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And Now for Some Trash Talk
With the help of Mim Harrison's delightful book "Words at Work," let's go Dumpster diving and examine some jargon from the world of garbage collection ... er, "waste management."
If you still think of a garbage truck in the …Read more.
These Boots Were Made For…
Two random dispatches from the Word Front...
— Talking the Walk
"I am a slow walker," Abraham Lincoln once said, "but I never walk back."
If only today's politicians would follow honest Abe's example. Every day, it seems …Read more.
What's the Scoop on 'Troop'?
Q. What's up with the noun "troop"? The definition of this word as I learned it and as defined by Merriam-Webster is "a group of soldiers." Yet, so frequently these days, I hear or read lines such as "three troops were …Read more.
A Child's Garden of 'Versus'
Q. Last year, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany stay with our family. When he wanted to challenge our boys to a video game, he would say he wanted to "verse" them. I have never heard of that form of "versus" being …Read more.
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And a Word Book in a Pear TreeJoy to the "Word"! Several terrific new books about language have arrived just in time for the holiday season. If your bon mots turn into bon nots, check out "Word Hero" by Jay Heinrichs (Three Rivers Press, $14). With wit and verve, Heinrichs shows how to craft fiendishly clever one-liners. Try using, for instance, the "Mr. Potato Head" — describing something by patching together disparate analogies (e.g., "When I play tennis, I have the agility of a tank, the aim of a mole, and the response time of FEMA"). For the perfect family dictionary, pick up the new fifth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $60). The more than 10,000 new words and meanings added since the fourth edition was published in 2000 reflect the joys and jolts of the past decade: baby bump, fist bump, labret, metafiction, vuvuzela, WMD, fracking and ethnic profiling. Today, purists would blanch at Shakespeare's line, "All debts are cleared between you and I?" But in Elizabethan English, using "I" for "me" was perfectly acceptable. Henry Hitchings delightfully describes the continuous battle over what's right and what "ain't" in his fascinating book "The Language Wars: A History of Proper English" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $12). How can you remember the difference between "than" and "then"? Just recall that "than" and "comparison" both contain an "a," writes Mignon Fogarty in "The Ultimate Writing Guide for Students" (Henry Holt and Company, $12.99).
And for young professionals, Nancy Ragno offers "Word Savvy" (Writer's Digest Books, $14), which clues them in to common misuses ("reticent" means "shy," not "reluctant") and tells them which resume buzzwords are buzz kills. Her hit list includes "self-starter," "team player," "mission-focused," "people person" and "proactive." When the Normans conquered Britain, the English language quickly adopted their French names for food on the table — "boef," "porc," "creme" — but retained the English words for their barnyard sources — "cow," "pig," "milk." Ina Lipkowitz savors tasty linguistic morsels like these in "Words To Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language" (St. Martin's Press, $25.99). Come to think of it, bring me some figgy pudding! Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
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