Talk:lambast

lambast
Is this a legitimate alternative spelling? The OED has lambaste. --EncycloPetey 22:42, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Odd... I'd have thought that this was an American spelling, not a British one. Nevertheless, it is real. For example :
 * 2004: Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton
 * The scalding debate over repeal of the Judiciary Act prompted Hamilton to lambast Jefferson in a series of eighteen essays.
 * &mdash; Beobach972 02:12, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I myself thought it was the standard spelling until research found that it wasn't in the major dictionaries. Can we find enough quotes to justify it as either a common misspelling or as a spelling in its own right? --EncycloPetey 04:14, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Same here. "lambast|lambasts" gets almost as many Google hits and almost as many b.g.c. hits as "lambaste|lambastes" (422k vs. 431k and 668 vs. 709, respectively — both differences of well under 10%), so they're definitely alternative spellings by any relative-frequency-based criterion. —RuakhTALK 06:39, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * As additionl input, both Microsoft Word and Yahoo's email editor attempt to change lambast into lambaste. On the other hand, bombast has no alternate spelling as bombaste.  On the gripping hand, both baste and bast are words - baste being the word with similar senses as lambast.  On the kicking foot, I have never heard lambast pronounced like lam + baste.  It gets pronounced like lam + bast (at least in America).--Halliburton Shill 18:44, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * The standard spelling is "lambaste" (according to the OED, second ed. [1989]) but "lambast" is also valid (according to Chambers, 1998 ed.; the OED has "lambast" only as a 19th-century variant, but its opinion might have changed since 1989). My belief is that "lambast" arose from the misinterpretation of inflections such as "lambasted" as "lambast" + "ed". Merriam-Webster and the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (both accessed through onelook.com) indicate that both spellings are now legit. Certainly, in my experience, I've heard "lambast" (with a short "a") much more often than "lambaste" (with a long "a"). Striking &mdash; Paul G 07:13, 26 May 2007 (UTC)