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Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays

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On 29/08/2026 9:45 AM, Kragen Javier Sitaker wrote:
> Marion <marion@facts.com> writes:
>> it's kind of like when I ask people to use "lend" as a verb vs "loan"
>> as a noun; or when I notice people using "further" for "farther" in
>> terms of distances; or when people use "less" instead of "fewer" for
>> things that can be counted; or when people use "dirt" when they really
>> mean "soil"; or when they call a "stone" a "rock" when all of these
>> things are actually not what people think.
> 
> - “Lend” is indeed not currently in use as a noun, outside of Scottish
>    and northern English dialects, where it has been in use as a noun
>    (meaning “loan”) since at least 01575, with attestations up to the
>    present day.
>    <https://archive.org/details/oed6aarch/page/n208/mode/1up>
> 
> - “Loan” has been in use as a verb (as well as a noun) meaning “to lend”
>    since at least 01200, with attestations pretty continuously for 800
>    years up to the present day.
>    <https://archive.org/details/oed6aarch/page/n385/mode/1up>
> 
> - “Further” has been in use with the meaning “farther” in terms of
>    distances since at least 01578, with attestations up to the present
>    day except for the 18th century.
>    <https://archive.org/details/oed04arch/page/n631/mode/1up>
> 
> - “Less” has been in use with the meaning “a smaller number of; fewer”
>    since at least King Ælfred in 0888, making this 1138-year-old meaning
>    the longest-standing one you ask people to refrain from using.
>    <https://archive.org/details/oed6aarch/page/n221/mode/1up> (A.I.1.c,
>    bottom of the left column)
> 
>      Additionally, “less” has the meaning “Of not so great size, extent,
>      or degree”, a meaning which is not shared by “fewer”, and is
>      eminently applicable to things that can be counted.  For example,
>      driving to work at 90 kilometers per hour uses *less* resources than
>      driving to work at 120 kilometers per hour, because your fuel
>      consumption is lower, but it doesn’t use *fewer* resources; it uses
>      *the same number* of resources (gasoline, the car, the brake pads,
>      etc.), just to a smaller extent.
> 
> - “Soil” and “dirt” are both fairly polysemous.  Maybe you can explain
>    which usage you are taking issue with?  For reference, the meanings of
>    “dirt” given in
>    <https://archive.org/details/oed03arch/page/n409/mode/1up> are
>    excrement; filth; worthless things; land; people you don’t like;
>    mud/soil; gangue; washdirt; dirtiness; meanness; bad weather; poison
>    gas in a mine; and to make dirty.  The meanings of “soil” given in
>    <https://archive.org/details/oed9aarch/oed9aarch/page/n384/mode/1up>
>    are the ground; plains; site; estate; land/region; place of one’s
>    nativity; domicile; materials of the ground such as sand and clay;
>    mould/earth; sill; and lintel.
> 
> Similar remarks surely apply to the historical meanings of “stone” and
> “rock”, but it is getting to be my bedtime, and I think this adequately
> makes the point that, in general, you seem to be taking up arms against
> the Oxford English Dictionary and centuries of established English
> usage.  Perhaps you have access to an arbiter of English meanings more
> authoritative than the OED and the English-language literary corpus?
> What might that be?
> 
> Kragen

In my opinion, language belongs to the living.  And words change meaning
every now and than.  That said, I reject most of the politically moti-
vated changes of meaning, because it's not about the word, and the com-
munication at that point, but power over people.

Anyway, what I meant to comment on in this followup was the usage of
"further" and "farther."  As far as my research into the matter some
years ago, and I hope the historical usages have not changed since,
it's simply a difference of spelling.  I tend to like "further" over
"farther" because I can hear a difference in my head, but not sure
that difference is audible when I speak.

There has been some /systematic/ effort to /correct/ spellings since
the 19th century, at least.  And the further back in time you go, some
words are indeed spelled differently.  At the moment, I'm not in a pos-
ition to look into which 17th century book I was reading -- or was it
older? -- and the major difference I had to get used to was the elong-
ated Ss.  I'll refrain to try to draw them with ASCII art for now, but
they're the pre-cursor to the modern symbol of integrals.

I take the view that if a spelling was good enough for the people of the
17th century, or potentially earlier, it's good enough for me, and some-
times make an effort to write certain words as such.  "Vampyre" comes to
mind, but I don't write much about those creatures.


Thank you for coming to my TED talk in alt.usage.english!
-- 
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | via Easynews.com
https://bsky.app/profile/myrkraverk.bsky.social | for ( ;; ) _:;

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Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> - 2026-08-28 22:45 -0300
  Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 15:52 +0800
    Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-29 10:09 +0200
      Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 16:40 +0800
        Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-08-29 22:32 +1000
          Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 21:10 +0800
          Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-29 16:34 +0200
  Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2026-08-29 08:43 -0400
    Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 21:16 +0800
      Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-29 18:30 +0000
        Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-29 21:43 +0100
      Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-08-29 23:12 +0100
    Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-30 10:08 +0000
  Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> - 2026-08-30 16:11 +0100
    Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-30 16:30 +0000
      Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-30 19:18 +0200
        Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-30 17:45 +0000
          Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-31 08:24 +0200
        Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-08-31 09:42 +1000
          Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-08-31 08:43 +0100
            Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-31 10:45 +0000
              Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-31 16:45 +0100
                Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-31 16:08 +0000
                Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-31 20:56 +0100
                Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) - 2026-08-31 16:54 +0000
            Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-08-31 13:36 +0200
              Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> - 2026-08-31 12:09 -0700
                Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-08-31 22:26 +0200
          Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-31 10:11 +0200
            Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-08-31 20:48 +0100
              different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> - 2026-08-31 21:00 -0300
                Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-09-01 10:29 +1000
                Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-09-01 08:08 +0200
                active and healthy newsgroups in 02026 (was Re: different iron alloys) Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> - 2026-09-01 10:15 -0300
                Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Richard Smith <null@void.com> - 2026-09-28 07:19 +0100
                Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) "Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> - 2026-10-01 19:46 -0400
                Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2026-09-13 18:31 -0300
              Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-09-01 07:59 +0200
      Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-08-30 13:33 -0400
        Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-30 19:45 +0000
    Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-08-30 21:32 +0100

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