Since I'm the one that used the term persnickety, though I do believe someone else had recently used it in a post - which is why it came to my mind - let me clarify. This below is the original post of mine, with Elizabeth's comment to which I was responding:
- True, with regard to correctness - which then comes into persnicketyness
- versus accepted practices. Yes, but having linen in it's own category
- doesn't say it's not an evenweave. You know - one of those set and logic
- things - and linen may be an evenweave, but all evenweaves are not linen.
- ;^p (or should it be r,d,& h)
My response, complete with the little smiley at the end - was that indeed the common vernacular isn't always correct. Not that specifically in this instance it is incorrect. The next part, referring to persnicketyness - has to do with being particular with respect to a specific absolute of correctness when compared with using a common vernacular. As in accepting only a specific term, rather than also accepting terminology in common usage which may be less precise, formal, historically rooted, etc. The common vernacular may not be as precise. I expect, hope, that Elizabeth knew I wasn't being dismissive, nor was I insulting her.
Furthermore, I believe that I have made it more than clear that my usage of the common vernacular, which you, Dianne, may feel is slovenly, slang, imprecise, and beneath you , is neither an indication of my unwillingness to gain or share knowledge, nor to indicate my insecurity or feelings of elitism. And, if one were going to infer slights and condescension from posts, then clearly yours towards me would provide models of that form.
We don't have to agree about use of language. If you don't like the commonly accepted one, I'm sure you're capable of informing and reminding those in your sphere of influence, not to mention sharing that indignation with the manufacturers, distributors and purveyors of needlework fabric who perpetrate the misuse of the term "evenweave" as opposed to "evenly woven" - heck if we're going to be correct, let's really be correct. I'm not sure that a term which is commonly accepted in an industry is to be termed incoorect because it is not the term used 100 years ago, or has a spelling which isn't the first choice. There are many words with multiple accepted spellings - IMHO - "Evenweave" vs "even weave" is just such a case, and in particular, the single word version has come into use more as a noun, not simply and adjective, while the other version is not a noun.
Although, it likely doesn't matter a hill of beans to you, in practice, I do tend to explain to customers the sundry assortment of fabrics which are considered "evenweaves" - including linen. In the shop we don't group things as "evenweave" - they're grouped by their individual labels - probably even precisely enough for your high standards.
Darn, and I'm a horse lover, hate doing this.
ellice