Monthly Archives: January 2012

The incredible story of Lillian Virginia Mountweazel and dictionary tomfoolery

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

apopudobalia: a Greco-Roman sport similar to modern soccer[i] esquivalience: the willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities[ii] jungftak: a Persian bird, the male of which had only one wing, on the right side, and the female only one wing, on the … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Business jargon to avoid (so you don’t sound like a douche)

Posted on January 24, 2012 by

There’s English, and then there’s business English—that jumble of jargon and overly complicated words that serve no purpose other than to confuse your corporate minions. Last week we discussed utilize, which is a fancy and pointless way to say use—excuse … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, semantics | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments

Pass time and past time versus pastime

Posted on January 20, 2012 by

UPDATE: A friend of mine pointed out that he sees a lot of people also using past time instead of pastime. So, I have rewritten this post to include this error, as well. I noticed a couple of days ago … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, semantics | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Use versus utilize

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

There are very few words I despise. Today’s post is about the one at the very top of that list. Here we go. This word is . . . utilize. Utilize is one of those “smart” words people throw into … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, semantics, style issues | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Ouch! That comma splices!

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

Lesson: how to correctly join independent clauses Take a look at this sentence. The Martians want to look their best, they wear their green jumpsuits. There is something wrong here. (And it’s not that the Martians think jumpsuits are high … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, grammar, punctuation | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Happy birthday, Grammar Party!

Posted on January 10, 2012 by

I’m rather excited today because January 10, 2012, is Grammar Party’s first birthday. Like any proper one year old, Grammar Party will spend the day eating lots of birthday cake and promptly throwing it up all over itself. So before … Continue reading →

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Foreign color idioms

Posted on January 5, 2012 by

  Last time we talked about the ways colors have infused themselves into the English language. Naturally, this happens with other languages, too. But often there’s a little tweak. For instance, in English one could get a black eye, but … Continue reading →

Posted in foreign language | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Color and language

Posted on January 5, 2012 by

For the past week I have been fighting the flu. I’ve been, if you will, green around the gills, which is another way to say “I’ve been feeling yucky.” This got me thinking about all the other idioms and nouns … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, semantics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments