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The Constant Grammarian, Part 1: Seven Words and Phrases You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know
As the old saying goes, you can take the girl out of copy editing, but you can’t stop her from judging you for spelling it “judgement.” This brand-new Canary blog series explores common errors and quick lessons I’ve gathered from years of experience as a former copy editor who made a living correcting other people’s mistakes. Don’t let these things happen to you!
Today’s topic: commonly misused words and phrases. Below you’ll find seven of the less-than-usual suspects — words you might need in order to communicate your message to the media (and, incidentally, words media folks will judge you for if you get ’em wrong).
1. ENORMITY. Defined as “the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong,” this word gets confused with its wrong-sounding sister “enormousness.” The new Barnes Foundation may be big, but don’t sit there wondering at its enormity.
2. FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES. In every practical sense, this expression — commonly written incorrectly as “for all intensive purposes” — is unnecessary. But don’t be unnecessary and wrong.
3. COMPLEMENT. The press can pay you a great compliment by running a positive review of your play after its run, but it sure would’ve been nice if they’d complemented it with a preview. See what I did there?
4. UNIQUE. Because this word is synonymous with “one-of-a-kind,” it cannot be modified. Your performance is not incredibly unique, nor is it somewhat unique (we hope).
5. JUST AS SOON. This expression, which could be replaced with “rather” or “more readily,” means you’d be just as eager to do one thing as another. The common misuse, “just assume,” doesn’t quite make sense. Besides, everyone knows what happens when you assume.
6. DISINTERESTED. If you’re a good journalist, you’re disinterested in the organization you’re pursuing for a story — which means you’re unbiased, not that you don’t care. If you don’t care, you’re uninterested (and possibly a bad journalist).
7. ANTISOCIAL. If you’re a wallflower at parties, you’re unsocial. If you’re a conscienceless, law-breaking society-shunner, you’re antisocial. You’d be surprised how many shy folks claim to be sociopaths.
What misused words drive you crazy? Add your comments here, or shoot me an email at carolyn [at] canarypromo [dot] com. And stay tuned in August for the next installment of The Constant Grammarian: the Spelling Bee edition.
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/11/2012 - 11:55am
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Comments
6 comments postedincorrect prefixes
Submitted by Wes Smith (not verified) on Sun, 07/15/2012 - 10:44pm.A truly bizarre thing I've heard NEWSCASTERS in Florida use is "irregardless." I firmly believe that these sorts of non-words are created by people trying to sound smart (and doing a poor job of it). The rest of us know that the "ir" and the "less" are a strange combination at best.
Here's one I hate
Submitted by Mark Cofta (not verified) on Thu, 07/12/2012 - 5:46pm.Like a weed, this one has been spreading out of control: "Based off of." As in, "this film is based off of a book." No, it is BASED ON, or maybe adapted from.
You are Guardians of Civilization!
Off of = awful
Submitted by Carolyn (not verified) on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 9:27am.Yes! Couldn’t agree more. Even “based off” would be less offensive.
Off of = awful
Submitted by Carolyn (not verified) on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 9:27am.Yes! Couldn’t agree more. Even “based off” would be less offensive.
It's not a word that bugs me,
Submitted by Cait (not verified) on Wed, 07/11/2012 - 2:20pm.It's not a word that bugs me, so much as a phrase. Being from the south, I heard this quite a bit: "I used to could be able to." What the what?!?!?! It drove me crazy.
I’ve never heard that
Submitted by Carolyn (not verified) on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 9:28am.I’ve never heard that one! Hilarious.