#WordUse Series: What Do You Think About Raised vs. Reared?
A friend of mine asked this question a few weeks ago when one of her beta readers was looking over a manuscript she and I had worked on a lot and felt we had nailed. The respected friend suggested, “It...
View Article#WordUse Series: Vocabulary Words: Epistolary
Gosh, I love a good word. I love one as much now as I did when I was nine and learned the meaning of the word intercourse. (It means the connection or dealings between persons or groups, or an...
View Article#WordUse Series: The Eyes (Don’t) Have It
Kids, we need to talk. You’ve just got to stop with the locking eyes. They locked eyes. Their eyes locked. It’s cliché, it’s overdone, it’s so stinkin’ melodramatic it makes me want to throw a fit in...
View ArticleWho Are You Calling an April Fool?
A friend of mine wrote: I’ve never been able to decide for certain whether it’s “April Fool’s Day” (i.e., a day belonging to a fool or fools) or “April Fools Day” (i.e., a day celebrating all the fools...
View Article#WordUse Series: It’s Patrick’s Day. Paddy, Not Patty. Please.
The day the Irishman was born, his mother watched the St. Patrick’s Day parade from her room in the Rotunda Hospital overlooking O’Connell Street and the Parnell monument. I’d love to be in Dublin for...
View Article#WordUse Series: I’m Over It! (These Words Have Got to Go)
I love slang as much as the next person. As a frame of reference, slang instantly conveys humor, sarcasm, or solidarity. Just think about the meaning occupy has taken on recently, and the myriad ways...
View Article#WordUse Series: Blame It On the Bossa Nova … er, the Brits
I am more sensitive than most to how many differences there are in the way native English speakers from different regions or countries wield the language. Some years ago in a lengthy conversation with...
View Article#WordUse Series: These Are a Few of My Favorite Words
There are words and then there are … favorite words. Like, you know, cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels, these are a few of my favorite— You have favorite words, don’t you? I do. Again, I...
View Article#WordUse Series: Lexicon Love
It’s not very often I’m stumped by which word to use—and frankly I kinda enjoy it when I am—but I came across a sentence in a manuscript the other day and had a little lexicological tizzy. Here’s what...
View ArticleShort Saturday: The Word Factory
We’ve been talking about dictionaries—I always enjoy talking about the dictionary—and now a friend’s sent me this article from the New York Times: “A Journey Into the Merriam-Webster Word Factory.” Oh,...
View ArticleShort Saturday: My Dictionary Has Always Been Hot
You know how I feel about my dictionary. It’s the first place I go, not just for spelling but even for fact-checking. Everything starts at the dictionary (here’s just one example). Even the Chicago...
View ArticleA Lighter Shade of Pale (#WordUse Series)
We’ve got exciting times goin’ on here in the good ol’ US of A, with one political party making some pretty interesting claims and the opposing party reacting with outrage. (See how I did that?) My...
View ArticleShort Saturday: May You Live in Interesting Times!
One looks for the good, I think. So recently some of us have been repeating that old saw, May you live in interesting times. A Chinese curse, we’re told. Or a blessing. May you live in interesting...
View Article#WordUse Series: Merry Melancholy Christmas
On Christmas Eve last year, I was alone in the house, awaiting my son’s arrival from out of town the next morning. It was a quiet—but happily anticipatory—time. When I posted a comment on Facebook— A...
View Article#WordUse Series: Dear Kroger (Why You Need an Editor #5,278)
Sent in early December … Dear Kroger, Y’all spend a lot of money on these lovely multipage mailers with recipes and beautiful photography and coupons. (I have an idea about how much these things cost,...
View Article#WordUse Series: What’s In a Name? That Which We Call a Pudding …
I grew up the child of two Midwesterners of modest means, so I knew from an early age about pudding—it was that powder Mom mixed with milk on her old Kenmore mixer until it thickened, then put in the...
View Article#WordUse Series: May the Blessing of the Rain Be on You
We’ve had a drought here in the American South. It stopped raining in early August and didn’t start again until early December, after the irrigation system had been turned off for some weeks. So it...
View Article#WordUse Series: The Soda / Pop Conundrum
My siblings and I talk like Midwesterners, although none of us live there (or have ever lived there). Our mother was a Midwesterner: born and raised in Chicago. Daddy was also a Midwesterner,...
View Article#WordUse Series: Words I Never Want to See in Your Novel. Please.
When I get to the end of an edit, I generally make a list of the author’s “favorite” words and phrases—words he or she used over and over without realizing it. It’s quite instructive. Usually they are...
View Article#WordUse Series: On Stationery. And Guilds. And Vocabulary Words.
Stationery is an old-fashioned word. Or maybe I just think it’s old-fashioned because I learned it a long time ago and I don’t see it used much any more, given our electronic culture. But no, my fave...
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