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Word fun This section features the following short items:
Names in the news Copy-editing standards seem to be dropping all the time at our
newspapers. And a lot of it has to do with declining cultural literacy. In a 1998 story that included a quote from Evelyn Waugh, the Ottawa Citizen
referred to the writer as Ms Waugh. Sadly, Evelyn used to be a male name, and this was certainly the case for Mister Waugh. The Globe and Mail, meanwhile, not only misspelled Lucy Maud Montgomery's middle name
in a headline, but did so throughout the following story, despite the fact that the article included a book title that spelled the name properly. Lying with statistics How numbers can trip us up In Data Smog, David
Shenk blames information overload for social fragmentation, the breakdown of democracy, the decline of education and the rise of demagogues. One of his particular criticisms is today's surfeit of specious statistics.
Numbers can add tremendous credibility to a writer's arguments, but nothing destroys that credibility like having errors pointed out. For example, when B.C. teen Reena Virk was allegedly killed by a mob of girls,
media pundits reported a "200-percent" increase in violent crime committed by girls. But, in fact, most of these crimes involved pushes, shoves or slaps. Many of these charges were laid under the "zero
tolerance" policies in schools. Between 1992 and 1996, there were actually a third fewer incidents of girls committing serious violence or murder. Remember, when using statistics, always look for the
loopholes and always cite your sources. Nothing is less convincing than insisting that "studies show" something. Oppressed Anglo-Saxons Why short words are déclassé English Canadians who have a hard time understanding why Quebecers are sensitive about their history and
their language may not realize that English is scarred by conquest, too. When the French-speaking Normans conquered England in 1066, their language had a profound effect on the way local Saxons spoke English. The
names for animals stayed Saxon, for example, but the meat from those animals picked up French names: cow/beef, sheep/mutton, pig/pork and so on. The psychological impact of the conquest lingers on. Instead of get
, we say obtain (from the French obtenir) and receive (from the French reçevoir). In an enduring reflection of the division between the field and the manor, when we want to write
"formally," for "important" people, we instinctively use French words instead of simpler Saxon ones. Instead of merely helping people, we grandly assist them. We don't just use something, we utilize
it. It's only in the last 20 years that plain-language writers have started shaking off baggage that is nine centuries old. So imagine how the Quebecers feel ... Importing words We've been good at exporting English-language culture around the world, but there are a few
foreign words that we might want to import. * cavoli riscaldati: Italian for "reheated cabbage," it refers to any effort to revive a dead love affair
* dohado: the Sanskrit word for a pregnant woman's weird cravings * esprit de l'escalier: French for "spirit of the escalator," it means "witty comeback that only occurs to you when its too late"
* kyoikumama: literally "education mother" in Japanese, it means a mother who pushes her kids too hard to achieve in school * razbliuto: the feeling that Russian men have for their old girlfriends
* schaddenfreude: the joy that Germans feel when bad things happen to other people * tartle: a Scottish word for the inability to remember the name for something, particular when you're making party introductions
Source: "They Have A Word For It," by Howard Rheingold Some names of things you didn't know had names armsate: the armhole in your shirts and sweaters chad: the little round bits of paper left over after you use a three-hole puncher
chanking: any food you spit out, especially pits and rinds dentiloquist: one who speaks through clenched teeth minimus: your little finger or toe ophryon: the space between your eyebrows
publicue: flap of skin between thumb and forefinger ultracrepidarian: someone who expresses opinions beyond his or her scope of knowledge Misspellings Even with spell-checkers on our computers, it's still all too easy and all too embarrassing to get a critical word wrong. In one of
Laura's recent travel stories, for example, an editor added a caption referring to the great painter Vincent Van Gough. Ouch! But it could be worse. Imagine having a typo on your arm. A tattoo parlour is being sued
for $25,000 by a customer who had wanted the word "villain" on his arm. Staff debated how the word is spelled, finally settling on "villian." Ouch! Dangerous abbreviations Never assume that everyone knows what your abbreviations mean. "PC" is
used for any number of things: ·the Progressive Conservative party ·political correctness ·police constable ·probable cause ·Privy Council The N-word It's not often that word usage makes news, but in 1999, a Washington city official had to resign after saying that his budget would be
"niggardly." Most of Washington's residents are black, and racial issues are as raw there as anywhere in the United States. People heard "niggardly" and thought "nigger." As it happens,
the two words aren't connected. "Niggardly" is a fairly ancient word derived from "nig," meaning "miser." And the other N-word comes the old Latin word for "black." Although
David Howard ultimately got his job back, as the head of the Office of the Public Advocate, much of the media pounced on this as an example of either political hypersensitivity or of general illiteracy, and it certainly
is a lesson in being careful with words. But in fact, there may have been more at play than first appeared. The accusation against Howard was made by an aide who had been a rival for Howard's job. And Howard was,
after all, cutting a politically sensitive budget. Moreover, Howard is openly gay in a city with powerful homophobic elements. In other words (bad pun coming), as one Washington wag put it (bad pun imminent), Howard's
main crime may have been that he used a homophone (sorry). Proofing snafu
Normally, proofreading corrects embarrassing mistakes in text. But sometimes, it can also add them. Somebody at LL Bean was looking over the new catalogue and noticed that the toll-free number was 1-877-LLB-KIDS. Since
everybody "knows" that toll-free numbers start with 1-800, the unnamed employee changed the number. Unfortunately, 1-800-LLB-KIDS belongs to a small company in Virginia, which was besieged by phone calls. At
great expense, LL Bean fixed the problem, but the lesson here is that proofreaders need to be very careful about the changes they make. Good proofreaders will flag major changes they have made and get them verified.
Getting more creative ideas Five steps for more creative ideas
Get lots of information. Think about it for a while. Forget about it and let your subconscious take over. Let ideas pop up when you least expect them. Work out the kinks in the new ideas.
Source: James Webb Young's A Technique for Producing Ideas. Why the PM talks funny The old joke is that Jean Chrétien is the first prime minister who can speak neither of our two official languages. Now there is speculation that his bad grammar may be genetic. A McGill linguistics professor named Myrna Gopnik says that three per cent of Canadians suffer from specific language impairment, or SLI. It turns out that many members of Chrétien's family have this problem. English growing bigger all the time Every year, the English language grows by 5,000 words, according to Anne Soukhanov's Word Watch column in The Atlantic Monthly. Bad spelling is a crime! Poor spelling can get you in trouble with the law. According to the Financial Times, British authorities broke a bank fraud ring that was using forged letters to request money transfers. The ring was exposed because all of its letters were misspelled; the crooks dropped the second E in "yours sincerely." The "third -gry word" riddle The Internet has been buzzing with a word riddle: "There are three common words that end with -gry,
all of which you use every day. Two of them are angry and hungry. What is the third?" Give up? Don't worry. Aside from formations such as man-hungry, the only two words that qualify are not common. One is gry
itself, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as an obsolete unit from John Locke's make-believe measurement system, equal to about a tenth of an inch. And Webster's Third New International
lists aggry, a prehistoric bead. So unless you routinely measure your aggries in gries, there is no answer to the question. One Web site ( Words of the year The American Dialect Society has named "soccer mom" its "word of the year" for 1996. The term refers to the suburban mothers who swung last year's election to Bill Clinton. It named dot (as in web dot net) the most useful word, Ebonics the most controversial word and prebuttal (a pre-emptive rebuttal) the most original. The most euphemistic words were urban camping (homelessness) and food insecure (starving). Words per minute In the January issue of Marketing, radio writer Terry O'Reilly says that 185 words
is a suitable length for one-minute radio ads, and 85 words is common for 30-second ads. The standard for speech writing is a more leisurely 100 words per minute, which reflects the greater feedback and decreased
control a speaker has with an audience. The value of proofing Hiring an
outside set of eyes can save you plenty of embarrassment. We can't reproduce this in The Edge, but for an example of what we mean, look up the Ottawa Yellow Pages ad for Happy Endings Baby Services. It's on page 301 of
the 1996 Yellow Pages, under "Diaper Service." [Editor's note: the ad said that the diaper was in Shitsville, instead of in Stittsville. The 1997 Yellow Pages includes an even worse mistake. Schoffro
Communications misspells both "writing" and "words" in its display ad on page 1020 of the Centre Region book. In fairness, since Tele-Direct handles the ads, the mistakes are most probably on its
end.] Techno-babble update Ottawa Citizen reporter Chris Cobb stumbled on the latest in techno-babble. Repurposing means getting things right the second time, brain real estate is thinking and eyeballs is reader. Playing your cards wrong According to Frank, in 1997
The Globe and Mail was aggressively playing the cliché card. Here are a few recent examples.
Let's play the stop card and end the playing of this annoying habit card.
Cornerstone is a writing and editing firm that uses
marketing and PR principles to create "words you can build your business on." Call us from anywhere in the world for rush work.
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