SmithWriting Blog

This year, you might want to choose your words carefully—and be sure to steer clear of those terms recently “banished” by the folks at Lake Superior State University in Michigan.

Every year since 1976, these linguaphiles have released their “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness,” compiled from tens of thousands of nominations from word lovers (haters?) around the world.

Here’s the 2012 list:

AMAZING
If you don’t hear it on a talk show, it’s, well, amazing. The word is everywhere, and its misuse is widespread. Defined as “causing wonder or astonishment,” amazing has become the adjective of choice for describing the mundane, like cupcakes and hairstyles. Take note, Martha Stewart (a noted abuser of the word): Overusing “amazing” is not a good thing.

BABY BUMP
All I can say is poor Kate Middleton. The world is watching. If she’s not pregnant, she’d better have one heck of a flat stomach.

OCCUPY
The term has occupied the media for months. Time for it to pack up its tent and go home. (see my last post, Words of the Year)

MAN CAVE
I have nothing against the man cave. My husband is welcome to have one—as long as it comes with an accompanying refuge for me and my gal pals.

GINORMOUS
What’s wrong with simply using “gigantic” or “enormous”? (And what’s next, “tiniature” for something very small?)

The rest of the list:
SHARED SACRIFICE
BLOWBACK
THE NEW NORMAL
PET PARENT
WIN THE FUTURE
TRICKERATION
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE

Filed by rebecca at 5:48 pm under For the love of words
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It’s that time of year again—the time when dictionaries and self-proclaimed vocabulary nuts across the Internet unveil their “word of the year.”

Though I’m no lexicographer (one who writes, compiles, or edits a dictionary), I am in the business of words, so I figured I’d compile my own list of terms that have captured the essence—albeit somber—of 2011.

occupy—Unless you’ve been living in the Arctic tundra—oh, wait: there’s a protest there, too—you’ve heard all about the Occupy movement, in which activists worldwide are protesting the power held by the richest one percent. Love it or hate it, it’s everywhere, and I’d argue that the term “occupy” aptly captures the global unrest that marked 2011.

tergiversate—This term, meaning “to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause or subject,” was Dictionary.com’s choice for word of the year. From the Latin for “to turn one’s back,” tergiversate can be applied to the Occupy movement, the stock market, or politicians—if you can pronounce it, that is.

volatility—Considered by many to be the investing word of the year, volatility—meaning “unpredictability” or “instability”—could be used to describe many things beyond the stock market this year.

squeezed middle—Chosen as Oxford University Press’ word of the year (even though it’s technically a phrase), “squeezed middle” is defined as “the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty.” It was chosen to reflect “the ethos of the year and its lasting potential as a word of cultural significance.” So you likely haven’t heard the last of it.

Arab Spring—This phrase refers to the wave of pro-democracy revolutions that spread throughout the Middle East, including those in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, and, of course, the fall of Gaddafi  in Libya. More turmoil and dissent; notice a pattern here?

winning—Even during your dramatic and disturbing downfall, Charlie Sheen, you still considered yourself “winning.” The rest of us might think otherwise, but we salute your optimism during such a dark year.

bunga bunga—Faced with such a bleak list, I had to include this one to lighten things up. Referring to the alleged sex parties of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, “bunga bunga” is a term you just can’t say without smiling.

Filed by rebecca at 9:03 pm under For the love of words
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Spread the word: It’s time to celebrate National Punctuation Day (NPD)! “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis,” National Punctuation Day is—for those of us in the business of words (copywriters, editors, journalists [really, anyone who communicates in writing …])—one of the best days of the year. Entering this paragraph incorporating 13 punctuation marks in the official NPD contest is how I’m observing this sacred day; how will you celebrate?

Filed by rebecca at 10:23 am under For the love of words
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Ladies, don your jeggings. Men, slip into your mankinis. These styles are here to stay—or at least the terms are, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

One hundred years after its original publication, this longstanding lexicon has released its 12th edition. In keeping with its mission to be an up-to-date language resource, the new dictionary contains 400 additional entries, many of which reflect current trends in science, technology, and, yes, fashion (sigh).

Here are a few of the dictionary’s new words:

cougar: n. an older woman seeking a sexual relationship with a younger man.
cyberbullying: n. the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.
denialist: n. a person who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence.
domestic goddess: n. informal a woman with exceptional domestic skills, especially cookery.
jeggings: pl. n. tight-fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans.
mankini: n. (pl. mankinis) a brief one-piece bathing garment for men, with a T-back.
retweet: v. (on the social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user). n. a reposted or forwarded message on Twitter.
sexting: n. informal the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone.
slow food: n. food that is carefully produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions.
upcycle: v. reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
woot: exclam. informal (especially in electronic communication) used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph.

What do you think of the new terms? Will you retweet them—or are you a denialist?

Filed by rebecca at 11:28 am under For the love of words
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… well, not literally.

Have you noticed that the word “literally” has been getting a lot of use—or should I say misuse—lately?

Maybe you saw the episode of “How I Met Your Mother” in which the character Robin repeatedly misuses the term (This is literally driving me crazy!). Or perhaps you have a lot of contact with teenagers, who love to use the word for emphasis (I literally died of embarrassment.). And if you’ve ever seen a reality TV show or talk show, odds are you’ve heard “literally” used incorrectly more than once (This is literally a dream come true for us. Really? You and everyone in your family dreamed that you would win big money on a cheesy reality TV show?).

Well, let’s clear up the proper meaning of this adverb before it loses it for good.

The correct definition of literally is “in a literal manner; word for word.” For example: “The French student translated the passage literally.”

The word does not mean actually or really. It is incorrect to say “he literally blew my mind”—unless, of course, a cruel man set off an explosive in your brain. Instead, you could say “he figuratively blew my mind.” Or just “he blew my mind.” Ask yourself: Is an adverb really necessary to convey what I’m trying to say or is it just a useless intensifier? More often than not, you’ll find that you don’t need the term at all.

For those of you who want to read more about the grossly overused and misused word in question, check out the “Literally Misused” blog or follow the “You Are Not ‘Literally’ On Fire” group on Facebook (You’ve got to love their tagline: “And if you ARE literally on fire, you have bigger problems than your grammar.”).

Filed by rebecca at 3:07 pm under For the love of words
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Here in New England, you never know what you’re going to get for weather. Right now, we’re coming off a spring heat wave, and the temperature is forecast to drop 40 degrees as we head into a cool, rainy stretch.

As Mark Twain once remarked, “If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.”

Lucky for me, I do like the weather here. In fact, I’m a self-confessed weather junkie. I’m fascinated by all Mother Nature has to send our way—from tropical storms to ice storms.

A few short months ago, when it was snow—not daylilies—that reached my windowsills, we experienced a weather phenomenon that I had never witnessed before: Graupel fell from the sky. For a brief time, soft hail bounced off the snowpack and coated our neighborhood with what looked like those tiny freeze-dried ice cream dots.

The local meteorologists caught it on camera and explained what graupel was in detail. This got me thinking about some of the other lesser-known weather terms out there. Here’s a list of ones I’ve heard over the past few months:

• Alberta clipper – a fast-moving weather system that originates in Canada and moves across the northern U.S., usually accompanied by light snow, strong winds, and cold temperatures
• Bermuda high – a weather system, centered near Bermuda, that delivers hot, humid air to the eastern U.S. for days or weeks at a time during the summer (I dread this because I can’t stand intense humidity)
• El Niño - the unusual warming of the surface waters of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean; the event causes changes in wind patterns that have adverse effects on weather across the globe
• Fujita Scale - the scale that measures the strength of tornadoes based upon wind speed; it ranges from F0 (least extreme) to F5 (most extreme)
• graupel - small, white ice particles that fall as precipitation and break apart easily when they land on a surface (check out the photo!)
• La Niña - a widespread cooling of the surface waters of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean; it’s the opposite of El Niño and, according to the government’s Climate Prediction Center, a period that just ended
• microburst - a severe localized wind blasting down from a thunderstorm (a macroburst is the same but larger and more intense)
• nor’easter – an intense storm that either exits or moves north along the East Coast, producing winds blowing from (you guessed it) the northeast
• thundersnow - a relatively rare kind of thunderstorm with snow falling instead of rain (I’ve experienced this before during a particularly severe blizzard; it’s wild!)
• virga - rain or snow that falls from a cloud but evaporates before it reaches the ground
• wind shear – a sudden shift in wind direction and speed

“There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger’s admiration—and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on people to see how they will go. But it gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours.”   –Mark Twain, in a speech to the New England Society, Dec. 22, 1876

Sources:
weather.com
noaa.gov
thefreedictionary.com
Associated Press 2010 Stylebook
britannica.com

Filed by rebecca at 2:21 pm under For the love of words
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For those of you who don’t already know, April is National Poetry Month.

And, in my opinion, the timing is perfect. Although it can be a month of weather extremes here in New England, for the most part, April is a time of great beauty and renewal. With spring in full bloom—the smell of hyacinths on the wind, the sound of cardinals singing for their mate, the sight of buds on the long-dormant trees—how can you help but wax poetic?

Established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States, National Poetry Month is a time to join fellow lovers of verse and celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.

How, you ask? Well here are some suggestions from the Academy:

Put some poetry in an unexpected place
Why not leave a copy of a poem at your favorite coffee shop or a book of poetry in your doctor’s waiting room? Patients are sure to appreciate it more than last year’s magazines.

Attend a poetry reading
There’s bound to be one happening at your local bookstore, café, or college.

Put a poem in your (or someone else’s) lunchbox
What a nice break from reading the paper or checking email at lunchtime!

Recite a poem to loved ones
Try it at the table before dinner or in bed before falling asleep. I’ve been reading my daughter poems at bedtime; her favorites are the month poems by John Updike in “A Child’s Calendar,” beautifully illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.

And I’ll leave you with this simple yet profound verse:

“Happy Thought” by Robert Louis Stevenson
The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

Filed by rebecca at 2:36 pm under For the love of words
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At a recent jungle-themed kids’ birthday party, I found myself pondering over the names we call groups of animals. You know, how a group of lions is a “pride,” a gang of elephants is a “herd,” and an assemblage of baboons is a “congress.”

Yes, you read that last one correctly. And I swear I did not make that up.

Anyway, I got to thinking about what other groups of animals were called, so I did some research and came up with this list. While some of the terms sound like words you’d use to describe the animals, others are downright random and quirky. Enjoy!

• apes: shrewdness
• boars: singular (wait: a singular is a grouping of them? You just have to love the English language… )
• caterpillars: army
• crickets: orchestra
• crows: murder (when they get cawing at 5 a.m. that’s what you want to do to them)
• ferrets: businessh
• goldfinches: charm
• herons: siege
• jellyfish: smack
• owls: wisdom (makes sense)
• penguins: colony
• ravens: conspiracy
• seals: pod
• slugs: cornucopia (I think this is my favorite)
• tigers: streak
• toads: knot
• turtles: bevy

So the next time you encounter an aurora of polar bears or a blessing of unicorns, you’ll sound pretty smart in front of your friends.

You’re welcome.

Filed by rebecca at 2:52 pm under For the love of words
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The vocabulary gurus at Merriam-Webster have just announced their Top Ten Words of the Year for 2010. The list, based on the volume of actual user lookups at Merriam-Webster.com, is known for capturing our interests and summarizing the current events in any given year.

At the top of this year’s listing is “austerity,” a noun meaning “enforced or extreme economy.” Makes sense, considering the global economy—specifically the European debt crisis—was on our minds a lot these past 12 months.

Other terms that made the list can also be tied to significant news events of the year: “Moratorium” was looked up frequently due to its use by President Obama in regards to the Gulf oil spill this spring. “Dissident” made the list because so many people looked it up after it was used to describe this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo. And “ebullient” sparked a great deal of interest when it was used to describe one of the rescued Chilean miners this fall.

Here are the 10 most looked-up words on Merriam-Webster.com this year:

1. austerity (noun): enforced or extreme economy
2. pragmatic (adjective): officious; practical as opposed to idealistic
3. moratorium (noun): a legally authorized period of delay; a suspension of an activity
4. socialism (noun): any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
5. bigot (noun): a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred and intolerance
6. doppelganger (noun): someone who looks like someone else; someone’s “double.”
7. shellacking (noun): a decisive defeat
8. ebullient (adjective): showing liveliness and enthusiasm
9. dissident (noun): someone who strongly and publicly disagrees with and criticizes the government
10. furtive (adjective): done by stealth; surreptitious

From this list, you’d surmise that 2010 was a serious and somewhat depressing year. Here’s hoping that 2011’s list is made up of some more lighthearted and hopeful terms.

Happy New Year!

Filed by rebecca at 2:13 pm under For the love of words
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While at the grocery store this morning, I was greatly irritated—and inspired to write a grammar post.

No, it’s not about the dreaded greengrocers’ apostrophe, although I cringed as I read signs like “Fuji apple’s” and “Portuguese roll’s”—it’s about something a bit more tricky: the use of “fewer” versus “less.”

You see, while I was waiting in the check-out line, my eyes wandered past the tabloid magazines to the express lane sign, “20 items or less,” and the editor in me went berserk.

What’s wrong with the sign, you ask? That’s what the sign says at your market, you say? Well, it’s grammatically incorrect. Because the sign should read “20 items or fewer.”

Yes, “fewer” and “less” have the same meaning. But, they have different uses depending on the context.

The rule is this: Use “fewer” with things you can count individually or things in the plural (like grocery items or dollar bills). Use “less” with things you can’t count or that don’t have a plural (like glue or air).

Think about it the next time you’re in line at the store. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some examples:

A tweet must be fewer than 141 characters. (you can count characters)
If you put less water in the tub, it won’t overflow. (you can’t count water individually—and it doesn’t have a plural)
The rosebush has fewer buds this year than last. (you can count rosebuds)
As he got older, he listened to less music. (you can’t count music individually—and it doesn’t have a plural)

Filed by rebecca at 8:06 pm under For the love of words
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