« Talk sense about marriage | Main | Meet Professor Blorenge »

If you're pals with Patrick

Tomorrow being the Feast of St. Patrick, you will want to refer to it — if you go in for that sort of jocular informality — with the Irish diminutive for Patrick, St. Paddy’s Day. If you should, as some invariably do, refer to St. Patty’s Day, you would be suggesting something about the saint not supported by the skimpy historical record.

Slainte.*

* Pronounced SLAWN-cha.

 

 

Posted by John McIntyre on March 16, 2008 7:40 AM |
                    

Comments

Thank goodness for you, John McIntyre. I was wondering about this as I've always taken Patty to be a woman, Paddy a man, and was quite surprised that here in Boston -- of all places -- many (including the Boston Globe) didn't seem to realize the difference.

Posted by: mighty red pen | March 18, 2008 8:12 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Please enter the letter "p" in the field below:

About this blog


John McIntyre, mild-mannered copy editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, has fussed over writers’ work at The Baltimore Sun since 1986. He is the director of its copy desk, an affiliate faculty member at Loyola College of Maryland, a former president of the American Copy Editors Society, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Michigan State and Syracuse, and a moderate prescriptivist. If you are inspired by a spirit of contradiction, comment on his posts or write to him at john.mcintyre@baltsun.com.

Categories

Recent Posts

Search


Archives

Also See

> More blogs
> Podcasts
Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]
Powered by Movable Type 3.36
Hosted by LivingDot