See greengrocer's apostrophe in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for greengrocer's apostrophe meaning in English (2.5kB)
{
"etymology_text": "From the misuse of apostrophes on signs in greengrocers' shops.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "greengrocer's apostrophes",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "greengrocer's apostrophe (plural greengrocer's apostrophes)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Punctuation marks",
"orig": "en:Punctuation marks",
"parents": [
"Letters, symbols, and punctuation",
"Symbols",
"Orthography",
"Writing",
"Human behaviour",
"Language",
"Human",
"Communication",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1993, British Film Institute, Sight and Sound Film Review",
"text": "[A] flashing neon sign advertising the Pari's Hotel is less an early case of greengrocer's apostrophe than a sardonic Pascalian allusion (pari in French meaning 'bet').",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Richard M. Hogg et al., The Cambridge History of the English Language, page 121",
"text": "It is hardly surprising that these conventions seem to be in rapid collapse, with what has been called \"the greengrocer's apostrophe\" (apple's 60p, Antique's, linguistic's, and perhaps even mean't, all personally attested) […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Joy Burrough-Boenisch, Righting English That's Gone Dutch",
"text": "When applied in English it produces greengrocer's apostrophes.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An incorrectly used apostrophe, especially one mistakenly used to form the plural of a noun, for example to write the plural of banana as banana's instead of bananas."
],
"id": "en-greengrocer's_apostrophe-en-noun-F~W8MsVR",
"links": [
[
"apostrophe",
"apostrophe"
],
[
"plural",
"plural"
],
[
"noun",
"noun"
]
],
"related": [
{
"word": "apothecary's Latin"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "greengrocers' apostrophe"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "incorrectly used apostrophe",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "apostrophe mal placée"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "incorrectly used apostrophe",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"neuter"
],
"word": "Deppenapostroph"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "incorrectly used apostrophe",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"neuter"
],
"word": "Idiotenapostroph"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"greengrocer's apostrophe"
]
}
],
"word": "greengrocer's apostrophe"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From the misuse of apostrophes on signs in greengrocers' shops.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "greengrocer's apostrophes",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "greengrocer's apostrophe (plural greengrocer's apostrophes)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "apothecary's Latin"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned",
"en:Punctuation marks"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1993, British Film Institute, Sight and Sound Film Review",
"text": "[A] flashing neon sign advertising the Pari's Hotel is less an early case of greengrocer's apostrophe than a sardonic Pascalian allusion (pari in French meaning 'bet').",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Richard M. Hogg et al., The Cambridge History of the English Language, page 121",
"text": "It is hardly surprising that these conventions seem to be in rapid collapse, with what has been called \"the greengrocer's apostrophe\" (apple's 60p, Antique's, linguistic's, and perhaps even mean't, all personally attested) […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Joy Burrough-Boenisch, Righting English That's Gone Dutch",
"text": "When applied in English it produces greengrocer's apostrophes.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An incorrectly used apostrophe, especially one mistakenly used to form the plural of a noun, for example to write the plural of banana as banana's instead of bananas."
],
"links": [
[
"apostrophe",
"apostrophe"
],
[
"plural",
"plural"
],
[
"noun",
"noun"
]
],
"wikipedia": [
"greengrocer's apostrophe"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "greengrocers' apostrophe"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "incorrectly used apostrophe",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "apostrophe mal placée"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "incorrectly used apostrophe",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"neuter"
],
"word": "Deppenapostroph"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "incorrectly used apostrophe",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"neuter"
],
"word": "Idiotenapostroph"
}
],
"word": "greengrocer's apostrophe"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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