Mrs Malaprop - a rant.

Words are precious, and every single one deserves to be treated with care and love and respect (except groovy, obviously).

Only a bully, though, gets vicious when someone makes a mistake.

There's no need to get angry or disgusted, is there. No, because occasional slips are there to be savoured.

Take a recent offering from the Daily Telegraph journalist Tanya Aldred. I don't suppose that boosting tourism in the sadly declining English seaside resort of Blackpool:

was her intention when she wrote her piece about Blackpool Football Club.





But she might have done it by broadcasting the news that in Blackpool 'pound shops procreate on every corner.'*

Yes, now the curious crowds will surely surge back, and Blackpool will soon rise to its former glory.

You know, I think I might even go along myself.

Word To Use Today: proliferate (probably a wiser, though much less amusing, choice of word than procreate). Proliferate, meaning to increase rapidly in number, comes from the Mediaeval Latin prōlifer, having offspring, which comes from prōlēs, offsring, plus ferre, to bear.

*A pound shop is one where everything is sold for the very reasonable price of £1.

A 99p shop is, however, even better value.