The word of the day is Brobdingnagian:
Etymology: < Brobdingnag , the name given by Swift in Gulliver's Travels to an imaginary country where everything was on a gigantic scale. (OED)
"It does not end, that lonely epic battle of the solitary warrior, the copy editor, armed only with pencil or 'delete' key, his back to the cubicle, as colossal looming forces of puffery, leviathans of cant, brigades of Brobdingnagian mendacity swarm and threaten to overpower him."
- John E. McIntyre, Colossal! Epic! Glorious!, 28 October 2011 You Don't Say (warning: the Baltimore Sun's paywall is up, and you can only see 15 page views per month without a paid account)
Showing posts with label john e. mcintyre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john e. mcintyre. Show all posts
Friday, October 28, 2011
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Word of the day: stet
The word of the day is stet:
"An example: You know that if your writer uses hopefully as a sentence adverb, some readers will grow hair on the backs of their hands and commence baying at the moon. You know that if you change hopefully to it is to be hoped that, some readers will find it insufferably pompous and affected. You may damn the torpedoes and stet it, you may change it, or you may write around it. You will reach a decision, not by applying a Rule, but by gauging the various weights of the author’s preference, the reader’s needs and expectations, and the publication’s tone."
- John E. McIntyre, "Prescription for prescriptivists", 1 September 2011 You Don't Say
Etymology: 3rd singular present subjunctive of Latin stāre to stand.
Printing.‘Let it stand’; a direction in the margin of a proof or MS. that matter which has been altered or struck out is to remain uncorrected. The direction occasionally signifies that a non-standard or irregular form should be retained. (OED)
"An example: You know that if your writer uses hopefully as a sentence adverb, some readers will grow hair on the backs of their hands and commence baying at the moon. You know that if you change hopefully to it is to be hoped that, some readers will find it insufferably pompous and affected. You may damn the torpedoes and stet it, you may change it, or you may write around it. You will reach a decision, not by applying a Rule, but by gauging the various weights of the author’s preference, the reader’s needs and expectations, and the publication’s tone."
- John E. McIntyre, "Prescription for prescriptivists", 1 September 2011 You Don't Say
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Word of the day: ukase
The word of the day is ukase:
"Like a doctor who realizes that what was taught in medical school twenty years previously may no longer apply, the editor has to realize that time may have passed by the ukases of his sixth-grade English teacher or her first managing editor."
- John E. McIntyre, "Prescription for prescriptivists", 1 September 2011 You Don't Say
Etymology: < Russian ukaz, < ukazat′ to show, direct, order, decree. Hence also French ukase, oukase, Portuguese ukase, Spanish ucase, German, Danish, Swedish ukas.
1. A decree or edict, having the force of law, issued by the Russian emperor or government.
2. transf. Any proclamation or decree; an order or regulation of a final or arbitrary nature. (OED)
"Like a doctor who realizes that what was taught in medical school twenty years previously may no longer apply, the editor has to realize that time may have passed by the ukases of his sixth-grade English teacher or her first managing editor."
- John E. McIntyre, "Prescription for prescriptivists", 1 September 2011 You Don't Say
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Word of the day: obloquy
The word of the day is obloquy:
< Anglo-Norman obloquie calumny, detraction (late 13th cent.) and its etymon post-classical Latin obloquium contradiction, calumny (5th cent.; frequently in British sources c1125–1486) < classical Latin obloquī to speak against, gainsay, contradict < ob-ob- prefix + loquī to speak
1.a. Verbal abuse directed against a person or thing; detraction, calumny, slander. Formerly (also): †an abusive or calumnious speech or utterance (obs.).In quot. a1616 prob. with admixture of sense of obliquity or oblique (see etymological note).
b. Abuse or detraction as it affects the person spoken against; the condition of being spoken against; ill repute; reproach, disgrace, notoriety.
2. A cause, occasion, or object of detraction or reproach; a reproach, a disgrace. Obs. (OED)
"Mr. Carey’s first post, “The Queen’s English Society deplores your impurities,” exposes their ludicrous pretensions and goes on to link to some of the many writers on language who have heaped obloquy on the QES, smiting them hip and thigh (including some of the best lines from my posts on the subject)."
- John E. McIntyre, "Meretricious Albion", 22 July 2011 You Don't Say
< Anglo-Norman obloquie calumny, detraction (late 13th cent.) and its etymon post-classical Latin obloquium contradiction, calumny (5th cent.; frequently in British sources c1125–1486) < classical Latin obloquī to speak against, gainsay, contradict < ob-ob- prefix + loquī to speak
1.a. Verbal abuse directed against a person or thing; detraction, calumny, slander. Formerly (also): †an abusive or calumnious speech or utterance (obs.).In quot. a1616 prob. with admixture of sense of obliquity or oblique (see etymological note).
b. Abuse or detraction as it affects the person spoken against; the condition of being spoken against; ill repute; reproach, disgrace, notoriety.
2. A cause, occasion, or object of detraction or reproach; a reproach, a disgrace. Obs. (OED)
"Mr. Carey’s first post, “The Queen’s English Society deplores your impurities,” exposes their ludicrous pretensions and goes on to link to some of the many writers on language who have heaped obloquy on the QES, smiting them hip and thigh (including some of the best lines from my posts on the subject)."
- John E. McIntyre, "Meretricious Albion", 22 July 2011 You Don't Say
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