Pacific, disoriented and communial!!!!

[secretspirit]

Sorry if this is the wrong category but over the last few years I've been driven mad by people saying words wrong...

Pacific being used instead of specific is my pet hate. The Pacific is an ocean so putting it into sentences such as 'I can't give a pacific time' makes no sense whatever!!!! Does nobody know that or have the rules changed when I wasn't looking?

Another one that gets me is disoriented in place of disorientated. Did that word get officially shorted?

There's a case of extra letters in the new word 'communial'. Was the word communal not long enough?

I know I'm a pedant but these things really bother me. I won't even get started on apostrophes.

[Earthlady]

Although it seems to have slipped into regular (American) usage, I abhor the word normalcy.  What was wrong with normality?

It's a pleasure to find that this pedant band is so strong - don't be ashamed of being pedantic, I say.

[Bert]

Yet another frequently mispronounced word is 'mischievous', which is often pronounced as if it were 'mischievious'. It was even spelt that way on the back cover of the first paperback edition of 'Chocolat'. It shows how standards are slipping when I heard a few weeks ago on Radio 4, whoever was reading the Book of the Week pronounced 'ribald' to rhyme with 'piebald'.

[Dave.B]

One thing that is winding me up at the moment, and seen frequently on many internet discussion sites:

"I like this thing more then that thing"

or

"I reckon you should be doing this rather then that"

To my mind this suddenly started appearing about a year ago - I had never seen it before than. I mean then.

I actually pointed this out to someone at work after she had written it - "Dyslexia" was the not entirely unexpected answer. Not only does that continue to be an extremely over used excuse for sloppiness (although I respect its standing as a real condition), it also seems to be an awesome way to advance your career.