[jambutty]

The art of communication Benipete, which is sadly lacking from some people on this forum, is to convey to others what you mean by choosing the right words and compiling them into a sentence that makes sense. The sentence does not have to be grammatically correct, although it would help if it were, to ensure that the correct message was conveyed. Punctuation is not vital although a comma in the wrong place can alter the meaning of a sentence. Correct spelling is not vital either unless the misspelling of a word gives it an entirely different meaning. Not everyone can spell correctly or can be bothered to use a dictionary/spell checker so the reader has to give the writer some latitude.

However according to the Oxford English Dictionary the word APITAME does not exist and in the reading of “No he's the apitame of a Millwall supporter” the reader could rightly assume that it should have been EPITOME if the sentence was to have any discernable meaning. Of course APITAME could be some obscure Amercianism that we mere mortals are not familiar with but it is not listed in Webster’s Dictionary either. I prefer to accept the word of the OED or WD rather than a post in a forum.

Brushing off the furore with “I know what I meant” only serves to confuse the reader even more because we readers do not know what you mean if you do not write your message in a manner that we understand.

Both spellings of patronise/patronize are correct.

On the other hand OCD is a badly constructed acronym, as it does not spell an actual recognised word. What “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” or “Oxford Classical Dictionary” (which relates to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome) has to do with anything is beyond me though. Although here we can assume that shakermaker meant the OED – that is the Oxford English Dictionary.

The art of communication Benipete, is to convey your message in the language that the reader/listener is going to understand. Thus the onus is on the speaker/writer to say/write what s/he means rather than the reader/listener having to try and guess what the message is.

You wouldn’t speak in English to a foreigner who has no knowledge of English would you? However being English you would probably shout at the other person or use some weird pidgin English in some vain hope that by doing so, they would understand you.