|
|
|
|
|
by stan_rogers
3123 days ago
|
|
Inconsequential niggle: the word/phrase is painstaking, which breaks up as pains-taking (rather than pain-staking). As in "I am taking pains to do this correctly". Back when I were a wee lad, one often took pains; kids these days are more likely to attach the phrase to the task rather than the performer, so the adjectival inversion is more common, and it's easy to rebracket. (Rebracketing in language is the process by which you now may find yourself eating an orange rather than a narange, cutting a notch in something rather than cutting an otch, or feeling a bit more alone than all one. Sometimes it results in language change, but there's that awkward period where it's wrong first.) |
|
But while I'm on this subtopic, if you've never heard of it, "france is bacon" is fun to google.