There is very little you do about that either, you can't rub 'em as your hands are now also covered in said water...

[Roger]

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

More proof, if proof were needed, may be found in a dictionary. My Collins (1986 I think, frontispiece has gone missing along with the cover) has both -brum and -bra as singular and -bra, -brum and -bras as alternative plurals.

[Richard Tobin]

It does, eventually.

That doesn't make much difference.

-- Richard

[Mary Fisher]

I did say that in the next post :-)

I know all that - I just couldn't bring to mind the word 'sprue'.

Seeing the soldiers being made in Scarborough was my first experience of casting and I thought it was magic, since then I've not been able to get away from it, Spouse STILL casts all sorts of things in various metals. And of course I do it in wax ... but no sprue or vents or runners are needed. Occasionally I get cold shutting so have to start again but there's no loss of material and it takes hardly any time.

We still turn up the odd lead soldier in the garden along with Action Man body parts and dozens of marbles. I can't bear to throw any of them away ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Common usage doesn't mean it's correct. In fact in this case it doesn't make sense.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You seem to be rivalling dribble in levels of intelligence if you truly didn't understand what I meant. Be as pedantic as you want of course - it wouldn't be the same if you weren't.

FWIW, taking a word from a foreign language into English then insisting on the 'correct' plural is just plain stupid - unless it is applied in every case. After all we don't insist on the same declension.

[Andy Dingley]

Well you've tried Collins, now what does a real dictionary say?

(and I don't mean Webster's either, even if it is the 2nd)

[Mary Fisher]

Of course it does. Would the poster have put a candles in his candelabra?

I'm going to Wales tomorrow, talk among yourselves while I'm away.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

">

So why use the word at all? We have perfectly good alternative words: candlestick, candleholder etc. Perhpas you were trying to be pompous by using a 'foreign' word ... you DID look it up in the dictionary before you posted?

Mary

[normanwisdom]

Hmm. So would a ba be a plural bum?

cheers Jacobus

[Richard Tobin]

Making sense doesn't make much difference to whether something becomes standard English. It's quite common for imported words to change their singular/plural status. Do you treat the words "eaves" and "riches" as singular?

-- Richard

[Richard Tobin]

Or perhaps it was just the word he'd always used for the object? You don't put light bulbs in a candlestick or candel-holder.

Well I did, in the OED. It says "candelabrum Pl -bra. (Also in modern use, candelabra, pl -as)".

-- Richard

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Strangely those are for candles and I was talking about light bulbs. The obvious alternative is chandelier but that's foreign muck too - to you, I'd guess.

Some of us have a reasonable vocabulary without the need to refer to a dictionary and might want to enliven things by not just using the same boring words all the time where it doesn't matter. Oh - and some can actually spell 'perhaps' without needing a dictionary. ;-)

But I'd have thought the use of such a word obvious if you read and understood my point. Fancy light fittings like that might use fancy light bulbs. Often even candle lamps.

I hope your holiday sees you in a better mood. Gawd help your poor hubby.