Word Experts in ‘Agreeance’, Vindicate Fred Durst
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The experts are in agreeance. Rocker Fred Durst was right after all.
Durst, lead singer of the rap-metal band Limp Bizkit, was widely mocked after he deviated from the script at the Grammy Awards to offer an anti-war sentiment that grated on the ears of grammarians: “I just really hope we’re all in agreeance that this war should go away as soon as possible.”
Wordsmiths everywhere agreed: Durst is dumb, they said.
Barry Koltnow of the Orange County Register called him “illiterate.” The Atlanta Journal Constitution said its copy desk was “in agreement that ‘agreeance’ isn’t a word.”
The Weekly Standard called the performer “Fred Dunce” and as far away as Sydney, Australia, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper called it a “fact” that agreeance is not a word.
But it turns out that Durst has some heavy linguistic hitters on his side. The North American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary told the New York Observer newspaper that “agreeance” is, in fact, a word.
“It’s in the OED,” editor Jesse Sheindler told the paper. “He did use it correctly.
Sheindler said that “agreeance” was an obsolete word, having passed out of circulation by about 1714, but noted that it was still used occasionally — especially in Australia.
And Hagit Borer, chairwoman of the University of Southern California’s linguistics department, also defended Durst, calling his word choice “innovative” and noting that the English language was malleable.
“It’s not a conventional usage but I wouldn’t say it’s wrong,” Borer told Reuters. “It indicates is that he was making creative use of the language. That doesn’t make it wrong.”
“People no longer really use ‘dreamt’ for example,” she said. “They use various other forms. This is how the language changes. People don’t remember a form so they make up new one.”
Meanwhile Durst, who also made headlines with his supposed fling with pop star Britney Spears, was feeling vindicated.
“Agreeance is a word according to the Oxford English Dictionary,” Durst said in a posting on his Web site. “So the dumb asses at the Orange County Register and everyone else are welcome to intern at Flawless Records until they learn enough about journalism to write for a major daily newspaper.”
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