I frequent the Local Sales Network to find tools and other good buys. The spelling in some of the adds just cracks me up. Today there were 4 hand planes for sale. The add said Planners for sale. The other day there was "Plainer" for sale. it was a 12" Delta Planer. I frequently see "ban saws" Then there was a set of "screw bits" Auger bits if you haven't figured that one out, at least there was a photo of this one. I wish I had written down some of the other examples.
My favorite section on there is the Free section. You can pick up wonderful items like used motor oil for free, branches and brush as free fire wood, and even really nice tires and TVs. It's very entertaining.
I get really upset when I hear our politicians use the word Nuculer instead of Nuclear. These are the guys setting our policies and can't even say the work correctly.
I just got the One Way coring system and in the instructional video the demonstrator kept saying "tendon" instead of tenon. I am surprised the editor didn't catch it. I have thought about mentioning it to OneWay but have not had time.
Still, I cringe to read some of the communication among the 'regulars'.
Too often I have to reread the sentence, or look at it in relationship to the subject. My hands ache and the fingers and thumb don't always work in unison. Cell phone keys are hard to see and use. I'am sure there are many other excuses.
Reading and rereading the message, and correcting the errors would make some posts easier to read.
For those who truly enjoy these sorts of etymological faux-pas, Michael Quinion has a wonderful site and newsletter. I particularly enjoy his section in the newsletter entitled sic!. Here he weekly collects published errors.
With reference to "tenon" vs "tendon" I am unable to find any source indicating they are synonyms except in error. Tenon is from the Latin root "tenere", to hold and Tendon is from the Latin root "tendere", to stretch. I suspect we could find misuse of the two roots in Roman writing. Using Tendon when we mean Tenon has, I will bet, a long and glorious history - which does not, of course, make it correct.
Can you tell that I am in the midst (or "mist" if you prefer) of reading and grading students' papers?
back to work ... sigh ... this is more fun than what an eighteen year old college student has to say about the impact of social and political conditions on the writings of Adam Smith.
>I believe tendon is the preferred usage everywhere but the US.
This is interesting. Do you have a reference for this? I can find nothing in the dictionaries, including the Oxford British and World English dictionary. The books on my shelf written by English-speaking but non-US turners universally use "tenon." Of course they may have had US editors.
The two words apparently come from different roots with no overlap: tenon from Latin/French words meaning to hold, and tendon from Latin/Greek meaning sinew/to stretch.
In the medical literature I did find "tenon" referring to a Tenon's Capsule, named after Jacques-René Tenon. (Maybe a man named Jacques Tendon invented the tenon, confusing people forever!)
However, I found no example of the word "tendon" used with woodworking, except when discussing an injury (or in woodworking internet forums...)
It would be nice to know this for sure. While doing a woodturning demo I recently commented on the proper name for that wood thing we make and use vs that thing in my arm. I would like to know if I was incorrect.
The British seem to use "clamp" and "cramp" interchangeably or else the difference in meaning is too subtle for me to grasp. They don't have C clamps ... instead, they have G cramps ... which to me seems like a good reason to go to the local ER. Also, we have bar clamps while they have F clamps which seems to be getting a bit too close to the F bomb.
Most forum software text editors have a limited vocabulary (even "woodturner" isn't a word according to the dictionary on most if not all woodturning forums), but over time I have added a lot of words to my dictionary so that they don't get flagged.
