I've won a small language-use victory today. When the new issue
of our organisation's magazine arrived, I was very surprised when
the chairman in his editorial used the Swedish word "frett",
instead of "[tam-]iller" (=[domestic] polecat). Skim through it
to see if he maybe was referring to albinos that traditionally
have been called this. No.
 
Turn the page -- same there. All editorial text uses the same
word. They've actually listened to me! (My letter is published
too, with the reason why it's a good idea to use a separate word
for domestic and wild animals, even though they may look similar.
 
Hopefully there won't be too many protests against this, I hope
people see the good reasons for it, especially since practically
the same word is used in English, German and Dutch (at least).
--
 Urban Fredriksson  [log in to unmask]  Docendo discimus
 
[Posted in FML issue 0567]