Tag: usage

canola_field
Filed under:

Victoria Neufeldt

Bold Words

February 18, 2014 by Victoria Neufeldt | Leave a Comment

One could say that bold words enter the language shouting. An example would be the word AIDS, which was coined in the early 1980s, probably by a journalist, as an initialism for the descriptive medical name of the disease: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Because the disease burst upon the world so devastatingly, the word AIDS was in the news just about […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

man walking Labrador dog
Filed under:

James Harbeck

Topics, We Front Them | Linguistics, Frankly

January 14, 2014 by James Harbeck | 4 Comments on Topics, We Front Them | Linguistics, Frankly

English is normally a subject-verb-object kind of language, but there are some interesting exceptions, especially in casual contexts. Consider examples such as the following: Poodles, we walk them. Labradors, they walk us. Chickens we have; roads, not so much. Not one of the clauses above follows standard English sentence order, and yet we understand them. […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

ancient carving
Filed under:

Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

December 10, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 3 Comments on Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, third as more repetition.” I know Marx would have added that last part had he been on the ball. In the event, he was so fixated on dialectical something or other […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Plate of peanut butter cookies, with accompanied by caption with awkward wording quoted from an Air Canada lounge.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

Gettable Grammar: Verbal Boobery (VB)

November 19, 2013 by Karen Virag | 5 Comments on Gettable Grammar: Verbal Boobery (VB)

Gettable Grammar is a monthly series of conjectures, opinions and postulates by Karen Virag. Verbal whatery? Not long ago in the Air Canada Lounge at Toronto Pearson Airport I noticed a small sign beside a tray of freshly baked cookies. It said: For the safety of our passengers with allergies, these cookies contain nuts. Now, […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Literally is not The word “literally” is the topic of this week’s blog, "English Can Be So Two-faced," by Karen Virag for The Editors' Weekly, EAC, Sept. 17, 2013. only word in this crazy language of ours that has opposing definitions. But it's the topic of this blog post, "English Can Be So Two-faced," by Karen Virag. The Editors' Weekly, EAC, Sept. 17, 2013.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

English Can Be So Two-Faced

September 17, 2013 by Karen Virag | Leave a Comment

My head literally exploded when I read it! What text, you are wondering, could have caused such a messy and bloody scene? (And if my head literally exploded, shouldn’t I be dead?) Well, the text in question was from an article in Salon magazine (August 22, 2013) decrying the Merriam-Webster (MW) Dictionary definition of the word literally to […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

A business man sits at a desk, among other business men, talking into a mic with a sheet of paper in front of him.
Filed under:

Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Stalking Verbosity

July 30, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 4 Comments on Wasted Words: Stalking Verbosity

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. Verbosity is the technical term for wasted words and it reflects the ongoing motif of this blog series. Verbosity noun the fact or quality of using more words than needed; wordiness. (Oxford Online Dictionary) Not much here to make […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Mr T gazes and points with both hands directly at the camera. His sleeveless arms betray rippling biceps. This black, muscled icon stands silhouetted against a bright green back ground.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

Gettable Grammar: Whom — Don’t Leave Us! We Hardly Knew Ye!

May 14, 2013 by Karen Virag | 2 Comments on Gettable Grammar: Whom — Don’t Leave Us! We Hardly Knew Ye!

Gettable Grammar is a monthly series of conjectures, opinions and postulates by Karen Virag. In the April 2013 Atlantic magazine, writer Megan Garber gleefully wrote: “Whom, I am thrilled to inform you, is dying.” And though I agree that whom seems to be going the way of the floppy disk, I don’t share Garber’s glee. […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Colour portrait of Dr. Edwin Battistella, dressed in a shirt and sports jacket with arms open, likely delivering a lecture.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

Gettable Grammar: Learning to Like “Like”

April 9, 2013 by Karen Virag | 2 Comments on Gettable Grammar: Learning to Like “Like”

Gettable Grammar is a monthly series of conjectures, opinions and postulates by Karen Virag. One often hears complaints about how some people litter their sentences with the word like — not as a noun, verb, preposition or conjunction, but as, like, an interjection. Like that. Now I know that Canadians like to blame Americans for […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Torso of a nude man, from neck to waist, holding a nude baby.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

Gettable Grammar: Things That Dangle

March 12, 2013 by Karen Virag | 1 Comment on Gettable Grammar: Things That Dangle

Gettable Grammar is a monthly series of conjectures, opinions and postulates by Karen Virag. Things that dangle in the night. And in the day. Hours before giving birth, a woman’s boyfriend leaves her for her best friend and quits the talent agency they run together to start his own competing business. Now that is one […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Head portrait of Irish satirist and author Jonathan Swift, best known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

Gettable Grammar: I Are Confused

February 12, 2013 by Karen Virag | 1 Comment on Gettable Grammar: I Are Confused

Gettable Grammar is a monthly series of conjectures, opinions and postulates by Karen Virag. I are confused, aren’t I? Have you ever wondered why we say, “He is, isn’t he?” and “She is, isn’t she?” but we don’t say “I am, amn’t I?” (though you might say this if you lived in certain parts of […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

A two-story house is burning, filled with flames that are coming out through the front porch, upstairs windows, and through the roof. Four firemen in gear, with their backs to us, are standing in the foreground, watching the fire.
Filed under:

Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: My Hit List

February 5, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 2 Comments on Wasted Words: My Hit List

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. I have a dream: English users create their equivalent to the Académie Française to mind the language. I’m at the first hearing of this august body presenting a list of words I want banned. The English Academy must acquiesce if […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

An image of the head of an older woman, thoughtfully stroking her chin.
Filed under:

Karen Virag

Gettable Grammar: Less is More

January 15, 2013 by Karen Virag | Leave a Comment

Gettable Grammar is a monthly series of conjectures, opinions and postulates by Karen Virag. Less is more, not fewer. Except sometimes. The question of when to use fewer and when to use less perplexes many people. Generally speaking, you should use fewer to refer to a smaller number and less to refer to a smaller […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

Balloon captions in white on a grey background with lots of slang text such as "Now I'm really ticked," and "Huh?" and "I'm stuck," etc.
Filed under:

Victoria Neufeldt

New Words

January 2, 2013 by Victoria Neufeldt | 2 Comments on New Words

“New Words, Old Words, Shy Words, Bold Words” is a four-part series about English words and their origins. The end of a year brings thoughts of old and new words — and not only to us word birds, who throughout the year are tuned into what’s coming in and what’s fading out. It’s generally easier […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

An array of typeface letters, in brown and grey tones.
Filed under:

Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: The Editor as Analyst

November 24, 2012 by Wilf Popoff | Leave a Comment

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. I find it hard to edit without playing amateur psychologist. Why did the writer do this? Carelessness? Ignorance? Of course it can be either. Compared to editors writers are not as alert, which is why they need us. But […]

Read more »

Tagged

Tagged

To top