Into every copyeditor’s life, a little rain must fall. Setting aside the literal rain that drives us back under the covers of a Monday morning, the metaphorical rain of a copyeditor’s career comes in the form of horrible manuscripts. We’ve all had to deal with them: The manuscripts that are so … [Read more...]
The Racist Origins of “Being Grandfathered In”
New rules and regulations don't always apply equally to all. In certain cases, people or corporations are grandfathered in, meaning they get to continue under the previous rules and not be subject to the new rules. Updates to building codes, for example, usually contain a grandfather clause that … [Read more...]
A Mouthful of Etymologies
On Monday, I experienced the indescribable joy of having a wisdom tooth extracted from my upper jaw. It was a pretty straightforward procedure — the tooth was neither impacted nor infected, just falling apart and causing me pain — and my dentist and his assistant made the whole process quick, … [Read more...]
What Does ‘Forensic’ Really Mean?
A rabid fan of forensic science shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, and the various CSIs stumbles upon a copy of the National Forensic Journal at the library. Thrilled to dive into some real-world reading connected to his fiction fandom, he cracks open the journal to find an exciting article all about … [Read more...]
Are You Careening or Careering?
The verbs career and careen are easily confused — and they have been often enough that their meanings may merge sometime in the near future. But for now, they mean different things. Career Career comes from a Latin word meaning “road or path.” As a noun, the career we use most is the path one’s … [Read more...]
Angelenos and Demonyms
One of the words in the latest batch of new entries to Merriam-Webster’s esteemed online dictionary is demonym. From the Greek demos “people” + onyma “name,” a demonym is a word denoting a native or inhabitant of a particular place — what Bryan Garner calls a “denizen label” in Garner’s Modern … [Read more...]
Confusables: Elicit and Illicit
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the concept of copyeditors’ “stop words,” words that draw our focus every time we read them in a manuscript. This week, I offer two more stop words: elicit and illicit. Spellcheck can’t save you from these confusables that, though they sound alike and have a lot of … [Read more...]
Merriam-Webster Adds, Justifies 850 New Words
Earlier this week, Merriam-Webster Dictionaries added 850 new words and definitions to its online dictionary. Some are recent coinages that were obvious candidates for inclusion, some are drawn from slang and intentional wordplay, and some are words you might be surprised didn't already appear in … [Read more...]