Ever and never are adverbs employed in strictly defined ways. Here are the parameters of usage for the two terms. Ever, from the Old English word aefre, is used in these types of constructions: In positively constructed questions: “Have you ever been to Disneyland?” In negatively constructed questions: “Haven’t you ever been to Disneyland?” In … Read more
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A reader wonders if the phrase “out of sorts” might be worth a post. I think it is. The OED has four separate entries for sort as a noun. The first entry, marked “obsolete,” defines sort as “the fate or lot of a particular person or persons.” The word was borrowed from French, but it … Read more
This list features former and eighteen other adjectives (and a prefix) that can be used to refer to a position no longer held or a state no longer active, exclusive of the synonyms for original. 1. antecedent: Though this word is usually seen in noun form, it can also be an adjective, as in “She … Read more
Having come to the end of the alphabet with my series of “words often confused with one another,” I find myself hard-pressed to come up with a final set of ten for the remaining letters, U-Z. I can’t think of any for U or Z, but here are some for V, W, and Y. 1. … Read more
What’s the difference between certainty and certitude? My hunch was that they’re interchangeable, but it turns out that they have a slight but significant difference in connotation—of that I am certain. Certainty and certitude, of course, share a root word: the Latin term certus, meaning “fixed” or “settled.” Certainty originally meant “pledge” or “surety,” then … Read more