Never thought of employing "ironical", Max. Perhaps I had unconsciously registered from
contemporary American usage the "stance" made overt in these sentences from "Urban
Dictionary":
"Comically antiquated variation on 'ironic' presently used most often to emphasise the
unseriousness of a point. 'Ironical', like many nouns accepting the -ical adjectival suffix
(e.g., poetical, hermetical, etc.) fell into disuse in favour of the shorter -ic form (e.g.,
poetic, hermetic, etc.) in Early Modern English. The anachronistic 'ironical' is therefore
most commonly used in current speech to suggest the absurdity of an expression."
Though now that I think again about the issue, I could revise my usage and therefore call
into even more question what the words of the first line imply.
Barry
On Mon, 25 May 2009 10:29:55 +1000, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>Rereading this with pleasure, now my week away is over, I note the word 'ironic',
>Barry.
>During my visit to my son in NSW he picked me up on some of my expressions.
>Why do I say ironical when he would say ironic?
>I couldn't think why, but with help from the list may be able to email him and
>say why we need both words...
>
>Max
>
>> On 20-May-09, at 2:28 PM, Barry Alpert wrote:
>>
>> > British Summer
>> >
>> > May sun being ironic,
>> > uploads tagged mockup
>> > could erupt into premise.
>
>
>
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