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Bryan Garner

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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GOOD PAYING JOBS: employment that is lucrative

March 10, 2011

There are words and phrases that jar me.   Sometimes it is because of the spelling or pronunciation; at other times it is some minor issue that just doesn’t settle with me.   One of those terms is Good Paying Jobs.   I see it a lot these days when unemployment is so much a part of the [...]

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CONTINGUOUS: to abut; to share borders

November 20, 2010

I think I’m developing a new “sixth sense” about words.  I suppose it’s like anything else: if you spend enough time around something it becomes a part of you.  In this case it would seem that the fact that I’ve devoted a good portion of every day (emphasis on every) researching words; considering their relationship [...]

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