Category: Language Matters
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Cacoethes Scribendi
The fan is on and my shirt is off. The Sonoran spring is sprung. Spring fever in the form of cacoethes scribendi has me in her sweet grip. A weird mix of Greek and Latin, cacoethes scribendi means compulsion to write. ‘Cacoethes’ is a Latinization of the Greek kakoethes, which combines kakos (‘bad’) with ethos…
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‘Old News’
'Old' in 'old news' is an alienans adjective. Add it to the list.
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What is Fake News? Rachel’s Overreach
A news item is a report of a recent event. Must the report be true to count as a genuine news item? I should think so. Must the report be current as well? Obviously. It is true that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, but no longer news that she did. So there are…
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Whether Atheism is a Religion
I have been objecting to the calling of leftism a religion. Curiously, some people call atheism a religion. I object to that too. The question as to what religion is is not at all easy to answer. It is not even clear that the question makes sense. For when you ask 'What is religion?' you…
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Does ‘Aunt’ Have a Latin-Based Adjectival Form?
The following weighty question flashed across my mind this morning: which word is to 'aunt' as 'avuncular' is to 'uncle'? A little Internet pokey-wokey brought me to materteral. Maternal, paternal, fraternal, sororal, avuncular, materteral! Hard to pronounce and useless for purposes of communication with hoi polloi, but interesting nonetheless. I pity those who interests are…
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‘Rhetorical’ in ‘Rhetorical Question’
Another example of an alienans adjective.
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‘Understand’ is a Verb of Success
Here I encountered the following sentence: However, most people understand their side is good and the opposing side is bad, so it’s much easier for them to form these emotional opinions of political parties. This sentence features a misuse of 'understand.' 'Understand' is a verb of success. If you understand something, then it is the…
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Undocumented Workers and Illegal Aliens
One of the purposes of this website is to combat the stupidity of Political Correctness, a stupidity that in many contemporary liberals, i.e., leftists, is willful and therefore morally censurable. The euphemism 'undocumented worker' is a good example of a PC expression. It does not require great logical acumen to see that 'undocumented worker' and 'illegal…
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Sally Boynton Brown: Ethno-Masochist
Thank you, Mr. Pollack, for saving me the work of excoriating this sorry specimen of leftist lunacy. Malcolm writes, Behold Sally Boynton Brown, an industrial-strength ethno-masochist who wants both to “have a conversation” and “shut other white people down”. (If you’re a student of political language, by the way, and you’re looking for examples of…
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58 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases
A list by Steven Pinker. Refreshingly prescriptivist. I agree with every example. For instance, • Begs the question means assumes what it should be proving and does not mean raises the question. Correct: "When I asked the dealer why I should pay more for the German car, he said I would be getting 'German quality,' but that…
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Journalists: Please Proof-Read for Ambiguity
David French is a good writer. But the following is from his January 11th NRO column, Shame on Buzzfeed: So here’s what responsible people say when confronted with claims like that: What’s your evidence? If the answer is “an anonymously written and anonymously sourced series of memos that no one has yet been able to…
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Word of the Day: Dehiscence
Noun 1. Biology: the release of materials by the splitting open of an organ or tissue. 2. Botany: the natural bursting open of capsules, fruits, anthers, etc., for the discharge of their contents. 3. Surgery: the bursting open of a surgically closed wound. Most people have pitifully limited vocabularies. It is due to laziness in most cases. Don't pass over words…
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Word of the Day: Conscient
If you are tired of 'conscious' and desire a stylistic variant, you may use 'conscient,' though it is a term that has fallen into desuetude. "They will make way for the unrepentant barbaric hordes of those who were conditioned throughout their conscient lives to believe that their time would never come." (Conrad Black) An enjoyable…
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BRIXISH
Malcolm Pollack goes Dennis Prager one better. BRIXISH is indeed superior to SIXHIRB for Malcolm's reasons below, but also because it is in the vicinity of BREXIT. After all, the BRIXISH would tend to support BREXIT. Here's Malcolm: Saw an unfamiliar acronym over at Maverick Philosopher the the other day: “SIXHIRB”. I had to look…