Grammar: Howlers 22 (in Quotes)

 
According to both @MailOnline and @TheSun I have said Andrew needs to 'jump through four hurdles'. No, you jump over hurdles. You jump through hoops. (@davidallengreen)

I have a real disdain for people whom beg for money for no real reason. (@TheWomanHolmes)

These are the budding cast members of 2017. (Countryfile. A branch puts out buds which become leaves and flowers. These are the cast members, they’re not becoming cast members.)

People think the pentacle of a career is becoming a New York Times bestseller but I’m increasingly convinced it’s a cameo on Sesame Street. (@SarahEBond. She means "pinnacle".)

Dominic Raab on BBC Breakfast has just said “Misogyny is absolutely wrong, whether it’s a man against a woman or a woman against a man”. (@hellothisisivan. Misogyny is prejudice against women.)

In many ways he was the forerunner of the sort of dusty, dismissive academics who lurk in one corner of Twitter, coruscating less-informed users with facts and bar charts and logic. (castigating)

The Herodotean legacy has sometimes been dismissed even as that of his near-contemporary Athenian historian Thucydides has found great succour with academics. (favour)

Freeman trolls through the two collections of Chandler’s papers. (Bill Peschel. In the UK, we trawl for mackerel but troll for trout, pronouncing them differently. We would trawl through papers. When we troll down the street we bounce along. Internet trolls are like monsters who live under bridges singing “Fol de rol”.)

This is the largest caliper ammo the public should be allowed to own. (@ClaireFosterPHD. She means "calibre".)

Lukashenka hijacked an EU-owned, EU-registered plane full of EU citizens travelling between EU capitals in order to seize an EU-recognized political refugee. If we don't make this tin-horned dictator regret it, what hope is there of restraining bigger scoundrels? (@radeksikorski. A tinhorn is someone who pretends to have money. A tin-pot dictator may try to look powerful, but he is no more than a tin-plate toy, a tin soldier.)

What a wonderful awry of comical satire and self-ridicule. (imdb, array)

They keep moving the carrot stick. (People understand the metaphor but the carrot has become confused with the stick. If you’re driving a donkey, you beat it with a stick while dangling a carrot on a fishing rod in front of its nose – it chases the carrot but can never catch up with it.)

Origen agreed [Jesus and magicians] shared superficial similarities, but claimed they were fundamentally different because magicians cavorted with demons while Jesus’ wonders led to moral reformation. (Consort means “hang out with”, while cavort means to dance or leap. “Prance, caper, gambol”, says the Thesaurus.) 

Bond is played by David Niven as a stuttering priggish English gent, with variations of him played by a nebbish Peter Sellers, an even more nebbish Woody Allen, and so on. (Times. Nebbish is a noun; the adjective is “nebbishy”.)

Someone emailed me last week, requesting my involvement in something which I politely declined by return email. I have now received what I will charitably describe as an "impassioned" response, exhorting me to "take another look at the frozen cons" of the idea. (@oxymoronictimes. That's "pros and cons".)

He had clearly also imbued much from Pugin. (lesseminentvictorians.com. He absorbed much from Pugin, Pugin imbued him with a lot.)

In 2017, Adele became the latest megastar to lay down roots here. (You lay down bottles of wine in a cellar, but put down roots.)

Historical binders, outdated books and ancient files align every wall. (Askamanager.com. They’re lining the walls, not lining up with them.)

These so-called eco-crusaders turned criminals, attempting to thwart the media’s right to publish without fear not favour, and a shameful attack on our way of life, our economy, and the livelihoods of the hard-working majority. I refused point black to allow that kind of anarchy on our streets. (Priti Patel, reportedly. That’s “without fear nor favour” and “refused point blank”.)

In TV in particular, in the past few months alone, we’ve seen the BBC languish in female victimhood. (Independent. I think they mean “revel”.)

Another illustration of why data brokers need to be reigned in. (@djleufer. The Queen reigns, you rein in a horse by pulling on the reins.)

Following old empirical recipes with “ozzes”. (imperial)

More here, and links to the rest.