FROM OUR READERS
Dear Dr English,
On your Bloopers page, you have a picture of a sign with the word "Tit-bit".
You seem to be implying that this word is wrong, and should be "Tid-bit".
However, according to Merriam-Websters Dictionary, and Dictionary.com, both words are acceptable.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=titbit
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=titbit
In fact, Tit-bits was the name of the magazine published by George Newnes (also publisher of the Strand), during the Victorian era.
One person described the difference between the two words, thus: Titbits (or Tidbits, for highly excitable North Americans).
L.M. Goode
Thank you very much for your comment. You must have found this sign on our website which shows the old issues.
The sign "TIT-BITS" appeared in the November 1, 2004 issue of the newspaper version and the answer given was TITBITS OR TIDBITS, the same as in the website which appeared in November 8, 2004 issue. It clearly implies that both spellings are acceptable.
The point here is that both spellings need not be hyphenated as appeared on the sign, and both websites you refer to use the non-hyphenated spelling, the same as the answer given.
As for the name of the magazine, which is a proper name, one has the freedom to give a proper name any which way he/she likes.
Thank you again for your input.
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WHAT DO WE CALL THEM?
Dear Dr English,
On the quotation, I saw different unit prices depending on volume.
Example: Buy 1 pce @ US$100, buy 1,000 pcs @ US$90, buy over 10,000 pcs @ US$75.
What do we call those different unit prices?
Please advise.
Weena Aumpreecha
People usually talk about 'quantity discounts' or 'rates for large quantities'. This is what is happening in your example.
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