I’m going to start quoting email correspondence that may be of interest to the Reader. If only so I can try out the Indent Block Quote button on this new diary entry form.
Master Hughes writes:
Oh, Mr. Edwards –
“Including the spam email, the swines.”
the plural of ‘swine’ is …..’swine’. Tsk, tsk!
Just looked this up. Both the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries give ‘swines’ as acceptable in the plural, as long as I’m using it to mean the old-fashioned slang for contemptible person, and not for pigs.
It’s also seems funnier than just ‘swine’. I’m aware of the comedian Russell Brand’s endorsement of phrases like “the swines!” as part of his curious mix of 2006 Estuary English and an affected old-fashioned vernacular. But he’s picking up a tradition. Though I concur that there’s more to Mr Brand’s style than just that. And I’m hardly best placed for accusing others of using an archaic vocabulary to attract attention.
“You dirty rotten swines” is a Goon Show catchphrase, and Mr Sellers uses it in Dr Strangelove when playing the stiff-upper-lip RAF officer:
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I was tortured by the Japanese, Jack, if you must know; not a pretty story.
General Jack D. Ripper: When they tortured you, did you talk?
Mandrake: Well, I don’t think they wanted me to talk really. I don’t think they wanted me to say anything. It was just their way of having a bit of fun, the swines. Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras.
