Thank you everyone who has asked; I am fine. The earthquake that has devastated Christchurch was felt here in Queenstown but there was no damage. So far as I know, all my friends in Christchurch are okay, although obviously severly shaken and traumatised. Some have lost their homes and their belongings but none have lost their lives. My thoughts and love are with all those affected by the earthquake.
Can someone please tell me when the word invite became a noun? I could have sworn it was a verb of which the nominal form is invitation. I realise that English is an ever-developing language, but this usage is just plain laziness or possibly ignorance; which is worse?
I have heard and read it a lot of late in the (Kiwi) media due to the forthcoming royal wedding between His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton. There is a perfectly good word for that thing in the buff envelope with the Queen's seal: it's an invitation. So why are people unable to use the correct word?
You can bet that the Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen, Defender of the Faith did not command the Lord Chamberlain to send out 'invites' to her grandson's wedding.
