Posted: Wednesday 8 February 2012
Proof reading: in the dog house
By Austin Flynn
In an ironic twist, after last week’s blog about typos and my trip to the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle, one of my learned friends (certainly more learned than me anyway) has taken great delight in pointing out that I was wrong about the ‘bare’/’bear’ point. I was reliably informed that while the spelling in the Castle is indeed incorrect by the spelling standards of the 20th and early 21st centuries, it is in fact a direct quotation from the 17th century King James Bible (published in 1611) and the phrase appears in Exodus 19:4. Far be it from me to argue with Moses about his spelling, so I am currently eating humble pie and accepting that I was wrong (well, sort of). In an attempt to save some face, however, I should point out that in an earlier blog I did accept that evolution of language is just a fact of life; having such a stark example of that evolution in action has been a ‘valuable learning experience’ (as they say).
Having said all of that, the phrase “I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself” will still always conjure up those images of a naked man standing on the back of a large eagle and I will always allow myself a wry smile on future family trips to Edinburgh Castle.
Just to try and regain some of the lost moral high ground, I should stress that my learned friend did agree with me that the American spelling of ‘united’ is in fact ‘united’ (and not ‘untied’). She also cheered me up by telling me a story about a secretary who, many years earlier, typed up a building survey referring to the ‘monster content of the stonework’ (rather than the ‘moisture content’) much to the amusement of the property owner who had never seen so much as a rogue mouse on his premises, never mind anything of the Nessie variety.
