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August 8th, 2008
The adjective “ravishing” is an upbeat word. It means “causing great joy or delight; entrancing.” The most common use I’ve heard is in reference to a woman as “a ravishing beauty.”
Unfortunately, the other associations with “ravishing” are not at all nice. The verb can mean “to seize and carry away forcibly” or “to rape (a woman).”
It’s sometimes confused with “ravage,” which is “to destroy violently; ruin.” There’s a connection in violence, but they are distinctly different. For starters, “ravishing” is done to people, “ravaging” is done to things.
In the final analysis, it’s advisable to avoid “ravish” because of its negative tendencies — unless, of course, that’s exactly what you mean.
August 7th, 2008
Awhile back, someone asked about the books I often refer to and how expensive they are. Yes, it helps to be on a mailing list, but the few books I have received were unsolicited with no strings attached. I don’t do actual book reviews, but these four have received a certain amount of publicity in my column and, recently, this blog.
I Googled the following four titles, and each time I was directed to Amazon, where apparently every book ever published is for sale, new and used, at bargain prices — plus $3.99 shipping.
“Garner’s Modern American Usage,” a hardbound book weighing in at nearly 900 pages, is available starting at $18.10.
“Right, Wrong , and Risky” by Mark Davidson starts at $11.70.
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th edition, the one I use because The Associated Press recommends it, starts at an amazing $7.95.
And you can get a paperback copy of John B. Bremner’s “Words on Words” for as little as $3.95 — all of the above plus shipping, of course.
You can build quite a library without ever leaving your home — if, as Groucho once said, that’s your idea of a good time.
August 5th, 2008
Blame the French. They used the word “Bohemien” as a synonym for “Gypsy,” based on the fact that the Gypsies passed through Bohemia on their way to western Europe. And the nomadic Gypsies are generally associated with an out-of-the-mainstream lifestyle.
So through this connection, “bohemian” is applied to “a person, especially an artist, poet, etc., who lives in an unconventional, nonconforming way.”
The actual Bohemia has had a realtively conventional existence, by central European standards. It was an independent kingdom from the 13th to 15th centuries, eventually being absorbed into the Austro-Hungarian empire until the end of World War I. Then it became the western half of Czechoslovakia until 1993, when the Czech Republic was created.
By the way, the word “Gypsy” comes from “gypcien,” short for “Egipcien.” Yes, the Gypsies were originally thought to have come from Egypt. Current thinking places the land of origin in India.
And as we know all too well in this country, “Indian” has had a confusing history as well.
July 30th, 2008
The phrase “to squelch the flames with fire extinguishers” is close but no cigar.
To “squelch” is “to crush or smash by or as by falling or stamping upon; squash” or, informally, “to suppress or silence completely and with a crushing effect.”
Technically, you can squelch a small fire, like a burning cigarette, by stamping on it — or smashing it with a fire extinguisher.
A similar word is “quell,” meaning either “to crush; subdue; put an end to” or “to quiet; allay.”
“Garner’s Modern American Usage” advises that “squelch” works better for suppressing ideas, feelings and the like, while “quell” is the word of choice for “stifling a violent uprising or competitive bid.”
So you would try to squelch talk of a rebellion, and failing that, try to quell the ensuing riots.
As for putting out larger fires, a better verb is “quench.”
July 26th, 2008
This came up recently, and the sports editor and I batted it around. The correct plural of the baseball term “RBI” (”run batted in”) is “RBIs,” even though the word that’s plural when it’s spelled out (”runs”) is at the start of the initialism. This does NOT mean that we’re actually saying “run batted ins.”
It just doesn’t work that way. By the same reasoning, why would more than one “IOU” be “IOUs” — there is NO plural in the expression “I owe you,” unless it’s more than one “you,” which is still “you.”
Fortunately, there are other examples of this sort of thing, as pointed out in “Garner’s Modern American Usage.” The plural of “WMD” (”weapon of mass destruction”) is “WMDs.” If you have been using “WMD” as the plural, you probably are one of those folks who feel strongly that “RBI” also is correct.
The other common one is “POWs” for “prisoners of war.” If you have been insisting on usage such as “there are still thousands of POW,” you probably will never change no matter what I say.
For the rest of you, form the plural of an initialism or an acronym by adding “s” — no matter what it stands for.
June 5th, 2008
The plural of “foot” is “feet,” but remember that in English modifiers aren’t the same as nouns. In a phrase such as “a 500,000-square-foot factory,” “foot” is correct, NOT “feet.”
Think about similar phrases you use more often: a 2-liter bottle, NOT a 2-liters bottle, a 10-kilometer run, a 75-cent can of Coke, a 12-gallon tank of gasoline.
The same applies with irregular plurals: a 12-man team, a five-person committee, a 500,000-square-foot factory.
Similarly, it’s “freshman” class, NOT “freshmen.”
Singular, isn’t it?
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