Today's peeve

[dianec42]

People using the word "Britain" instead of "Briton", as in "his fellow Britains had this to say...".

On two separate bloody BRITISH websites so far this week. That I've noticed.

I despair.

Comments

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

I shall sit here and feel smug then. :)

[blipvert.livejournal.com]

You think that's bad, try reading Shakespeare. Holy crispy crap could that guy not spell.

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare didn't have a spell checker, and (as far as I'm aware) he wasn't paid good money to provide normally impeccable coverage of Formula One racing.

Still, the intellectual exercise of picturing David Coulthard as a "Britain" is amusing. Certainly his massive jawline alone could support a huge population.

[blipvert.livejournal.com]

ROFL

No man is an island.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

You should calm down whilst listening to some music by Benjamin Britten.

[scooterbird.livejournal.com]

Sweet magoo, this colonist knows better! I radiate with smugness.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

You mean "colonial", don't you?

[scooterbird.livejournal.com]

Depends on the degree of snark in the air at the time...

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

BTW, just who does "Briton" cover? Literally, it doesn't seem to include the residents of Northern Ireland, who are nonetheless UK citizens.

[blipvert.livejournal.com]

Strictly speaking, a Briton is a native of the island of Great Britain. (In an even stricter historical context, one of Celtic not Anglo-Saxon heritage.) However, informal usage permits the word to refer to any British subject, even of Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man — just as the word "American" often substitutes for the less catchy "US citizen" rather than referring to the continent as a whole.

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

"Whom", surely... (-: