A previous post lists words stemming from the Latin verb pendere, meaning “weigh,” and containing the root pend. This follow-up adds disguised words that have the same derivation. A painter was originally a chain or rope that secures an anchor; the sense shifted to that of a line used to secure or tow a boat. … Read more
Each of the following sentences includes a dangling modifier, a phrase that provides additional information but, because of its erroneous placement, confuses readers about what it is modifying; revise the sentences as necessary: 1. To understand the subject more thoroughly, the book was read and reread. 2. Not his favorite subject, he participated in class … Read more
Often, the presence or absence of one word, or its location, can change the meaning of a sentence, or at the least affect the statement’s clarity. In each of the following sentences, inserting, omitting, or moving a word, respectively, improves its readability. Discussion and revision explain and demonstrate this improvement in each case. 1. Executive … Read more
Each of the following sentences below demonstrates a specific type of error involving internal punctuation, usually involving a problem with a comma. Discussion and revision following each example explains and illustrates correct use of punctuation in the sentence. 1. Misplaced Punctuation This approach requires an effective model risk governance program, and crucially, validation of the … Read more
Semicolons serve one of two purposes: A semicolon can act as a weak period to separate two independent clauses so closely associated that dividing them into distinct sentences might seem excessive, or it can function as a supercomma in a sentence consisting of a list in which one or more items ordinarily separated by commas … Read more
A variety of words serve to describe geographical features characterized by low-lying terrain between higher elevations of land. This post lists and defines many of these terms. Valley, ultimately from the Latin term valles by way of Anglo-French and Middle English, most generically describes such an area, a length of the surface of Earth or … Read more
This post details the permutations of abbreviations for courtesy titles. As mentioned in this post, mister developed as a variant of master. (Interestingly, the newer title came to pertain to married men, while master, once a title of respect for a social superior, was reserved for unmarried men and boys.) Originally, both master and mister … Read more
Each of the following sentences is structurally flawed because an interjected word or phrase is not correctly nested within or attached to another phrase that is itself an interruption in the flow of a sentence. Revise the sentences as necessary. 1. We did not want one of our own, a minority no less, to feel … Read more
Each of the sentences in this post demonstrates a distinct example of superfluous use of quotation marks to call attention to a word or phrase. The discussion following each example explains why the scare quotes are extraneous. 1. Companies need to reevaluate, and perhaps “retrofit,” their existing programs. Retrofit is not being used in its … Read more
Writers are often confused by the complexity of hyphenation rules, mistakenly omitting them when their presence would help clarify meaning and inserting them when they’re superfluous. The decision about whether to use them can be further complicated in sentences in which it would be technically correct but aesthetically inadvisable to use them. Three examples, each … Read more
Several idioms based on the word whistle are associated with politics. This post discusses the origins and meaning of “dog whistle,” whistle-blower, and “whistle-stop tours.” A dog whistle is any one of various devices that emits a high-pitched sound audible to canines but out of the range of human hearing that is used to train … Read more
Yes, mister and master are related, the one originally being a variant of the other. They, and a number of compounds and some associated terms, all derive from the Latin verb magistrare, which means “subjugate.” Master, which entered the English language from the Old French verb maistrier, came to also mean “learn all about,” “become … Read more