Grey squirrels and cultural imperialism.

[freezeframe]

Some people despise the word and think we should say tomato sauce instead. You can find some more here: U and non-U English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I saw a red squirrel last year in the Lake District- the first I've seen in the wild for many years.

Thank you for the link. It was interesting. I was particularly amused by "Pardon?" included in the "aspiring middle class" column. It's one of my pet peeves -- I hate it when people say it.

I was also amused by this: Ketchup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The word entered the English language in England during the late 17th century, appearing in print as catchup (1690) and later as ketchup (1711). The following is a list of early quotations collected by the Oxford English Dictionary.

• 1690, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew
  
  • Catchup: a high East-India Sauce.

Isn't 300 years enough for the word to become acceptable?


PS was the squirrel armed and dangerous? was it ravaging the linguistic ecosystem?

[konungursvia]

I'm very much used to pardon as it's a direct borrowing from French: pardon... If they do it, we can surely do it. ;)

[freezeframe]

I'm very much used to pardon as it's a direct borrowing from French: pardon... If they do it, we can surely do it. ;)

It makes me gag when people say it just to sound refined.

[Tdol]

Isn't 300 years enough for the word to become acceptable?

It's probably just about ready to become a parvenu.

PS was the squirrel armed and dangerous? was it ravaging the linguistic ecosystem?[/SIZE]

It was charging across a graveyard. It didn't complain about insidious Americanisms or grey invaders.