P.L. Travers (played by Emma Thompson) with the scriptwriter and songwriters responsible for the Disney movie version of Mary Poppins
Image Source: Robert DeluceRichard Sherman: Room here for everyone / Gather around / The constable’s “responstible”! / Now how does that sound?
P.L. Travers: No, no, no, no, no! “Responstible” is not a word!
Richard Sherman: We made it up.
P.L. Travers: Well, un-make it up.
Richard Sherman: [Hides sheet music of ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.]
― Scene from Saving Mr. Banks
I edited a book once by an author who used words wrong. Just plain wrong. There’s no other way to say it.
He said “supposably” and “supposedly” (those aren’t real words!) instead of “suspiciously” (which is not even close to the meaning of those “words”).
When I called him on it the first few times, he got all snippy. “How do you know what’s a real word and what isn’t? I hear people saying ‘supposably’ all the time.”
“Um, that’s my job. I get paid to know correct grammar and spelling. And that’s honestly not a real word. And even if it was a real word now, which it’s not, it’s still not a word that a peasant would have used in medieval times.”
TJ Withers 