English really is a stupid language...   See 26 other replies

Seriously, as a linguist, this conversation is so crazy. Look, I say "an historic;" I do not say "an history." This is a dialectal variation. That's all. It is not more or less correct than "a historic." Sure, if you want to go by grammatical standards, it should be "a historic." However, if we paid attention to half of what grammar dictates, our spoken language would be so much different. Grammatical rules as we know them are not the ways in which language ACTUALLY works but the ways in which that people, mostly prescriptive grammarians, believe that language should work. "Correct English," more commonly known as standard English, is an artificial dialect of the language. It isn't something that any person speaks natively.   See 26 other replies

Agree with Ulysses. A) It's not correct--it's not even "technically" correct. It's an improper use of the word based on confusion over British and American English that led to it being wrong in both dialects and B) Jon is using it as a joke to make fun of newscasters. They were much more obvious about it back during the election, and now they just throw it in there.   See 26 other replies

He he. "An herbivore" is correct. Also, "an hyperbole," but you know that...hence it's inclusion!   See 26 other replies

Good point.   See 26 other replies

because it's pronounced "estoric."   See 26 other replies

Replying to the OP: When Obama was elected, all news circles called the night "an historic" event. The Daily Show made a whole segment on it, and Jon began to use to parody them. He still uses it to poke fun, but he knows it's incorrect. Keep pluckin' those chickens!   See 26 other replies