Thursday, November 4, 2010

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

English today does not always shine. So how on earth has the word "whilst" become so popular the past few years? Shakespeare and the King James Bible aside, I never remember seeing anything other than "while", until relatively recently.

My first encounter of the word "whilst" certainly raised my mental eyebrow. Is this a "whilst" I see before me? Pray, what next? Forsooth? Perchance? Methinks?

Perhaps these "whilsts" are tossed in in order to adorn the text, in a desperate bid to hide the fact that the rest of the text is so sub-par.

All of these "whilsts" in the midst of otherwise underwhelming prose remind me of the guy who orders a double cheeseburger, fries and a diet coke.

Meanwhilst...

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