Posts tagged as:

Bryan Garner

METEORIC RISE: what?

February 20, 2013

It’s been a busy week for meteors.   We had an asteroid which “barely” missed crashing into Earth, and then this unbelievable, 10,000 ton meteor/asteroid explodes over Siberia.  It created a stir all over the world as it was captured on camera at its moment of impact.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of damage to a [...]

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EITHER: is it [EE-ther] or [AHY-ther] ????

January 29, 2013

I have no idea when it began.   I grew up pronouncing either almost as if it were that gas that they gave you when you were going to have surgery: ether.   There was never a question in my mind that either was pronounced [EE-ther.]  Why was there a question? But someplace along the way the [...]

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INCENTIVIZE [in-SEN-ti-vahyz] : to provide (someone) with a good reason for wanting to do something

January 5, 2013

The creation of verbs from other parts of speech  is as ancient a practice as language itself.  We activate, organize, rehabilitate, and decentralize all the time and never think about it.   As society becomes more and more complex, it requires language to articulate that complexity. Such creations are called neologisms, meaning new words. One of [...]

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SKUNKED TERM: a word or term that experiences confusing change in its meaning

August 22, 2012

When a word’s meaning changes dramatically to the point of being confusing, it is referred to as a skunked term. In Bryan Garner’s, Garner’s Modern American Usage, he points out “When a word undergoes a marked change from one use to another–a phase that might take ten years or a hundred–it’s  likely to be the [...]

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NICHE: an appropriate place for one to settle

August 10, 2012

I always thought the word was pronounced [neesh.]   It seemed as if it was a special variation on the word nitch, which I thought was a real word.  It turns out that there is no such word as nitch.   The correct word is niche and it means what I thought nitch meant.   It is that [...]

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MOOT: of no practical importance

July 27, 2012

When I was in graduate school at Yale I was asked to be a part of a jury for a trial at the Yale Law School.  It was their annual moot court session, in which graduating (hopefully) scholars were tested on their courtroom skills.  It was a fascinating experience in which soon-to-be attorneys prepared a [...]

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DONUTS: an “informal” spelling

October 14, 2011

I live at the eye of the hurricane called Dunkin’  Donuts.   I can drive no more than a few blocks and hit three of their retail stores.   There have to be dozens of them in Providence.  I go to basketball games, concerts, and other events at the Dunkin’  Donuts Center.   You would be hard pressed [...]

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SKUNKED TERM: a phrase disputed due to changes in its meaning/use over time

September 26, 2011

The poor skunk gets a bad name everywhere despite the fact that it is one of the most beautiful animals around.  Its markings are distinctive and remarkable. But that’s not what I’m posting about today.  It just happens to be the word incorporated into a language note I discovered when researching the word flaccid.   I [...]

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TURGID: swollen, inflated

June 9, 2011

A fellow blogger began her posting describing a turgid morning, the day after a dinner party on her patio.   My imagination pictured a sultry, damp morning, the dew from the night hanging on the patio furniture, a mist suspended above the moistened grass on the fresh-cut lawn, the sun barely breaking through the fog-like mist [...]

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ALL RIGHT: or is it “alright?”

April 8, 2011

Every now and then I am asked to do some editing, something I really enjoy, and something for which I seem to have gathered some skills.   I’m better at spotting spelling, grammatical and syntax problems in someone else’s writing than I am in my own.  I suppose it’s the same thing as not letting a [...]

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