# Hearsay



## Olly Buckle (Jun 26, 2011)

On the morning train working away on my netbook I came to,

“When he returned the house was silent, despite his dispatch”,

and then I stopped.  Dispatch/despatch, which meant to send something, which meant to hurry? I asked everyone I came across during the day. Some were manual workers, some educated people, some of those held qualifications in English and worked with words. 

All of them held an opinion, many seemed certain theirs was correct, but the opinions were disparate. When I got home I looked it up, dispatch/despatch, alternative spellings of a single word with multiple meanings. Perhaps it was the way I phrased the question.


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## The Backward OX (Jun 26, 2011)

It wasn’t just the way the question was phrased.

 It was also the way the post was constructed.

 One, the sentence under review didn’t just sit there, alone, like a shag on a rock, on your netbook. It had to have a context. Two, were you reading something written by someone else, or were you reviewing your own writing?

There is no way of telling, from those few words, whether what was meant was that despite his earlier written advice that he’d be there, there was no one to welcome him, *or* that despite the fact he’d hurried, there was no one there to welcome him. 

If we* get that lot sorted first, then perhaps we* might be in a position to comment further. 

*pluralis majestatis


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## Rustgold (Jun 26, 2011)

I know that I'll be criticised for this, but I can't work out how the title relates to the thread.

Anyway, 'i' is the main spelling, but both are considered correct; although I don't know why they couldn't have confused everybody by dividing the meanings in half and dispatching half of the meanings over to despatch.


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## Bilston Blue (Jun 26, 2011)

If I'm honest I've never come across _dispatch, _and would have argued against its existence until reading this thread. In my dictionary it reads:_ Despatch = dispatch. _Always something to learn.


​BUMP


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## garza (Jun 26, 2011)

Oxford _Concise_ lists 'despatch' as a variation of 'dispatch' with no further explanation. All the information about the word is under 'dispatch', which in my mind indicates that 'dispatch' may have a slight edge as the preferred, the more common, spelling.


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## The Backward OX (Jun 26, 2011)

*Is it JUST me?*

Three other posters appear to think your post is about spelling. Maybe it's me that needs help.


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## Baron (Jun 26, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> Three other posters appear to think your post is about spelling. Maybe it's me that needs help.



Always the last to see the penny drop.


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## candid petunia (Jun 26, 2011)

Olly Buckle said:


> alternative spellings of a single word with multiple meanings.



I don't get it.


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 26, 2011)

It matters not whether he sent written advice or whether he hurried, although it was actually the latter. The point I was making was that hearsay evidence is unreliable, even when it comes from supposedly reliable sources. Everybody I asked offered advice on the subject, when I checked in the dictionary they were all wrong. 

Now I have to decide which to use, taking into account garza's post, and the fact that the short vowel in dispatch has a more hurried quality about it, I think I shall go for dispatch.


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## garza (Jun 26, 2011)

candid petunia - It's one word. You have your choice of spelling it with an 'e' or an 'i'. Makes no difference.

The word can be used as a verb or a noun. Dictionaries list two sets of definitions, one set for its use as a verb, the other for its use as a noun. 

Thus it's a word with an alternative spelling and multiple meanings.


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## Foxee (Jun 26, 2011)

Is it because I'm on the other side of the pond from Blue that I've never seen 'despatch'? I always thought the word was 'dispatch'.

disparate
dispatch

[h=2]dis-[/h][SUP]1 [/SUP]  
a Latin prefix meaning “apart,” “asunder,” “away,” “utterly,” or having a privative, negative, or reversing force ( see de-, un-[SUP]2 [/SUP]); used freely, especially with these latter senses, as an English formative: disability; disaffirm; disbar; disbelief; discontent; dishearten; dislike; disown.
Dis- | Define Dis- at Dictionary.com

The prefix 'des' is usually associated with the Spanish language from the look of it. 

I'd say you're decision's right on the money, Olly. Hearsay is interesting but a dictionary is probably better.


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## The Backward OX (Jun 26, 2011)

Olly Buckle said:


> The point I was making was that hearsay evidence is unreliable, even when it comes from supposedly reliable sources. Everybody I asked offered advice on the subject, when I checked in the dictionary they were all wrong.



How could they _all_ be wrong? There are only two meanings, three if you include murder. Your OP gave the impression you were asking people from Land's End to John O' Groats. Are you to have us believe all Brits are illiterate?


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## garza (Jun 26, 2011)

Oxford Concise lists eight meanings - four for its use as a verb, another four for its use as a noun.

And I've thought of a way I've heard it used as an adjective. My dad said my Uncle Wilson was a 'dispatch rider' in World War One. That meant he was a motorcycle courier. It may not have been proper usage, but it makes sense.


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## candid petunia (Jun 26, 2011)

Same as 'ensnare', 'insnare' (See? Auto-correction underlined 'insnare'. Weird).


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## Robert_S (Jun 26, 2011)

garza said:


> candid petunia - It's one word. You have your choice of spelling it with an 'e' or an 'i'. Makes no difference.
> 
> The word can be used as a verb or a noun. Dictionaries list two sets of definitions, one set for its use as a verb, the other for its use as a noun.
> 
> Thus it's a word with an alternative spelling and multiple meanings.



So, the only consideration is the sound quality.  Would there be any possible connotative value in the spelling?


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## Baron (Jun 26, 2011)

Robert_S said:


> So, the only consideration is the sound quality.  Would there be any possible connotative value in the spelling?



Phonics can be really significant, in prose _and_ in poetry.  It isn't only Shakespeare who used the device.  Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf used it to notable effect.


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## garza (Jun 26, 2011)

Robert_S - None that I'm aware of. I've seen it spelt both ways with no indication that there's any difference whatever. 

Something interesting I noted in Oxford _Concise_ is the listing immediately following 'dispatch' of 'dispatch box' followed by 'dispatch rider'. Both are listed as nouns. Here's a *link* to one of xO's favourite boyhood books that tells the story of dispatch riders in the North African desert in WWII.


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## Robert_S (Jun 26, 2011)

Baron said:


> Phonics can be really significant, in prose _and_ in poetry.  It isn't only Shakespeare who used the device.  Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf used it to notable effect.



For me, phonetics is a very large part of engaging writing.  One of my favorites in this area is Lord Dunsany who writes very lyrically, even for prose.

One of my all time favorite lines from the book, "The King of Elfland's Daughter:" 



> And little he knew of the things that ink may do, how
> it can mark a dead man's thought for the wonder of later years, and tell of happenings that are gone clean
> away, and be a voice for us out of the dark of time, and save many a fragile thing from the pounding of
> heavy ages; or carry to us, over the rolling centuries, even a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills.



I may re-read the book again.


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## Eluixa (Jun 26, 2011)

Reading that sentence, I believe that a dispatch was sent, and he therefore was surprised the house was empty. I would have misunderstood had you meant to leave in a hurry. I've not seen despatch more than a handful of times and figured some cowboy somewhere misspelled it and it took. And it is ensnare as far as I know, but I don't know why for.

Edited to say, now I reread and think about it, you said his dispatch, not the dispatch [he sent], so fine. Learn something new everyday.


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## candid petunia (Jun 26, 2011)

*insnare  (ɪnˈsnɛə) 

*  — *vb* a less common spelling of ensnare


1.to catch or trap in a snare2.to trap or gain power over someone by dishonest or underhand means






X\'D


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## Eluixa (Jun 26, 2011)

Yeah, I believe you candid, but my spell check underlines it too, and I'd always just understood ensnare to be correct.


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## garza (Jun 26, 2011)

You may be using the wrong language in your computer. For correct spelling you need English UK. Microsoft ships with English US as default. And of course you can always add a word to the dictionary once you are certain of the correct spelling.


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## Candra H (Jun 27, 2011)

I'd never heard of insnare either. Always used and knew about ensnare. But I checked my dictionary and it's there. Says, same as ensnare. The definition is under ensnare.


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## Foxee (Jun 27, 2011)

Online Etymology Dictionary


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## Candra H (Jun 27, 2011)

Eh, online schmonline. I use a paper version.

Havent seen you around in a while, Foxee. What have you been up to?


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## Foxee (Jun 27, 2011)

Candra H said:


> Eh, online schmonline. I use a paper version.
> 
> Havent seen you around in a while, Foxee. What have you been up to?


Juggling kids, mostly. They get a little motion-sick but it keeps them quiet.


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## Candra H (Jun 27, 2011)

Haha, sounds like a good tactic.


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## Foxee (Jun 27, 2011)

Candra H said:


> Haha, sounds like a good tactic.


That and a little velcro to stick them to the wall.


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## BipBopRealGoodNop (Jun 27, 2011)

a common error.


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## Robert_S (Jun 27, 2011)

Foxee said:


> That and a little velcro to stick them to the wall.



Try an inflatable sumo suit to keep them out of trouble.


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