Thank you, Patricia! I suspect (that is, I know) that I repeat myself, but I'm sure that Gene recognized the importance of repetition in the cause of getting things right!
Thank you for all of these delightful points and footnotes. I've been editing, mostly copyediting, books for 48 years, and I have forced myself to accept "modern" yet still technically incorrect usages under certain circumstances. I keep reminding myself that the intended audience is not 70-ish copy editors.
“If you’re going to irritate your readers, do it on purpose, not by accident” is exceptionally good advice and one of the best reasons for having an editor in the first place.
I always wonder what Maggie Smith thought about having to say 'momentarily' in your first sense there in Harry Potter and the Something or Other, it always makes me close my eyes in anguish.
I learned only in the last decade or so that the word is wielded in two ways. And I learned that when a dear friend called me out on it (nicely but peevishly), and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about till I looked it up.
My mother was very firm on the use of "momentarily," to the point that it is instinctual for me to read it as "for a moment" rather than "in a moment," but I try not to object.
The mental picture it causes whenever I hear an announced that a plane "will be landing momentarily" is at least amusing, so there's that.
Gray and grey are different colors in my mind's eye in precisely the ways you describe! I’ve also always suspected that it's because I spent an inordinate amount of time in my childhood reading books like *At the Back of the North Wind* (unaccountably, I could never fall in love with *The Wind in the Willows*). But my half-crackpot theory that I nonetheless believe is that it's not just the spelling imprinting. I think it's that there are so many hideously bleak days in a novel like *Jane Eyre* that when a certain sort of bookish child who identifies with Jane reads her story, it becomes impossible to separate the grey day on which there is no possibility of taking a walk from the awfulness of entitled cousins and all manner of similarly horrid happenings. By the time one encounters poor Tess later in life, the grey of Flintcomb Ash cannot mean anything but the most awful leaden-landscape-as-dismal-soul. Gray thus becomes necessary as a means of identifying a color that is NOT meant to indicate the tortures of endless rain and misunderstood/mistreated girls.
Thank you. I'm glad it makes sense to someone who's not only in my head. (I do find myself changing my spelling based on that rubric, though I suppose if I ever do so in a trade book, a copy editor will rightly ask me to pick one and stick to it so as not to drive my readers crazy. Because I am not a poet.)
That IS funny. I can only imagine that those must be people who did not spend years of childhood devouring books by E. Nesbit.
The lovely company that published the two (so far) installments of the calendar couldn't make a go of it a third time; apparently the market for these sorts of things had gotten really tight. Oh well. If some enterprising someone wants to revive the calendar, I'm sure they can figure out how to find me.
Ah, yes, on accident, the bane of my existence. We moved to Iowa in the mid 70s and our sons were born there. When the elder used the phrase in describing an incident, I quietly corrected him saying by accident. When the younger used it, we also corrected him. Alas, we were drowning in a sea of Iowans who have used on accident their entire lives and engaged in many conversations asking why they used on accident. We were often met with incredulous looks and decided to leave the matter be. Our sons, both of whom write very well, occasionally slip it into conversation, knowing it annoys us. Apoplectic, indeed.
I've encountered the declaration that "on accident" is a geographical habit less than I've encountered the declaration that it's generational, but either way...
And what are children for if not to be aggressively annoying.
As a retired copy editor and writing teacher I remember when “step foot” began showing up in my students’ work in the 90s (if I remember correctly). I saw it less often elsewhere, though it seems to be enjoying a surge these days. Around the same time, “bored of” began appearing here and there, and now I see it all over the place. Used to be that the more common usage was “bored with.” My theory is that somehow it morphed into popularity from “tired of,” but who knows? When I see either “step foot” or “bored of” I tend to assume the writer is less experienced, but probably I’m just being a snoot.
I guess we have to give some credit, if credit it is, to the Harvard Lampoon for having published in 1969 that classic satire Bored of the Rings. I don't think I'm inclined to say or write "bored of," but it has a kind of adolescent whining sound that I have to admire.
We used to discourage the use of "former/latter" with the reasoning that it tends to encourage (or cause, even) the reader to back up and reread, and who has time for that. Same for "respectively".
I've always thought of "gray" as gloomier than "grey," and here's why: The "a" in "gray" is a closed character whereas the "e" in "grey" is open, and that, as Leonard Cohen might have said, is how the light gets in.
I thought perhaps "on accident" was a Western PA thing like "needs refrigerated" (for "needs to be refrigerated") and other interesting oddities. Same with "based off of" which was also a puzzler to me. I didn't realize it was more widespread than my little burgh.
I clearly recall that it was that usage—I believe it was specifically “What needs done?”—that I was first called out on as an outsider/yokel when my family made the big move from western Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. And there I was just trying to help…
Thank you for parts one and two, and especially for footnote #4, a two-fer.
These get better and better. I especially love #2.
Thank you, Patricia! I suspect (that is, I know) that I repeat myself, but I'm sure that Gene recognized the importance of repetition in the cause of getting things right!
Thank you for all of these delightful points and footnotes. I've been editing, mostly copyediting, books for 48 years, and I have forced myself to accept "modern" yet still technically incorrect usages under certain circumstances. I keep reminding myself that the intended audience is not 70-ish copy editors.
“If you’re going to irritate your readers, do it on purpose, not by accident” is exceptionally good advice and one of the best reasons for having an editor in the first place.
I always wonder what Maggie Smith thought about having to say 'momentarily' in your first sense there in Harry Potter and the Something or Other, it always makes me close my eyes in anguish.
I learned only in the last decade or so that the word is wielded in two ways. And I learned that when a dear friend called me out on it (nicely but peevishly), and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about till I looked it up.
My mother was very firm on the use of "momentarily," to the point that it is instinctual for me to read it as "for a moment" rather than "in a moment," but I try not to object.
The mental picture it causes whenever I hear an announced that a plane "will be landing momentarily" is at least amusing, so there's that.
Gray and grey are different colors in my mind's eye in precisely the ways you describe! I’ve also always suspected that it's because I spent an inordinate amount of time in my childhood reading books like *At the Back of the North Wind* (unaccountably, I could never fall in love with *The Wind in the Willows*). But my half-crackpot theory that I nonetheless believe is that it's not just the spelling imprinting. I think it's that there are so many hideously bleak days in a novel like *Jane Eyre* that when a certain sort of bookish child who identifies with Jane reads her story, it becomes impossible to separate the grey day on which there is no possibility of taking a walk from the awfulness of entitled cousins and all manner of similarly horrid happenings. By the time one encounters poor Tess later in life, the grey of Flintcomb Ash cannot mean anything but the most awful leaden-landscape-as-dismal-soul. Gray thus becomes necessary as a means of identifying a color that is NOT meant to indicate the tortures of endless rain and misunderstood/mistreated girls.
Your account is eloquent and persuasive.
The funny thing is: Some people will regard my two-colors suggestion and respond: Yes! But it’s the other way around!
Thank you. I'm glad it makes sense to someone who's not only in my head. (I do find myself changing my spelling based on that rubric, though I suppose if I ever do so in a trade book, a copy editor will rightly ask me to pick one and stick to it so as not to drive my readers crazy. Because I am not a poet.)
That IS funny. I can only imagine that those must be people who did not spend years of childhood devouring books by E. Nesbit.
This is why San Francisco is called the "cool, gray city of love" and not "grey", in my San Franciscan opinion!
“the red dots of judgment” are the bane of my existence.
Agreed. Wondering if "takeoutable" in this essay triggered them? As it triggered the squiggly line of rebuke here....
It did! As did “newerfangled,” I’m pleased to report.
Thank you for this, especially 2 and 5. As I have said to more than one author, if you're going to piss off your readers, make it count.
Pure delight.
Hmm. Perhaps this is the moment. Sadly, I missed out on your A Word (or Point Well Made) A Day tear-off calendar. Any chance of it returning?
The lovely company that published the two (so far) installments of the calendar couldn't make a go of it a third time; apparently the market for these sorts of things had gotten really tight. Oh well. If some enterprising someone wants to revive the calendar, I'm sure they can figure out how to find me.
Ah, yes, on accident, the bane of my existence. We moved to Iowa in the mid 70s and our sons were born there. When the elder used the phrase in describing an incident, I quietly corrected him saying by accident. When the younger used it, we also corrected him. Alas, we were drowning in a sea of Iowans who have used on accident their entire lives and engaged in many conversations asking why they used on accident. We were often met with incredulous looks and decided to leave the matter be. Our sons, both of whom write very well, occasionally slip it into conversation, knowing it annoys us. Apoplectic, indeed.
I've encountered the declaration that "on accident" is a geographical habit less than I've encountered the declaration that it's generational, but either way...
And what are children for if not to be aggressively annoying.
As a retired copy editor and writing teacher I remember when “step foot” began showing up in my students’ work in the 90s (if I remember correctly). I saw it less often elsewhere, though it seems to be enjoying a surge these days. Around the same time, “bored of” began appearing here and there, and now I see it all over the place. Used to be that the more common usage was “bored with.” My theory is that somehow it morphed into popularity from “tired of,” but who knows? When I see either “step foot” or “bored of” I tend to assume the writer is less experienced, but probably I’m just being a snoot.
I guess we have to give some credit, if credit it is, to the Harvard Lampoon for having published in 1969 that classic satire Bored of the Rings. I don't think I'm inclined to say or write "bored of," but it has a kind of adolescent whining sound that I have to admire.
We used to discourage the use of "former/latter" with the reasoning that it tends to encourage (or cause, even) the reader to back up and reread, and who has time for that. Same for "respectively".
I like the occasional “respectively,” though very often it’s used so obviously as to be unnecessary.
We caught some doozies in our time:
https://mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=2343
I very much like and appreciate the differing shades of gray/grey. I never thought of it that way before, but it makes perfect sense to me.
It’s completely loopy, but somehow, yes, it makes sense. Which is a great combination, I’d say.
I've always thought of "gray" as gloomier than "grey," and here's why: The "a" in "gray" is a closed character whereas the "e" in "grey" is open, and that, as Leonard Cohen might have said, is how the light gets in.
❤️
I thought perhaps "on accident" was a Western PA thing like "needs refrigerated" (for "needs to be refrigerated") and other interesting oddities. Same with "based off of" which was also a puzzler to me. I didn't realize it was more widespread than my little burgh.
I must confess, I find "needs refrigerated" quite charming.
I clearly recall that it was that usage—I believe it was specifically “What needs done?”—that I was first called out on as an outsider/yokel when my family made the big move from western Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. And there I was just trying to help…
In southcentral PA, as well. My favorite example was a handwritten sign on a vending machine: "Broke. Needs fixed."