Since Richard Dawkins coined the word in 1976, meme has become familiar to social media users as a captioned graphic used to convey a thought meant to be amusing, inspiring, or informative and shareworthy. Thanks to their popularity, memes have spawned slapdash versions consisting of little more than a colored square containing words. Many, however, … Read more
Many writers—even professional ones—are wary about employing semicolons, at best because the punctuation mark carries a hint of excessive formality and at worst because users aren’t clear on the concept. However, some writers who do use them are confused, too, and are apt to include semicolons when they aren’t warranted. Unnecessary semicolons litter the following … Read more
One of the most popular of the Roman gods was Mercury, patron of merchants and thieves. Mercury had other associations. He was noted for eloquence, speed, trickery and magic. In addition to shopkeeping and thievery, he was associated with roads and boundaries. Because of his speed, he carried messages for the other gods and acted … Read more
I’ve noticed the two nouns, discomfort and discomfiture, being used interchangeably, as if both meant simply, “the condition of being uncomfortable—physically or mentally.” A toothache causes discomfort. Certain topics of conversation cause discomfort in some listeners. When I peruse the comments on my posts, vulgar language and ad hominem attacks cause me discomfort. Discomfiture, on … Read more
When a sentence includes a form of parenthesis—a word, phrase, or clause framed by a pair of commas, dashes, or parentheses—writers must take care that the statement surrounding the interjection is structurally valid so that if the optional parenthesis is omitted, the remaining wording is still coherent and thus the parenthesis makes sense grammatically. To … Read more
The most unforgettable fictional characters begin as a glimmer in the author’s mind. Only in writing the novel does the character go on to acquire the dimensions that will make him or her live in the imagination of the reader years after the book has been read. Sherlock Holmes, Captain Ahab, Huckleberry Finn, Jo March, … Read more
Uses of the word painstaking that I’ve noticed recently suggest that some speakers may think it’s a synonym for painful or difficult. Painstaking combines the noun pain and the verb to take. One meaning of pain is “trouble taken for the accomplishment of something.” Also, in early use, it meant “trouble in accomplishing something, difficulty.” … Read more