March 20th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
A person who attends a meeting but refuses to participate in a vote is said to “abstain.” The lack of a vote is recorded as an “abstention.”
In some voting, a person who isn’t there can still participate by absentee ballot. This is also the idea of the term “in absentia,” applied, for example, to a trial conducted even though the defendant isn’t there.
“Abstain” and “absent” both have Latin origins. For the former, it’s “ab(s)-” or “from” plus “tenere,” “to hold.”
This combo also gave us “abstinence.” A particular type of abstinence is associated with the adjective “abstemious,” whose Latin root is “temetum” — “strong drink.”
“Absent” was produced by combining “ab-” with “esse,” or “to be.” So “absent” is “to be away.”
The opposite of absent is “present,” which is what some people vote when they don’t want to take sides but also want to refrain from abstaining.
March 19th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
Just in case you were wondering. …
Earlier this week I wrote about the two “pawns.” In the one that involves a type of transaction, one party is the “pawner” (or “pawnor”) and the other is the “pawnee.”
“Pawnee,” with a capital “P,” is the English name given to “a member of a group of North American Plains Indian peoples.” Apparently, the French who settled in North America called them “pani.”
It’s not exactly clear how that was derived from “parika,” meaning “a horn,” which referred to the distinctive dressing of the scalp lock.
For a while during colonial times, the French and British would sometimes obtain Pawnee captives from other tribes and sell them as slaves to white settlers.
Strangely, then, it might be said that this kind of interaction involved the pawning of the Pawnee or using them as pawns. But the name doesn’t appear to be related to this.
Objections among the population eventually brought this slave trade to an end.
March 16th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
“Pawnshop” is written as one word, as is “pawnbroker,” but “pawn ticket” is two.
This kind of “pawn” is a “pledge.” To pawn is “to give as security” or “to stake, wager or risk.”
To “pawn off” is the same as the informal “palm off”: “to pass off by trickery or deceit.”
This “pawn” can be traced to the Latin “pannus,” for “cloth,” which presumably was used at one time as a medium of exchange.
The other “pawn,” the chess piece, has its origin in the Latin “pes,” or “foot.” That one gave rise to “pedo,” which in Late Latin was “one who has flat feet” and in Medieval Latin became “foot soldier.”
In a like manner, the pawn is the foot soldier on the chessboard. In general use, a pawn is “a person used to advance another’s purposes.”
Which reminds me of that great line from Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles”:
“Mongo only pawn in game of life.”
March 12th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
“Redundancy” when applied to computer systems is a good thing. It means there are duplicate components that will allow the system to continue functioning even if some parts shut down.
In writing, however, redundancy is frowned upon. Here are some examples:
“Minimizing the financial cost.” Delete “financial.” A “cost” is generally a money thing. When it isn’t, “financial” would be inappropriate there, too.
“Unless additional venues are added.” Things are really adding up. Delete “additional.”
“A minor fender bender.” Delete “minor.” By definition, the informal “fender bender” is “a minor automobile accident.”
“A role model for others.” A role model for oneself would require multiple personalities, and that’s not a good role model. Delete “for others.”
“Historically unprecedented.” If it’s unprecedented, it hasn’t been done before. Ever. Throughout history. Delete “historically.”
March 11th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
Consider the following:
“It’s a misnomer that a private college education is more expensive.”
Instead of “misnomer,” the writer wanted “misconception,” “misunderstanding,” “a mistaken idea” or something like that.
A “misnomer” is simply an incorrect name. Its Latin root is “nomen,” for “name,” which is where “nominal,” “nomenclature” and “nominate” came from.
Here’s another:
“Politicians are pandering this snake oil.”
A “pander” (often now written “panderer”) is “someone who caters to and often exploits the weaknesses of others.” In a more specific use, a “pander” is a “pimp.”
You don’t really pander a product, you pander TO a person or group.
I think the writer meant “peddling.”
Finally:
“Few parameters are being placed on the group.”
“Parameter” is a math term. When applied generally, it’s “any constant, with variable values, used as a referent for determining other variables” — which still sounds like a math term.
In the example above, “parameter” is meant as a stand-in for “boundary” or “limit,” which Webster’s says is a “usage objected to by some.” Count me as one of those.
March 10th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
A “proverb” is an “adage” or a “maxim”; that is, “a short, traditional saying that expresses some obvious truth or familiar experience.”
We often use the adjective “proverbial” as a signal that what we’re writing (or saying) is probably a cliche, but it works — or we’re too lazy to find another expression.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. But be careful where you place it. Consider the following:
“We’re at the end of the proverbial road.”
In this expression, it’s really not the road that’s proverbial, it’s the end of it. So make it:
“We’re at the proverbial end of the road.”
Here’s hoping there’s a road sign to that effect.
Speaking of road signs, I was driving my usual route to work the other day when I encountered a sign that said “road construction ahead.” About a block later were other signs telling me my lane was about to end.
Why don’t they place the “lane ending” signs first, so I have plenty of time to try to adjust? That’s the thing I really need to know. I can wait to find out WHY it’s ending.
Words are terrible things to waste, even on road signs.
March 9th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
It’s usually a bad idea to monkey around with idiom. As with most devices designed to do one job, an idiomatic expression is not made of interchangeable parts.
When you rearrange the pieces, perhaps to try to make one of these phrases sound less like a cliche, you also destroy its meaning. For example:
A story about the budget shenanigans in Springfield used the following to try to say that the governor had sprung yet another surprise on state lawmakers:
“Quinn threw another loop.”
Throwing a loop might be used to describe a rope trick. But idiomatically, you don’t actually throw a loop. The correct expression would be:
“Quinn threw them for another loop.”
The phrase “for a loop” can mean “into a state of amazement, excitement or confusion” or “into a usually sudden and unexpected reversal of fortune or a state of distress.”
The original phrasing above can only be described as loopy.
March 6th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
As I’ve mentioned before, some of the most vexing English usage problems involve hyphens.
For example, the term “right of way” (plural is “rights of way”): The Associated Press votes for three separate words. Webster’s indicates that’s preferred, but also allows the hyphenated “right-of-way.”
“Garner’s Modern American Usage” says it should be hyphenated in all uses.
So there’s no right or wrong, but we follow the AP here.
For other nouns formed by two nouns with “of” between them, unhyphenated seems to be the people’s choice. The list includes “act of God,” “cost of living,” “guest of honor,” “master of ceremonies,” “point of order,” “port of call,” “sleight of hand” and “speed of light.”
Among the hyphenated ones are “man-of-war” (both the ship and the sea creature) and “mother-of-pearl.”
As for “word of mouth,” Webster’s says no hyphens as a noun, hyphenated as an adjective. AP says hyphenated in both cases. And I didn’t see it in Garner’s.
For a punctuation mark whose function is to connect things, the hyphen sure causes a lot of divisions.
March 5th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
Homonym alert: “Sight” is the one to use in references to vision, not “site.”
The list is long and includes “sightseeing,” “sight gag,” “a sight for sore eyes,” “at first sight,” “lose sight of,” “out of sight” and “have one’s sights set on.”
A “site” is a place, like the “site of a battle” or a “Web site.”
The third homonym is a verb, “cite.” It means “to summon to appear before a court of law,” “to quote,” “to refer to” or “to mention.” The noun is “citation.”
You could be cited for trespassing for trying to see the sights at a site where you’re not allowed.
March 4th, 2010 07:00am
Barry Wood
Staying in the same area of the dictionary, I noticed there aren’t many words that begin with “sul-” — if you don’t count all the “sulfur” terms.
Other than “sultan,” “sultana” and “sultanate” (from the Arabic for “ruler” or “prince” or, originally, “dominion”), there are just five common ones.
I covered “sulky” (and by association, “sulk”) previously, and that included a mention of one of the other three: “sullen.” Its definitions sound a lot like those for “sulky,” with the addition of “somber; dull” and “slow-moving; sluggish.”
Its origin is traced back to the Latin “solus,” meaning “alone” — truly, “one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.”
The other two are “sully,” meaning “to soil, stain, tarnish or besmirch, now especially by disgracing”; and “sultry,” meaning “oppressively hot and moist,” “fiery,” or “hot or inflamed, as with passion or lust.”
It’s considered a variant of “sweltry,” but I think “sultry” has essentially replaced it.
“Sultry” also is right at home with “sulfurous,” which is associated with heated passions, even to the extreme: “suggesting the fires of hell.”
Now that’s hot.
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