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ALL RIGHT: just fine, okay
“During an Orlando Magic game against the visiting Knicks, cheerleader Jamie Woode fell on her head on the court while attempting a trick, and had to be taken to a local hospital. The incident caused...
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HORRIFIC: terrible, dreadful
There is a whole range of words that describe a terrible event such as the one we are following in Newtown, Connecticut. But the one which surfaces most frequently, it would seem, is that of...
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EXPEDIENT: fit to fulfill a purpose
Every now and then I discover that I’ve been using a word incorrectly. Being somewhat of a wordsmith, this is embarrassing, to say the least. Such is the case for the word expedient. I have been...
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ERR [ur]: to stray, to drift away from the stated purpose
I have to be honest and say that my primary purpose for featuring the word err today is not about its definition; it is about its pronunciation. Just about everyone knows that to err is to make a...
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OFTEN : frequently
You may be scratching your head and asking yourself why I would choose such a common, easily-understood word as the focus of today’s blog posting. I don’t blame you. But the reason I chose the...
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OKAY: everything’s just fine
I never think about the word okay. I just use it regularly without much thought. Garner’s Modern American Usage says the term is a casualism, meaning that it’s not really an accepted word in good...
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WORD PATRONAGE: self-referential clarifications made in the context of...
I was thumbing through Garner’s Modern American Usage the other day looking for something for a piece I was writing. I turned a page and saw an item listed which intrigued me. It was Word...
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HUE AND CRY: a phrase that means “an uproar” over an issue
How many times have we heard it in a news broadcast? “The hue and cry raised by the Senator’s announcement could be heard all the way to Washington.” The meaning is clear. There was an uproar....
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BLATANT [BLEYT-nt]: tastelessly conspicuous
My personal definition for the word blatant would be: the opposite of subtle. That’s the point of the word blatant. It’s out there in front for everyone to see. There is no sense of humility. It...
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DECIMATE: to diminish a grouping by one tenth of its numbers
Sometimes words just pop into our heads too quickly and end up being a part of our conversation…even though they are the wrong word. Such is the case when someone says such things as: the tornado...
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