The War
OUTFRONT
ON WORDS By Bob Yearick
A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to correct some of the most common mistakes we Americans make in both the written and spoken word.
WORD OF THE MONTH
HECTOR
As a verb, it means to intimidate or dominate in a blustering way. Less common is the noun, which means bully. Taken from the name of the Trojan prince killed by Achilles in Homer’s Iliad.
Those devilish gerunds
Media Watch
Gerund—there’s a word you probably haven’t heard since high school English class. As you’ll recall from those halcyon days, gerunds are nouns formed from verbs, and all end in -ing. Many of us have forgotten that those words take the possessive case of a noun or pronoun preceding the gerund. So such sentences as “I can’t stand him singing in the shower” should be changed to “I can’t stand his singing in the shower.” It’s the singing that’s objectionable, not him, the singer.
A column in a recent issue of the Wilmington weekly that covers the young-adult entertainment scene contained this sentence: “There are now officially enough shows on television about men with more than one women in their lives.” The mistake was repeated in a boldface callout in the middle of the column. What is it with woman and women? Why do so many people mix them up so often? Never seems to occur with man and men. In the same column, judgment was spelled with an extra e, another common mistake. (Spell check catches both errors.)
Menu directives “War” has a friend who has noticed what she calls imperative commands as adjectives on menus. Her examples and accompanying comments: “Toss Salad (Should I throw it at the waiter?); Mash Potatoes (I thought the cook would do that for me.); Ice Tea (What am I, a hit man?).”
Healthful vs. healthy Healthy is often misused. It means having good health. Healthful means helping to produce or maintain health. So a person can be healthy, but a diet, food, or choice is healthful because it promotes health; it doesn’t possess it.
MEA CULPA www.out-and-about.com
11_OutFront.indd 3
Not-so-smooth transition Segue is a useful word that means a smooth transition from one subject to another. Unfortunately, the word is sometimes spelled “segway.” Understandable: It’s the phonetic spelling. That word, however, refers to the twowheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle, and should be capitalized.
Enough already Here’s a phrase we hear far too often: That said (or that being said, having said that, or any variation of the foregoing). How about using a simple “but” or “however” now and then?
BONUS
WORD OF THE MONTH insouciant Pronounced in-soo-sheeant, it means marked by blithe unconcern; nonchalant.
Heard or seen a good
(bad) one lately? Drop us a line at allwriter@ comcast.net
Last month, “War” called Roy Halladay Ray Halladay. Several readers emailed to point out our brain freeze. Then, of course, a few days after the October issue appeared, ol’ Roy fired a no-hitter in the playoffs, which exacerbated our shame. Hey, at least it wasn’t a grammatical error.
7
10/22/2010 7:08:52 PM