Frequent Citations

Who'd Have Thunk It?

I've been writing for a long time. My grandmothers were both English teachers. Sometimes I think I've forgotten more rules than some people ever learn. And still, sometimes, something new makes life interesting.

An issue came up recently, which prompted me to do some research. Lo, I discovered many details of which I was unaware--some of which sent a shiver of pure paranoia down my spine. This is me, people; I can be paranoid about anything up to and including the finer points of grammar. Anyway, I think it's that very paranoia that would have saved me from committing unpardonable error. At least, that's what I'm telling myself. Repeatedly.

In other news: if anyone has recommendations for a good Securities hornbook, please let me know. Or if you have suggestions for current, unresolved, First Amendment issues, I'd love to hear them.

And while you're handing out recommendations, know any good tax accountants?

I knew this year was going to bite us in the rear.

The Plural of Doofus

GirlChild and I were conversing about the weekend. She had traveled to see family and friends, and somehow (no connection, I'm sure) the word doofus surfaced. Only there were two of them.

Doofuses?

No.

Doofi.

I'm so glad to see that studying Latin was not only useful, a little bit of it even rubbed off on the kids.

In other news: I need to invite people over more often. We not only cleaned, we also finished painting the hall and rehung pictures in a somewhat organized and tasteful way. It was pretty exciting.

Disobedience (And Mothers)

Is it Poetry Month? Bah. Every day is a day for poetry.

The other day I was musing about the Greek dramas I have read, which are all poetry. They're lovely and all that, but a bit long.

I was talking recently about someone who's real first name is James, although he goes by something else, and it brought to mind one of my favorite poems ever, by A.A. Milne:

James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James Said to his Mother,'
"Mother," he said, said he,
"You must never go down
to the end of town
if you don't go down with me."

And on it goes. She doesn't, of course, listen to him. There's nothing even the King could do. Isn't it charming?

Playing With Words

Today's words of the day are: venal, copious, autocrat.

The venal autocrat had copious supplies of fine champagne.

Do you ever notice the real-person verification letters suggest words? The one on Blogger does it most consistently I think; Typepad's is too random. Typepad's has numbers too, which might ruin the fun.

I can usually solve jumbles within a second or two of looking at the letters. But I consistently misread signs when I see them out of the corner of my eye.

Sometimes people discover they're dyslexic when they try to read Latin. Words such as "minimis" can throw off almost anyone.

Go to Rogue Classicism for your Classical words of the day. And visit Word-a-Day if you haven't already.

"Staleness of imagery, lack of precision."

I stumbled upon a lovely little grammar and usage site by Jack Lynch, an English professor. He's good, and forthright about his pet peeves. Those of you who are fans of proper grammar and strong writing will enjoy the site -- even if you don't have a paper to write!

He also recommends reading George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language." It's a marvelous essay; I stole the title to this post from it. I have noticed so often, and especially when reading theoretical works, the problems Orwell addresses. Sloppy thinking reveals itself in tortured writing. Clear thinking produces clean and even graceful writing.

Here is a snippet of the essay:

Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give   another example of the kind of writing that they lead to. . . . I am going to translate a passage of good   English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well-known verse from   Ecclesiastes:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor     the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to     men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance     happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion     that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to     be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the     unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

No wonder I considered so much of the theory I read over the last year so much horseshit. It all strongly resembled the second sentence. Here's another marvelous bit:

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that   he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying   to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?   4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself   two more: 1. Could I put it more shortly? 2. Have I said anything that is avoidably   ugly? But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by   simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding   in. They will construct your sentences for you -- even think your thoughts for   you, to a certain extent -- and at need they will perform the important service   of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point   that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language   becomes clear.

Go! Read some Orwell! Enjoy!

 

World Cup Updates

In Latin!

There's an earlier post about the start of the World Cup too.

Polyandry

Since SOMEONE failed to pack her dictionary (I'm shocked and appalled) here is the definition of the day:

poly = more than one
andros = man

polyandry = more than one guy at a time

More familiar to us is the word for more than one woman at a time: polygamy.

Lesson of the day -- never ask a classics major for a definition. Remember "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," when the father keeps saying that all words come from Greek? Yeah. LOVE that part.

Can anyone think of a reason why polyandry is not as popular as polygamy? I can think of many...

Love you, OFL!!*

*In third person, he is referred to as TFL (The Fearless Leader) but, of course, when addressed directly that changes to OFL (Oh Fearless Leader). Or Pops.

That Is Not the Word You Want

I spend a lot of time reading: weblogs, the paper, books, news sites, all sorts of stuff. I cannot count the number of times in the last few weeks I have seen someone write "phased" instead of "fazed."

From typing "define phase" in Google:

• (physical chemistry) a distinct state of matter in a system; matter that is identical in chemical composition and physical state and separated from other material by the phase boundary; "the reaction occurs in the liquid phase of the system"
• arrange in phases or stages; "phase a withdrawal"
• (astronomy) the particular appearance of a body's state of illumination (especially one of the recurring shapes of the part of Earth's moon that is illuminated by the sun); "the full phase of the moon"
• adjust so as to be in a synchronized condition; "he phased the intake with the output of the machine" 

From typing "define faze" in Google:

• scare or worry, as in: The flash-flood warnings didn't seem to faze him at all.
• disturb the composure of 

Or see this:  1830 Amer.Eng. variant of Kentish dialect feeze "to frighten, alarm, discomfit" (c.1440), from O.E. fesian, fysian "drive away," from P.Gmc. *fausjanan.

And this:  L. sing. phasis was used in Eng. from 1660. Non-lunar application is first attested 1841. Meaning "temporary difficult period" (especially of adolescents) is attested from 1913. The verb meaning "to synchronize" is from 1938, from the noun.

Discomfit is a good synonym for faze. I like that. It does NOT mean the same thing as synchronize, the verb form of the noun "phase."

And while we're discussing inappropriate uses of nouns, please allow me to add that I despise the use of the word "impact" as a verb. It is a noun, people, a noun without a verb form!

Thank you, I feel better now.

International Law Blogs

For your viewing pleasure, I have added two new law blogs to my list. One is from England - a magistrate! How fancy! - and the other from France. Some of us need to brush up our French, so what better way?

Enjoy!

Long Live Language

I’ve studied two dead languages and have at least moderate understanding of three or four live ones, English included. So when I stumbled across Paul Musgrave’s post via Ann Althouse, I was intrigued.

 One point he makes is that culture and language are interdependent. Language and culture are taught simultaneously. Where we have one, we have the other; but without one, the other is nearly completely lost.

 There are 15 Eskimo words for snow.

 There are dozens of ways to say kill/die in Latin.

 Every culture has priorities in its language, an abundance of words for one concept and a paucity for another. Spanish differentiates between temperature-hot and spicy-hot, English doesn’t. Language reflects values, experiences, traumas, and triumphs as much as any art or archaeological artifact. It is at once common to all humans and unique to every place and time. Musgrave makes some excellent points about this.

 I don’t particularly want to learn Eskimo, but I enjoy knowing that there are that many words for snow. How many different ways can Bedouins say sand? How many words for chocolate did the Mayans have?

 Sadly, the text of the article that set all this off is subscription only.

 Today’s word is hoosegow.