http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords Can't get enough words about words with Sunday's newspaper column? Then this blog's for you, my word-craving friend. I work the late shift, so don't look for responses until the next day. Wed, 14 May 2008 12:02:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Most people understand that the choice of an indefinite article is dictated by the initial sound of the word that follows. A vowel sound calls for "an"; a consonant sound calls for "a." You can't always judge by the letter, because a vowel doesn't always make a vowel sound and a ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/14/no-mystery-its-a-history/ The word "orient" is rooted in the concept of where the sun rises. As a verb, it retains the meaning "to arrange with reference to the east." It also can be "to set in agreement with the points of a compass," a skill useful in the sport of "orienteering." "Orient" also has ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/13/do-you-hate-orientate/ The more varied and crowded the media field gets, the more some people want to lump us together. So far, those arguing for "media" as a collective noun and therefore singular are in the minority, but the ranks are growing. The Register Star follows Associated Press style: "Media" is plural. Many ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/12/we-have-met-the-media-and-they-are-us/ I've been using The Associated Press Stylebook for 35 years, so I'm accustomed to "people," not "persons," as the plural of "person." Webster's supports this stance while explaining that "people" was formerly used "only to indicate an indefinite number of persons." Such a distinction is now usually considered pedantic, although it ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/09/im-a-people-person/ Many people not named Obama have been having fun with the Rev. Wright episode, including wordplay with the name "Wright" (see shameless example above). What I haven't seen, and I don't see everything, is any comment on his first name, Jeremiah, which also was the name of a Hebrew prophet. From Jeremiah's ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/08/one-candidates-wright-of-spring/ Continuing the theme of "English isn't Latin," the standard definition of "decimate" is "to destroy or kill a large part of." Yes, the "deci-" comes from the Latin for "ten," and the word comes from the Roman approach to military discipline in which one in 10 soldiers were randomly chosen to ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/07/translation-inflation-decimate-more-than-10/ The word "data" is a plural (the singular is "datum") in Latin, but the tide is turning in English. There are still plenty of instances in which we treat "data" as plural -- "the most recent data show," for example. However, its treatment as a collective noun is on the rise -- ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/06/the-data-is-or-are-yes/ Some Americans seem to have an inferiority complex when it comes to language and culture. We have been free of British rule for more than 200 years. We should be able to break away from British English, too. For example, in American English the preferred spellings are "theater," not "theatre," and ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/woodonwords/2008/05/05/break-the-british-habit/