Sir – In linguistics as a field of study, the descriptive has long superseded the prescriptive approach: in other words, study what we speak, but do not tell us how to speak.
So, we find many people saying a subject has been muted, when they mean mooted — the exact opposite. This is a manifest error, which should be corrected in the interest of proper understanding.
In his review of Blue Jasmine (Weekend, September 26), Damon Smith refers to Cate Blanchett as perhaps likely to win an Academy Award for “her tour de force portrayal of a cuckolded wife”, without apparently knowing that only a husband can be cuckolded by an unfaithful wife, a cuckold being the husband of an adultress.
Sometimes, the urge to coin a snappy phrase leads a journalist astray.
Michael Moorey, West Hendred
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