The Oxford Dictionary

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the debut of the Oxford Dictionary-- in 1884! It is still the authority of the meaning and pronunciation of over a half a million words.  Growing up, my mother would tell me to look things up using the dictionary.  Proper grammar and spelling were a daily part of our lives both at home and at school.
I was corrected once at work on the way I say the word "often".  I pronounce the t.  The man correcting me, gave me a lecture on the t being silenced.  So I listened, and then went back to my paperback dictionary at my desk and looked it up.  I am fine with being corrected... I want to know if I am saying or using a word incorrectly.  But I was really happy with this finding:
[the pronunciation of the t in often] is practised by two oddly consorted classes—the academic speakers who affect a more precise enunciation than their neighbours…& the uneasy half-literates who like to prove that they can spell….”
Mispronounced words really bother me.  I hear someone say "old timers disease" and it may be an old timer's disease but it is pronounced Alzheimer's Disease.  Or expresso... it's espresso.  Or putting an "L" after saw.  I saw it-- not I sawl it!
I have a friend who corrects people, and I have even seen them not understand she is correcting them.  Makes me smile every time.  I also have a hard time with a professional, public speaker or politician  who cannot pronounce a word or uses a word incorrectly.  I am not without fault  -- I recently discovered I misspelled the word a lot.  I kept trying to make it one word!  No wonder the red squiggly lines were always there!  Got it.  Won't make the mistake again.  It's fun to research some of these common mistakes and make sure I am saying and using the words correctly.    Did you know it's correct to say "for all intents and purposes" not "for all intensive purposes".