From reality television, the apex of evil: a teach
EXAMPLE: “We went on a teach this morning with Benny Ninja.”
From blogs everywhere: gifted me with
EXAMPLE: “My mom gifted me with a front porch hammock.”
I’m sorry, but that is not how those words work at all. I believe you are looking for the words lesson and gave.
Favorites in Sound and Meaning:
investigate
sinister
textual
nebulous
complexity
interlacement
clatter
Least Favorites, Because Apparently I Hate the Letter U:
thumb
slurp
munch
flesh
Words my Students Need to Look Up:
novel
fiction
story
poem
drama
thesis
except
accept
metaphor
Typos I Cannot Stop Making:
sotry for story
explainging for explaining
And as a Related Bonus, my Least-Favorite Currently Overused Phrase, Because Please Stop Trying so Hard:
an historic
—
What are your words?
deep seated vs deep seeded – The first one is correct. A feeling or attitude is seated deep within you. No gardening is involved.
faze vs phase – Two completely different words! I know, right? Don’t let it faze you.
cache vs cachet – Having a hidden cache [sounds like cash] of cash might give you a little cachet [sounds like cash-ay].
stage left vs house/camera left – Stage left is left from the point of view of the stage, house or camera left is left from the point of view of the house or camera. I haven’t heard ANYONE use these correctly in AT LEAST the last year, no exaggeration.
prodigal – The prodigal son wasn’t prodigal because he came back. His behavior before he returned was prodigal. It has nothing to do with returning.
You know what I hate? Fake neologisms. You know, when someone uses a word they haven’t used before, and they think they have made it up, so to preempt any comments, they say something like “yes, I know that isn’t a word”? Only it really is a word and they are too ignorant to know that and/or to arrogant to look it up in the dictionary? That thing? I hate that.
I think I have finally pinned down the reason I can’t quite understand a significant segment of the population here in New Wye: no one pronounces consonants. It’s as if they extract only the vowels from their words, ending up with a chain of mumbley sounds, and it takes me a few seconds to reverse-engineer what they have said, during which time I stand there looking blank and glassy and squinting ever harder at their mouths until I finally give up and, for the millionth time, ask apologetically, “Pardon?”
It should be noted as well that I am from the South. I have a damned southern accent myself; I just don’t know what kind of hooey they are talking here, boy ah tell you what.
Raveling Out 