english lesson #4

Dear People Who Get To My Site By Googling Without Further Adieu,

There are far too many of you.

I titled a post Without Further Adieu as a joke. Several of the women I work with are fond of this highly amusing yet incorrect turn of phrase. When you say without further adieu, what you're actually saying is without further goodbye.

What you mean to say is without further ado, which as I'm sure you're aware, means without further fuss.

Maybe you've lost the ability to speak correctly because you've been burning the candle at both ends of the spectrum, or maybe you're just pulling my leg over my eyes. But honestly, can't you read the handwriting in the wind? Don't you follow where I'm coming from? It's just plain wrong.

a·dieu      /əˈdu, əˈdyu; Fr. aˈdyɶ/

interjection, noun, plural a·dieus, a·dieux
–interjection
1.    good-bye; farewell.
–noun
2.    the act of leaving or departing; farewell.

a·do      /əˈdu/
–noun
busy activity; bustle; fuss.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME (north) at do, a phrase equiv. to at to (< ON, which used at with the inf.) + do do1]

Comments

[Aurelius]

It seems that people using phrases they don't understand, but which sound almost like what they are trying to say, is far too common. While living in Queensland recently, I had a boss who used to say "clear as mud" whenever he understood something. People are dumb.