A reader asks about the words fatigable, defatigable, and indefatigable: Indefatigable apparently is of the same/identical meaning [as defatigable]. Then why is the ‘in’ used as a prefix of defatigable, when ‘in’ is generally used to invert the meaning, as in ‘incorrigible’ (antonym of corrigible)? The reader says that he understands fatigable to refer to … Read more
A reader has written to express her astonishment at the following usage in an office memo: Please come to the Open House to give [so-and-so] your well-wishes in person. Where, wonders the reader, did the person who wrote the memo get the expression “well-wishes”? Thought I, “Where indeed?” My first move was to do a … Read more
The combining form -naut gives English several words that convey a type of traveler. The Greek word for sailor was ναύτης (nautes). Classical Latin mesonauta referred to a sailor “intermediate in rank between a rower and a steersman.” Classical Latin Argonauta referred to the sailors who traveled with Jason in the Argo (his ship). The … Read more
A reader has a question about the verbs rifle and riffle in relation to papers: One word I so often see misspelled in books is riffle. Authors will say, “He rifled through the papers in the file.” More often than not, they do not use riffled. I even see it in bestsellers. Actually, papers may be … Read more
The noun chance comes from Latin cadentia: falling. Chance is how events “fall out.” The word chance has several meanings in English. This post is concerned with chance followed by the prepositions of and for: chance noun: opportunity chance noun: possibility or probability When the meaning of chance is opportunity, the preposition that follows is … Read more
Computer-age coinages don’t usually strike me as “creepy,” but this one does. Formed on the model of software and hardware, wetware begins to soar into prominence on the Ngram Viewer in 1979. Both the OED and Merriam-Webster provide definitions of this new term. OED wetware noun: Chemical materials organized so as to perform arithmetic or … Read more
Somewhere, in an email or on Facebook or on a news blog, I saw this: But she hammered the head on the nail with this quote. How odd, I thought. Shouldn’t it be, “she hammered the nail on the head”? A Google search brings up 683,000 results for “hit the head on the nail” compared … Read more
Some of my readers and I experienced an episode of mutual astonishment the other day. In a post about the abbreviation e.g., I wrote the following sentence: The most unkindest cut of all regarding the use of e.g. and its ilk came to my attention in 2008 when I read an article in the London Telegraph about a movement … Read more
A reader would like to know when to use “due date for” and when to use “due date of.” Sometimes the best way to approach idioms involving prepositions is to observe their use in context. The following examples are taken from financial sources such as the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and banking and credit sites: … Read more
Quite apart from stylistic errors involving redundancy and inapt word choice, television can be a rich source of grammatical errors. Here are four examples. INCORRECT: Gin was drunken out of necessity, not choice.—Documentary narrator CORRECT: Gin was drunk out of necessity, not choice. The forms of the verb drink are: Present: drink/drinks Simple past: drank … Read more
A reader asks, Is there a difference in the use of these two prepositional phrases? I get mixed up a lot of times. I’d appreciate your clarifying this in one of your posts. “On behalf of” means, “as representing,” and “in behalf of” means “for the advantage of.” People or agencies who act as representatives … Read more
My cumulative list of “words commonly confused” continues with ten that begin with the letters Q and R. The confusion relates to spelling or meaning. 1. quote / quotation Traditionally, quote is a verb and quotation is a noun: May I quote you on that? (verb) I used a quotation from Dr. Johnson as an … Read more