I thought I was being really clever combining the words procrastination and knitting to make "procrastiknitting" to describe the feeling of wanting to work on…
Continue reading → Not so clever after all. Darn.
∞Trying to appeal to cyclists with an ad placed at a bike rack, the image and copy don't add up to the clever pun they…
Internet, I can't take it anymore. Everywhere I look (i.e., comment boards), people are writing about "a hoard of people" or "hoards of people." If…
I thought I was being really clever combining the words procrastination and knitting to make "procrastiknitting" to describe the feeling of wanting to work on…
Continue reading → Not so clever after all. Darn.
∞Though I consider myself a pretty good speller and perceptive picker-upper of words, the connection between spelling and pronunciation of "segue" -- meaning to make…
Continue reading → Things no one tells you: How to pronounce segue
∞I was editing an article recently, and something about it was bugging me. I thought about it and then I realized that it was the…
Continue reading → The easy way to avoid bias in your writing
The Oxford English Dictionary was arguably the first example of a work created by “crowdsourcing.” As I learned from Simon Winchester’s book, the Professor and the Madman, on the relationship between the editor of the OED and one of his most enthusiastic amateur contributors, the dictionary was created through both mass collaboration and meticulous editing. And now, in a major update, they’re doing it again. *Dusts off research hat …
The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary want your help in tracing the history of particular English words and phrases.
What’s old is new again. In 1859, the British Philological Society launched an appeal to the British and American public “to assist in collecting the raw materials for the work, these materials consisting of quotations illustrating the use of English words by all writers of all ages and in all senses, each quotation being made on a uniform plan on a half-sheet of notepaper, that they might in due course be arranged and classified alphabetically and by meanings.” The society’s goal was to create a new dictionary “worthy of the English Language and of the present state of Philological Science.” (The Surgeon of Crowthorne, Simon Winchester, 1998)
The result, after 50 years of toil and tens of thousands of quotation slips? The Oxford English Dictionary.
The philologists…
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Hey, is that a ginormous baby bump occupying the amazing man cave? It's not the new normal, it's a multiple pileup of aurally offensive terms…
Continue reading → Amazing! It’s the 2012 Banished Words List
Just in time for the non-denominational gift giving season, the Associated Press has published a style guide for common holiday terms. For example, Santa Claus,…
Continue reading → Associated Press gives the gift of correctness for the holidays
When you shave off the first syllable of moustache, it becomes stache, not stash, okay? If you ask me to look at your "stash" I'm…
When even bike magazines can't get the difference between peddle and pedal right, you know it's time for another super-useful and majestically executed MS Paint…
Continue reading → Usage cartoon No. 3: Do you peddle or pedal a bike?
Anatomy of a Fake Quotation - Megan McArdle - National - The Atlantic. All it took was one misunderstanding and the deletion of a couple…
Continue reading → Misquoted Facebook status becomes misattributed quote in mere keystrokes
The second edition of the usage cartoons has been inspired by the fascinatingly endless coverage of the upcoming Royal Wedding. (Which admittedly, I plan to…
CBC News - British Columbia - Carr statue unveiling marred by bronzed typo. News of an unveiling of a statue dedicated to Emily Carr, a…
As the kids get back to school (aaah, sweet nostalgia from this former school nerd), perhaps some of the adults in this country might want…
Continue reading → Hug a book, it’s International Literacy Day
My friend Rob sent me a link to the blog My First Dictionary. It's gloriously dark and ironic. Rob is awesome.