804-1: Feedback, Notes and Comments

Nosism Several subscribers suggested that doctors and nurses who used we (“And how are we today?”), which Hilary Powers calls the clinical we, isn’t an example of nosism, using we for oneself. John Weiss argued that it either meant you or was an embracing plural first person that included the patient.

Fit to be tied Judith Lowe, Graham Egan and John Gibbs mentioned the common Australian version of this idiom: ropeable.

Dingus Several more comments came in about the Dutch antecedents of dingus. Ilke Cochrane wrote, “As a native Dutch speaker I have long been familiar with the word dinges (as it is usually spelled, although it obviously tends to occur in spoken rather than written language), which is pronounced with a g like that in ringer, and can refer to things, people or words the speaker can’t remember.”