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GRAMMARPHOBIA: BLOG
Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language and more. Tags English, English language, Etymology, Expression, Grammar, Language, Linguistics, Phrase origin, Usage, Word origin, Writing. Q: The words “vote” and “veto” seem so similar, yet opposite. THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: A JERRY-RIGGED ETYMOLOGY As we wrote in a 2008 post, standard dictionaries now accept “jerry-rigged” as a legitimate usage. Etymologically, they say, it’s a mash-up of two earlier terms: “jury-rigged” (improvised or makeshift) and “jerry-built” (badly done). American Heritagecalls the
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: PUNCTUATING A SERIES OF QUESTIONS A: Yes, a series of questions in the middle of a sentence, surrounded by dashes or parentheses, is punctuated in just that way. Each question begins with a lowercase letter and ends with a question mark, according to language guides. But if the series is at the end, and if the questions are complete clauses, you have a choice. THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: WHEN WALK-INS WALK IN Nouns (hyphenated or one word): “Our check-in was easy and so was the checkout, even though we were walk-ins .”. The verbs involved here are phrasal verbs, which are usually defined as a verb plus an adverb. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) gives “settle down,” “act up,” and “phase out” as examples. “A phrasalverb is
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: FOLD LIKE A CHEAP X These expressions, sometimes called “snowclones” by linguists, follow a verbal pattern (like “X is the new Y” or, in this case, “fold like a cheap X”) into which various words can be inserted by people too lazy to come up with new clichés. In a 2004 post on the Language Log, the linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum credits the economist THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: CAN A WOMAN BE A CHAP? Here are the senses: (1) a man or boy, (2) cut or roughened, as in chapped lips, (3) the jaws or cheeks, and (4) cowboy leggings. As we said earlier, the use of “chap” in sense #1 is a shortening of “chapman,” an old term for a trader or dealer. The word was céapmann in Old English, where céapian meant to buy and sell, andcéap meant
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: THE ‘H’ IN ‘JESUS H. CHRIST’ A: We’ve seen a lot of theories about the source of the “H” in “Jesus H. Christ,” one of many expletives or exclamations that use a name for God. The most likely suggestion is that it comes from a monogram made of the first three letters of the Greek name for Jesus. In Greek, “Jesus” is ΙΗΣΟΥΣ in uppercase letters and THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: IN JESUS’ NAME OR JESUS’S NAME? A: The form written with an apostrophe plus “s” (that is, “Jesus’s”) can represent either a contraction (short for “Jesus is” or “Jesus has”) or the possessive form of the name. But in the expression you’re writing, it would clearly be the possessive. There’s THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: WHY THE DEAD ARE “LATE” The OED says the “recently dead” sense of “late” was apparently influenced by the use of the adverb “late” to mean “not long ago (but not now); recently, but no longer.”. Here’s an adverbial example, from a 1435 will, that hints at the adjectivalusage: “Thys
GRAMMARPHOBIA: GRAMMAR, ETYMOLOGY, LINGUISTICS, USAGETHE BLOGTHE BOOKSTHE AUTHORSQ&AMYTHSBROADCASTS Test your knowledge of English grammar, etymology, and usage with five quizzes. Read Pat and Stewart’s On Language column in the New York Times Magazine on the search for an all-purpose pronoun. So she’s like, “I like LIKE!”. Whether you love “like” or hate it, read Pat’s “like”-minded On Language column in the New York TimesGRAMMARPHOBIA: BLOG
Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language and more. Tags English, English language, Etymology, Expression, Grammar, Language, Linguistics, Phrase origin, Usage, Word origin, Writing. Q: The words “vote” and “veto” seem so similar, yet opposite. THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: A JERRY-RIGGED ETYMOLOGY As we wrote in a 2008 post, standard dictionaries now accept “jerry-rigged” as a legitimate usage. Etymologically, they say, it’s a mash-up of two earlier terms: “jury-rigged” (improvised or makeshift) and “jerry-built” (badly done). American Heritagecalls the
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: PUNCTUATING A SERIES OF QUESTIONS A: Yes, a series of questions in the middle of a sentence, surrounded by dashes or parentheses, is punctuated in just that way. Each question begins with a lowercase letter and ends with a question mark, according to language guides. But if the series is at the end, and if the questions are complete clauses, you have a choice. THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: WHEN WALK-INS WALK IN Nouns (hyphenated or one word): “Our check-in was easy and so was the checkout, even though we were walk-ins .”. The verbs involved here are phrasal verbs, which are usually defined as a verb plus an adverb. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) gives “settle down,” “act up,” and “phase out” as examples. “A phrasalverb is
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: FOLD LIKE A CHEAP X These expressions, sometimes called “snowclones” by linguists, follow a verbal pattern (like “X is the new Y” or, in this case, “fold like a cheap X”) into which various words can be inserted by people too lazy to come up with new clichés. In a 2004 post on the Language Log, the linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum credits the economist THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: CAN A WOMAN BE A CHAP? Here are the senses: (1) a man or boy, (2) cut or roughened, as in chapped lips, (3) the jaws or cheeks, and (4) cowboy leggings. As we said earlier, the use of “chap” in sense #1 is a shortening of “chapman,” an old term for a trader or dealer. The word was céapmann in Old English, where céapian meant to buy and sell, andcéap meant
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: THE ‘H’ IN ‘JESUS H. CHRIST’ A: We’ve seen a lot of theories about the source of the “H” in “Jesus H. Christ,” one of many expletives or exclamations that use a name for God. The most likely suggestion is that it comes from a monogram made of the first three letters of the Greek name for Jesus. In Greek, “Jesus” is ΙΗΣΟΥΣ in uppercase letters and THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: IN JESUS’ NAME OR JESUS’S NAME? A: The form written with an apostrophe plus “s” (that is, “Jesus’s”) can represent either a contraction (short for “Jesus is” or “Jesus has”) or the possessive form of the name. But in the expression you’re writing, it would clearly be the possessive. There’s THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: WHY THE DEAD ARE “LATE” The OED says the “recently dead” sense of “late” was apparently influenced by the use of the adverb “late” to mean “not long ago (but not now); recently, but no longer.”. Here’s an adverbial example, from a 1435 will, that hints at the adjectivalusage: “Thys
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: A LION, A FLOWER, AND A KING Q: Is Leonotis, the plant genus, related etymologically to Leonidas, the Spartan king?. A: The botanical Latin name of Leonotis, a genus of flowering tropical plants native to Africa and India, ultimately comes from the classical Greek terms for “lion” and “ear.”Not surprisingly, a common name for it is “lion’s ear.” As far as we can tell, the German botanist Christiaan Hendrik THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: WHEN WALK-INS WALK IN Nouns (hyphenated or one word): “Our check-in was easy and so was the checkout, even though we were walk-ins .”. The verbs involved here are phrasal verbs, which are usually defined as a verb plus an adverb. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) gives “settle down,” “act up,” and “phase out” as examples. “A phrasalverb is
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: IS GM AN “IT” OR A “THEY”? And from a grammatical point of view, the singular “it” is more appropriate than the plural “they.”. We’re taking the restrictive American view here, because the word “company” is a singular noun and so is a corporate name—even if it’s plural in form, like Acme Industries or Widget Services or Smith & Son. Thecompany is an
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST? Q: What is the graceful or correct way to use “suggest” when it’s an I-don’t-know-what-kind-of-verb (not transitive, I think). I’ve recently read such things as “I was suggested to studyharder.”
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: IN JESUS’ NAME OR JESUS’S NAME? A: The form written with an apostrophe plus “s” (that is, “Jesus’s”) can represent either a contraction (short for “Jesus is” or “Jesus has”) or the possessive form of the name. But in the expression you’re writing, it would clearly be the possessive. There’s THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: HOW ‘MASTER’ BECAME ‘MISTER’ A: We discussed the origin of “master” on the blog in 2015, but we’ll summarize it here to set the stage for the appearance of “mister” and the evolution of “master” as a term for a boy or young man. The term “master” (spelled mægster , magester, or magister in Old English) was borrowed from Latin, where a magister wasa
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: ARE FAMILIES PEOPLE OR THINGS? Grammatically speaking, the noun “family” (like “class,” “committee,” “orchestra,” “faculty,” and so on) is a thing, even though it’s made up of people. So your example should read “families that eat together.”. But even if one argues that the noun “family” implies people, “that” is an appropriaterelative
THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: IS 'GYPSY' A SLUR? The OED defines this ethnic sense of “Gypsy” as “a member of a wandering race (by themselves called Romany ), of Hindu origin, which first appeared in England about the beginning of the 16th cent. and was then believed to have come from Egypt.”. But the word very soon acquired transferred meanings, the OED says. THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: EITHER OR NEITHER OF THREE? A: Yes, you’re too restrictive. “Either” and “neither” usually refer to only two things, but not always. When “either” showed up in Old English as ǽghwæðer (also contracted as ǽgðer ), it meant “each of two.”. And when “neither” showed up in Old English as nauðer ( THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG: PROSTITUTE OR SEX WORKER? The Oxford English Dictionary defines “sex worker” as “a person who is paid or employed to provide sexual services, esp. one working in the pornography business or as a prostitute.”. “Typically,” the OED adds, the term is “used (esp. when in preference to prostitute) to avoid or reduce negative connotations and to evokeaffinity
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FOR OUR SPIN ON ENGLISH, VISIT THE GRAMMARPHOBIA BLOG THREE NATIONAL BESTSELLERS, INCLUDING A NEW _WOE IS I_ FOR OUR TIMES._WOE
IS I_, the witty language classic that proved English could be fun, has been called “possibly the most popular book on grammar everpublished.”
Learn more …
_
__ORIGINS
OF THE SPECIOUS _debunks the many myths of English that have bamboozled fans of the authors’ blog, books, and broadcasts. Is your favorite pet peeve really a no-no? It ain’t necessarily so. Readmore …
_WORDS
FAIL ME_, the essential writing guide, has hundreds of sensible, useful tips that not only work but also make you laugh. Read more …_WOE
IS I JR._ is the kids’ version of the bestselling grammar book for grown-ups. Shrek? Earwax-flavored jelly beans? Poems about meatballs?Read more …
And
for a change of pace, check out _SWAN SONG_, Stewart’s new comic novel (with a foreword by Pat) about an elderly couple who get more than they bargained for when they move from the New York suburbs to a retirement community in Florida. Learn more … READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF _SWAN SONG_ HERE…
HEAR PAT’S BROADCASTS She has appeared regularly on public radio, including WNYC and Iowa Public Radio.
ARE YOU myth informed? Test your knowledge of English grammar, etymology, and usage with fivequizzes
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Sex and the single pronoun Read Pat and Stewart’s On Languagecolumn in the New
York Times Magazine on the search for an all-purpose pronoun. So she’s like, “I like LIKE!” Whether you love “like” or hate it, read Pat’s “like”-minded On Language column in the New York Times Magazine. An object lesson from the Oval Office Read Pat and Stewart’s op-ed piece in the New York Times on President Obama’s English. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STRUNK AND WHITE! Pat joins four other language mavens on the New York Times blog Roomfor Debate
to discuss the 50th anniversary of _The Elements of Style_. ENGLISH AND THE GREAT DIVIDE Read Pat’s review in the New York Times of two new books about the English language. ARE YOU A FAN OF RAYMOND CARVER’S STORIES? Read Stewart’s interviewwith him in the New
York Times just a few months before Ray died. THE EMAIL COMBAT ZONE Read Pat and Stewart’s On Language column in the New York Times Magazine about online writing.War stories
Read one of Stewart’s dispatches from Vietnam.
What’s the right dictionary for you? Pat discusses her favorites on the blog.
Are you a virtual mensch? Test your email IQ . Have you got rhythm? A writer’s checklist . What’s on Pat’s mind? Read her interviews with Grammaristand
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