READERS’ WORDS

Many years ago, when esteemed local and international rugby hooker John Allan was a co-commentator on SS1, he described a spectacular and bruising charge by a loose forward as a “bollocking run”. A replay showed that no players had their nether regions threatened. — Mike Byron This comes from the team manager of an angling club. A new word has been evolved: “This incident was surely a freak accident and certainly not an individual’s neglectancy.” — Henry Tours I saw this on a news site: “Less babies abandoned”. My English teacher drummed it into us that you only use “less” for “smaller”. Are there now only tiny babies abandoned? I think the word should have been “fewer”. — Ayanda Shongwe In a recent Sunday Times I came across “He critiques the lack of focus on those questions ...” I’ve not come across the verb “to critique” before. You have stimulated me to criticise statements such as “He was plus or minus 30 years old”. He could be 30 years old, but minus 30 is an impossibility. — Ian Copley The word “awful” is so misused. “There were an awful lot of people there.” I’m sure most of them were quite nice! Another bone of contention is the “free gift”. All gifts are free. If you have to pay for it, it is not a gift. — Dave Soons Newspapers of late spell “co-operation” as “cooperation”. My faithful Oxford gives the spelling as co-operation. It is no wonder that radio presenters get tied up in vocal knots when trying to pronounce the word. — Jackie Thom