Each of the following sentences has an organizational flaw. A discussion of each is followed by a suggested revision. 1. People who are successful at careers in fashion design are hardworking, detail oriented, and love apparel. Each of the three qualities of successful fashion designers must be preceded by a verb, or they all must … Read more
I was slightly put off by a newspaper article that referred to the recent appearance before a US Senate subcommittee of philanthropist Paul David Hewson. Why? Because the article, after introducing Hewson by his better-known moniker, Bono, identified him simply as “the U2 frontman.” The article, however, had nothing to do with Bono’s membership in … Read more
Spring is in the air so I feel like writing about flowers. One of my all-time favorites is the rose. Most people can quote Juliet’s comment about the name of the rose: What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. And there’s Gertrude Stein’s “A … Read more
As the 2016 US presidential election campaign slouches toward November, the words demagogue, demagogic, and demagoguery make frequent appearances in the media. For example, in a Sunday morning interview with Rachel Martin, NPR stalwart Mara Liasson remarked on the reaction of other Republican candidates to Donald Trump: “They’re talking about the demagoguery and the authoritarian, … Read more
A number of words referring to an assortment of food in one dish or display of dishes also allude to a mixture (often a confused one); here are those terms and their meanings and origins. A figurative alphabet soup, by analogy to the soup featuring pieces of pasta shaped like letters of the alphabet, is … Read more
The three sentences that follow illustrate the importance of the inclusion or omission of a comma can have in easing comprehension of a sentence. 1. After two hours at the bar, Jones said Smith was too drunk to drive, and Smith insisted that Jones take him home. This sentence erroneously implies that two hours after … Read more
Selfie is the latest addition to a small family of English words using the diminutive suffix -ie as an informal marker. Purely diminutive forms have been around for hundreds of years; puppy, likely borrowed from the Middle French word poupée, meaning “doll” or “toy” (and cognate with puppet), dates from the fourteenth century, as does … Read more
Hyphens have been erroneously omitted from phrasal adjectives in the following three examples, each of which is followed by an explanation of the error and a corrected version of the sentence. 1. Three of those assembly members face a tough reelection in a Republican heavy district or represent the economically hard hit Central Valley. A … Read more
I was interested to read about a recent University of Michigan study that concluded that people who are highly judgmental about writing errors tend to be more introverted and have less pleasant personalities than those who are more forgiving about people’s flawed writing skills. The tools of the study were a questionnaire that, when answered … Read more
The other day when I saw the words to an unfamiliar modern hymn displayed on a screen, I stumbled over the word Father used as a verb. My momentary confusion was not because a noun was being used as a verb, but because the verbed noun was capitalized. Note: Even though the fathering mentioned in … Read more
A reader remarked on the use of “silver bullet” in this quotation: “The answer is to find a silver bullet that will wean us from fossil fuels.” Suggests the reader, “The reference should be ‘magic bullet’ from the polio vaccine. ‘Silver bullet’ belongs to the lone ranger.” The expression “magic bullet” may have originated in … Read more
The Latin word nomen, meaning “name,” is the source of many words in English that pertain to names and naming. Here are the most common of those words and their definitions. Nomen itself is the word for the family name of a Roman citizen, the second of the three names usually given. A praenomen (meaning … Read more