Hang your heads in shame, Channel 5

Someone just told me there's no affluent in our river.

When we were planning my late husband's funeral, I referred to the interment of his ashes. The funeral director gently told me that, when it's ashes rather than a whole body, the correct term is 'internment'.
I had never heard this before but, when the manager of the burial site also referred to 'internment', I accepted that they must be correct.
I've not given the subject another thought in the intervening years until I saw this thread and started Googling. Interesting: no references to internment meaning anything except a form of imprisonment.
Well, we buried his ashes in a lovely woodland site which was what he wanted and he probably wouldn't have worried too much about the words used.

I always believed it was interned if it was above ground in a mausoleum or crypt.My OH 's best friend is a funeral director and thats what he calls it.I must tell him GN says he's wrong ,well his business has only existed for 70+ years ,so what would he know .
Burial =underground,Internment =inside a building in a graveyard or church crypt or cremation =burnt.

The Oxford English Dictionary has only one definition of internment:

The action or practice of confining a person or thing within the limits of a country or place; (now esp.) detention without trial for political or military reasons; the fact or condition of being detained in this way.

It gives many examples of use over 150 years and none relates to death or burial.

The OED definition of interment:

The action of interring or burying in the earth; burial.

This from Co-op Funeral Care:

What is the interment of ashes?

Interment of ashes refers to the process where cremation remains are placed in a permanent resting place. These range from dedicated family plots and cemeteries to private gardens and woodlands.

In summary: Internment in the confinement of a living person. Interment is the resting place of a person’s remains.

Clarity at last!

kircubbin2000

Someone just told me there's no affluent in our river.

That's good Kircubbin it won't effect anyone then - another pet hate.

I swear I've heard 'casket' three times today

MawtheMerrier

Fleurpepper

MawtheMerrier

Fleurpepper

Internment instead of 'interment'

so probably someone's typo rather than mistake in speech.

Hate to bang on but they said it then it appeared on the screen as a sort of headline - so written as well.

Yes, which is why I clearly said it was probably a typo - but not a speech mistake.

Oh I despair - spoken by the journalist first then written

Do despair away if you wish. My explanation was clear enough- and the description of 'interment' straight from the Dictionary.

Interment is not the same as internment- so they probably said the first, and some transcriptor got it wrong. Whatever!

Oxford Languages ·
/ɪnˈtəːm(ə)nt/

noun
noun: interment; plural noun: interments

the burial of a corpse in a grave or tomb, typically with funeral rites.
"the day of interment"

As you say Whatever.
All I am saying is that the reporter said "internment"
Subsequently (as is the style of Channel5) they repeated the gaffe in a "headline "as "internment".
I do have perfectly adequate hearing and can also read!
Why (but you don't have to bother to answer) can't you accept that they used the wrong word both in speech and writing.
(However there seem to be enough people who either don't know the difference or don't care.)

Fleurpepper

Oxford Languages ·
/ɪnˈtəːm(ə)nt/

noun
noun: interment; plural noun: interments

the burial of a corpse in a grave or tomb, typically with funeral rites.
"the day of interment"

I think we are agreed as to the meaning of interment and also internment -one applies to the dead - buried, interred and the other the imprisonment of the living. As I said re the N Ireland internment camps.
I cannot imagine why this has become so complicated just because I pointed out that Channel5 had been guilty of a malapropism.

Fair enough. All I am saying is that maybe you had misheard as it is very close. But even then, as said, they have been talking off the cuff for days now- and mistakes do happen. So, perhaps the mistake was double, perhaps not. I did not hear it myself, nor read it- was only trying to understand what could have happened.

Does it matter enough for a new thread? I personally don't think so in the grand scale of things.

It's only an extra N but does completely change the meaning of the word, so it's fair game for a new thread, in Pedants' Corner.

I heard internment too. And coronated. So many gaffes, incorrect statements, errors.
I actually feel a bit sorry for some of these inexperienced young journalists obliged to fill in hours and hours of time waffling away on TV.

Indeed. And yes, missed that it was on 'pedant's corner' - it is.

Elizabeth27

Jeremy Vine was saying ma’am rhyming with harm rather than ham on Channel 5 this morning.

I think I'm right in that the correct form of address was "Your Majesty" and thereafter "ma'am".

My question now is: What do we use for a King, should we ever meet him? "Sir"? "Sire"?"Guv'ner"?

Coronate is shown as the verb “to crown” in the OED although it does state its use is rare.

Katek

Coronate is shown as the verb “to crown” in the OED although it does state its use is rare.

Indeed it does but in a specific context in Biology

Coronate” is improperly derived from “coronation,” but “crown” is the original and still standard form of the verb. But don't be in too big a hurry to declare that there is “no such word”: “coronate” means “crown-shaped,” and has various uses in biology

I think you mean a transcriber Fleur. A transcriptor is a transistor-like device composed of DNA and RNA, used in turntables.

MawtheMerrier

Katek

Coronate is shown as the verb “to crown” in the OED although it does state its use is rare.

Indeed it does but in a specific context in Biology

^Coronate” is improperly derived from “coronation,” but “crown” is the original and still standard form of the verb. But don't be in too big a hurry to declare that there is “no such word”: “coronate” means “crown-shaped,” and has various uses in biology^

Coronated tree frogs look as if they are wearing a crown.

Oh, hark at David a
Attenborough.

We were in the US when the news broke (still are) where it was massive front page news the day after. One newspaper (IIRC the Boston Globe) reported that the Queen had been ‘coronated’ in 1953.
I like to think that it would have amused her!

MawtheMerrier

Don’t you think so-called professionals should at least be able to do their job competently?

Yes, Maw, I do!

MissAdventure

Oh, hark at David a
Attenborough.

Ah well, when it’s all robots human error will be long gone, no more pesky people involved in front of or behind camera.