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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged etymology

1. July 30, 2012 03:00 PM

   Bell curves

   Lots of “ring” words

   By Merrill Perlman

   “You must be a ringer,” the journalism instructor told the student, who insisted that, though he had many years of experience in other jobs, he had never been a journalist. “I admit I had to look that term up,” the student said later.” I wasn’t sure if it calling me a ringer was a compliment or an insult.” Compliment, but...

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2. October 16, 2012 06:50 AM

   Career advice

   On the fast track to ‘careen’

   By Merrill Perlman

   Two accidents, two verbs: In New Jersey, “The car careened down the street and smashed into several parked cars before coming to a stop.” In Florida, “A Ford Explorer careered out of control, hitting the pedestrian on the sidewalk before smashing into a utility pole.” If you’ve never heard “career” used that way, you’re probably young. “Career” as a verb...

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3. June 19, 2012 06:50 AM

   Digging in

   The etymology of a “clawback”

   By Merrill Perlman

   “Jamie Dimon: JPMorgan Will Likely Claw Back Pay From Responsible Executives,” the headline said. Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, was telling the Senate Banking Committee that the firm would probably seek to reclaim some pay and bonuses from those involved in the firm’s $2 billion trading loss. What a wonderful image: bankers digging in their “claws” to wrest bundles of cash...

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4. June 5, 2012 06:50 AM

   Empty pockets

   A phrase with several meanings

   By Merrill Perlman

   Max Crittenden posted on Language Corner’s Facebook page: I’m seeing some peculiar usage (misuse, to my mind) of the phrase “out of pocket”. “My housekeeper has injured her leg and will be out of pocket for a while.” “Sorry, I’ve been out of pocket and haven’t gotten to your request.” Is anyone else noticing this? To me, “out of pocket”...

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5. May 16, 2012 06:50 AM

   Logue jam

   A catalog of dialogues

   By Merrill Perlman

   “Catalogue” can also be spelled “catalog.” “Dialogue” can also be spelled “dialog.” But “monologue” is rarely spelled “monolog.” The Americans are at it again. The combining form “logue” is French, descended from Latin, and it indicates an engagement of some sort, a discourse, if you will, between people or things. People browse “catalog(ue)s” to “discuss” what items to buy; a...

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6. August 13, 2012 03:03 PM

   Lucky strike

   Not all fortunes are good

   By Merrill Perlman

   As Evan Jenkins wrote here in 1997, “fortuitous,” strictly speaking, does not mean “lucky”; it means “by chance.” So when a snake bites a mouse that just happened to be in its path, it is “fortuitous”—lucky for the snake, not so much for the mouse. Just an accident of timing. But, possibly because “fortuitous” begins the same way as “fortunate”...

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7. April 2, 2012 01:29 PM

   Not Just Desserts

   How “junket” became a bad word

   By Merrill Perlman

   The good times were back on Wall Street, the news report said. Executives of a banking firm were staying at “some luxury digs in New Delhi.” But, the report added, “This is not a pure junket, to be sure.” The executives would also be conducting some business. A columnist at another publication railed about local legislators’ decisions: “Let’s see, this...

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8. May 1, 2012 10:49 AM

   Organically Grown

   The DNA of new words

   By Merrill Perlman

   Language evolves. New words and concepts show up and catch on—“app,” “smartphone,” “podcast”—or die from disuse or dysfunction—“Y2K,” “newsreel,” “rad.” And there’s even a word for how these concepts make their way from person to person: “meme.” Rhyming with “cream,” the word “meme” was coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, in his book The Selfish Gene. In...

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9. August 20, 2012 03:00 PM

   Pluralistic

   Those pesky possessives

   By Merrill Perlman

   Two of the longest sections in most grammar and style guides concern how to form plurals and how to form possessives. Some guidelines are identical—almost no plurals are formed with apostrophes, no matter how many “All Drink’s Half Price” signs you see—and some disagree: Is the possessive form of “Texas” rendered as “Texas’” or “Texas’s”? (We’ll deal with those next...

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10. August 6, 2012 04:28 PM

    Shhh! It doesn’t matter

    A “moot” discussion

    By Merrill Perlman

    The silence is deafening. All over the Internet and printed publications, people are making “mute points”: • A press release promises small businesses that “one of the benefits of online marketing is that your geography becomes a mute point.” (If no one can hear your business, can anyone find it?) • A letter to the editor about a topless protest...

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11. May 30, 2012 11:00 AM

    That’s that, part two

    Keeping a reader on the right path

    By Merrill Perlman

    Last week we talked about the use of “that” after a verb of speech, like “said,” “acknowledged,” etc. This week, we’ll explain how “that” can signal where a sentence is heading. Let’s start with this sentence: “You'll be happy to know the man …” Most readers will think that the sentence concerns the relationship between “you” and “the man,” and...

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