Lose or loose?

[shereads]

The intent of this thread is to piss off the people who have submitted stories by pointing out a commonly seen error:

the use of "loose" instead of "lose."

Loose = it ain't tight.

Lose = put it where you can't find it

Lose also = don't win

This little moment of sunshine is a gift to the authors in gratitude for many, many hours of reading pleasure thanks to your marvelous strokers and "directed wankers" (I love that one! Can that be a story category?)

My work is done here. I can get back to writing my swampland brochure (aka "new private gated community with waterfront golf course") before I loose my job.



Discuss...

 

[shereads]

Got proofreading?

When it's not my own work, I'm an excellent proofreader. Any of you who fear loooosing a contest becuse of points off for something a proofreader might have caught, PM me and I'll let you know if I have time to give your stories a once-over. No charge and therefore no guarantees.

It'll make me feel less guilty for using valuable lengths of thread and electricity modules here at Authors' Hangout.

 

[Quasimodem]

Got proofreading?

When it's not my own work, I'm an excellent proofreader. . . give your stories a once-over. No charge and therefore no guarantees.

shereads,

What you have just described is a "Money-back Guarantee!"

 

[shereads]

Quasi, you're absolutely right. Except that in my case, we skip a step.

 

[Pure]

Nice posting! The error is common among even the educated.

You might note that 'loose' is also a verb.

J.

 

[shereads]

You might note that 'loose' is also a verb.

Good catch, Pure. Noted, and used in a sentence:

"The blood dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned."

I might turn that into a poem if I have a few extra hours this weekend.

 

[Icingsugar]

Nice posting! The error is common among even the educated.

...and I've never ever understood why. Nobody goes around confusing nose with noose, now do they?

Or pop with poop?

...oh wait... that explains alot.

/Ice

 

[Icingsugar]

"Loose the noose or lose the nose!"

 

[shereads]

Icingsugar nose best.

 

[Quasimodem]

If we don't use lose we'll get hoosed

 

[Octavian]

Originally posted by Icingsugar

Nobody goes around confusing nose with noose, now do they?

Oh yes they do!

What about Rudolph the Red Noosed Reindeer!

Octavian
Bearer of the Silver Rose (and of the spurious o's)

 

[Guest]

Octavian, what a treat! Where have you been? Hope all is as well as well.

cheers, Perdita (loosened woman)

 

[Weird Harold]

The intent of this thread is to piss off the people who have submitted stories by pointing out a commonly seen error:

the use of "loose" instead of "lose."

Let us not ignore those so lost in the depths of poor spelling as to use Loss in place of either or both of these two oft confused words.

 

[oggbashan]

Loose is a village

in Kent, UK, just South of Maidstone.

It is pronounced "lose" just to confuse furriners.

They have a women's Morris Dancing team called "The Loose Women" and are tired of jokes about "The Loose Women's Institute".

Og

 

[Quasimodem]

... They have a women's Morris Dancing team called "The Loose Women" and are tired of jokes about "The Loose Women's Institute". Og

I don't see why

That should make for quite a tourist attraction.

I know that I would queue up for a ticket to "The Loose Women's Institute Christmas Party."

(Although, from what I've read today, I would prefer if it were held in Sweden.)


Og: I've just given you the title for your third Winter Holiday Contest entry. You have got 36 hours!

 

[oggbashan]

Og: I've just given you the title for your third Winter Holiday Contest entry. You have got 36 hours!

There are some things even I will not do. The Loose Womens' Institute is too close to home. They are very intelligent ladies and I would not want them after my blood. I like my body in one piece.

Og

 

[shereads]

Re: Loose is a village

They have a women's Morris Dancing team called "The Loose Women" and are tired of jokes about "The Loose Women's Institute".

Og

That may be, but in the US our loose women are tired of being confused with Morris Dancers.

 

[oggbashan]

Re: Re: Loose is a village

That may be, but in the US our loose women are tired of being confused with Morris Dancers.

If you have ever seen Morris Dancers in action they could never be confused with loose women.

Female Morris Dancers, which is a contradiction because Morris Dancing was an exclusively male aberration, do not look loose. They seem to recruit from the ranks of professional virgins and seem unable to recognise that sex might be a better way to pass the time. Anything except Morris Dancing might be better. Train spotting? Bird twitching? Counting zits?

Og

 

[RenzaJones]

Re: Re: Re: Loose is a village

If you have ever seen Morris Dancers in action they could never be confused with loose women.

Female Morris Dancers, which is a contradiction because Morris Dancing was an exclusively male aberration, do not look loose. They seem to recruit from the ranks of professional virgins and seem unable to recognise that sex might be a better way to pass the time. Anything except Morris Dancing might be better. Train spotting? Bird twitching? Counting zits?

Og

What's a professional virgin?

 

[oggbashan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Loose is a village

What's a professional virgin?

Someone whose whole life depends on being a virgin. Typical examples are old maids who participate in church activities and irritate the minister because they think their "virginity" enables them to claim special holiness and righteousness. Maybe it is a European thing. Such people (who could be male or female) assume holier than thou attitudes.

It would take more than a few Lit stories to get them to give up their most treasured possession. Deflowering such a person would destroy them, not convert them. If you've met one you would recognise the type.

Og

PS Priests and Nuns are not "professional virgins". They have voluntarily chosen celibacy, and Nuns are "Brides of Christ".

 

[SlickTony]

Maybe it is a European thing. Such people (who could be male or female) assume holier than thou attitudes.

The persona is very much alive in America also; Dana Carvey sent it up quite nicely in his SNL character, The Church Lady.

Thanks, shereads, for another rant about people who misuse "lose" and "loose." It cannot be bitched about too severely nor too often. It pisses me off, too, and I have been known to deduct a point from a story because of it, unless it was superlatively hot in other respects.

I had one of my daughter's teachers send me a note when she was in first grade in which she wrote "lossed" for "lost," I shit you not. This is the kind of thing that makes you despair of the state of education in our public schools.