Quote Originally Posted by WillowEstate View Post
I agree with you, Jock, many such nuances are lost today but what can we expect with some of the new "words" (I use the term loosely) that the Oxford is including in its hallowed pages?

Perhaps to contrast need and necessity, it might help to see the word "necessity" as a synonym of "essential" in ths context. I suppose that's the significant factor really, context.

I suspect this decline started at about the same time English grammar, as opposed to literature, was not taught in British schools with the same rigour as in my schooldays in the 50s. The superficial nature is somewhat akin to the way "pyjama cricket" has all but destroyed the strategic 3- and 5-day game we all loved, or the idea that the seasons are related in some way to the calendar or the weather, when in reality, they relate only to the orbit of the earth around the sun.
OC Richard. I enjoy confusing people, Yesterday I invited a German Lady to join me for breakfast at a Cornish Youth Hostel.

I was wearing my Scottish Kilt. The lady proudly announced. "I understand the English .I do not understand you .You are Scottish."

My response was; "Well, my dear lady, I learnt to speak English at an English Grammar School. Perhaps that is why you do not understand
me." Roderick Powell

Roderick Powell."