Friday, April 30, 2010

English Usage - Concerned - English editing.

The idiomatic expression as far as . . . is/are concerned is well established and is a useful way of introducing a new topic or theme or of stating your opinion, especially in conversation. But it can also sometimes be unnecessary or long-winded: for example, the punishment does not seem to have any effect so far as the prisoners are concerned could be more economically expressed as the punishment does not seem to have any effect on the prisoners.
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Thursday, April 29, 2010

English Usage - Compound - English reading.

The sense of the verb compound meaning ‘to make something bad worse’, as in this compounds their problems, has an interesting history. It arose through a misinterpretation of the legal phrase compound a felony, which, strictly speaking, means ‘not to prosecute a felony, in exchange for money or some other consideration’. This led to the use of compound in legal contexts to means ‘make something bad worse’, which then became accepted in general usage as well.
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

English Usage - Complacent, Complaisant - English editing.

Complacent and Complaisant are two words which are similar in pronunciation and which both come from the Latin verb complacere ‘to please’, but which in English do not mean the same thing. Complacent is the commoner word and means ‘smug and self-satisfied’. Complaisant, on the other hand, means ‘willing to please’, as in the local people proved complaisant and cordial.
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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

English Usage - Comparatively - English editing.

The use of comparatively in contexts such as there were comparatively few casualties has been criticized in the past on the grounds that there is no explicit comparison being made. Even so, there is an implicit one, even if very vague: for instance, in the example above, the comparison is presumably with other incidents or battles. Comparatively has been used in this way since the early 19th century and to use it thus is acceptable in standard English.
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Monday, April 26, 2010

English Usage - Compact - English editing.

Compact as an adjective can be stressed on the first or second syllable: /kom-pakt/ or /kuhm-pakt/. Both are correct, but there is a preference for the first in the phrase compact disc.
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Saturday, April 24, 2010

English Usage - Comparable - English editing.

Although the traditional pronunciation of comparable in standard British English is with the stress on the first syllable rather than the second (/kom-pruh-b’l), an alternative pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable (/kuhm-pa-ruh-b’l) is gaining in currency. Both pronunciations are used in American English.
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Friday, April 23, 2010

English Usage - Coloured - English editing.

The use of coloured to refer to skin colour is first recorded in the early 17th century and was adopted by emancipated slaves in the US as a term of racial pride after the American Civil War. IN Britain it was the accepted term until the 1960s, when it was superseded (as in the US) by black. The term coloured lost favour among blacks during this period and is now widely regarded as offensive except in historical contexts. In South Africa, the term coloured (also written Coloured) has a different history. It is used to refer to people of mixed-race parentage rather than, as elsewhere, African peoples and their descendants. In modern use in this context the term is not considered offensive or derogatory.
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Thursday, April 22, 2010

English Usage - Collective noun - English editing.

A collective noun is a singular noun which refers to a group of people, such as family, committee, government, BBC, NATO. Collective nouns can be used with either a singular or a plural verb: my family was always hard-working; his family were disappointed in him. With a singular verb you are emphasizing the group; with a plural verb, the individuals in the group. Generally speaking, in the US it is more usual for collective nouns to be followed by a singular verb. Bear in mind that any following pronouns or adjectives must be singular or plural like the verb: the government is prepared to act, but not until it knows the outcome of the latest talks (not . . . until they know the outcome . . .): the family have all moved back into their former home.
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

English Usage - Coleslaw - English editing.

The first part of this word is correctly spelled cole-, not cold-. Cole- is from Dutch kool ‘cabbage’. It has been replaced by cold through a process of Folk Etymology.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

English Usage - Cohort - English editing.

The earliest sense of cohort is ‘a unit of men within the Roman army’. From this it developed the meanings of ‘a group of people with a shared characteristic’, e.g. the Church in Ireland still has a vast cohort of weekly churchgoers. From the 1950s onwards a new sense developed in the US, meaning ‘a companion or colleague’, as in young Jack arrived with three of his cohorts. Although this meaning is well established, there are still some people who object to it on the grounds that cohort should only be used for group of people (as in its extended sense), never for individuals.
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Monday, April 19, 2010

English Usage - Co-. English editing.

In modern American English, the tendency increasingly is to write compound words beginning with co- without hyphenation, as in costar, cosignatory, and coproduce. British usage generally shows a preference for the hyphenated spelling, but even in Britain the trend seems to be in favour of less hyphenation than in the past. In both the US and the UK, for example, the spellings of coordinate and coed are encountered with or without hyphenation, but the more common choice for either word in either country is without the hyphen.
Co- with the hyphen is often used to prevent a mistaken first impression (co-driver – because codriver could be mistaken for cod river, and coworker initially looks like something to do with a cow), or simply to avoid an awkward spelling (co-own is clearly preferable to coown). There are also some relatively less common terms, such as co-respondent (in a divorce suit), where the hyphenated spelling distinguishes the word’s meaning and pronunciation from that of the more common correspondent.
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Saturday, April 17, 2010

English Usage - Climactic, Climatic - English editing.

Climactic means ‘forming a climax’, as in the film’s climatic battle sequence. Climatic means ‘relating to climate’, as in a wide range of climatic conditions. Climactic is sometimes incorrectly used when climatic is meant, as in harsh climactic conditions. Climacteric is a different word again, a rarely used noun meaning ‘the period of life when fertility and sexual activity are in decline’ or a ‘critical period or event’.
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Friday, April 16, 2010

English Usage - Classic, Classical - English editing.

Traditionally, classic means either ‘outstanding’, as in a classic novel, or ‘very typical and representative of its kind’, as in a classic little black dress, a classic example, Classical generally means ‘relating to Greek or Roman antiquity’ or ‘relating to serious or conventional music’: the museum was built in the classical style; he plays jazz as well as classical violin. Often classical is mistakenly used when classic is more appropriate: a classical example would be one taken from Greek or Latin whereas a classic example is the most typical example of its kind.
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Thursday, April 15, 2010

English Usage - Christain name - English editing.

In recognition of the fact that English-speaking societies have many religions and cultures, not just Christian ones, the term Christian name has largely given way, at least in official contexts, to alternative terms such as given name, first name, or forename.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

English Usage - Chord, Cord - English editing.

There are two distinct words spelled chord: (1) in music, a group of notes sounded together to form the basis of harmony, and (2) a technical word in mathematics and engineering, meaning ‘a straight line joining the ends of an arc, the leading and trailing edges of an aircraft wing, etc’. The idiom to strike a chord derives, somewhat surprisingly, from the technical meaning.

The word cord meaning ‘string, rope, etc’. is used in spinal cord, umbilical cord, vocal cord, etc., The anatomical sense is often spelled chord, particularly in the phrase vocal chords, but this spelling is not recommended.
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

English Usage - chimera - English editing.

The recommended spelling for this word for a mythological being, an illusory hope or a genetic mix is chimera not chimaera, and the recommended pronunciation is /ky-meer-uh/.
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Monday, April 12, 2010

English Usage - Chicano - English editing.

The term Chicano (borrowed from Mexican Spanish and derived from the Spanish word mejicano, meaning ‘Mexican’), and its feminine form Chicana, became current in the early 1960s, first used by politically active groups. Chicano and Chicana are still in frequent use but have become less politicized. However, Mexican-Americans with less militant political views might find the terms offensive. Hispanic is a more generic term denoting people in the US of Latin-American or Spanish descent.
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Saturday, April 10, 2010

English Usage - Cherub - English editing.

Cherub has the Hebrew plural cherubim, pronounced /che-ruh-bim/, when referring to angelic beings, and cherubs when referring to adorable children. Since cherubim is already plural, the form ‘cherubims’ is unnecessary. The adjective cherubic is pronounced / chuh-roo-bik/.
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Friday, April 9, 2010

English Usage - Challenged - English editing.

The use with a preceding adverb, e.g. physically challenged, was originally intended to give a more positive tone than terms such as disabled or handicapped. It arose in the US in the 1980s and quickly spread to the UK and elsewhere. Despite the originally serious intention the term rapidly became stalled by uses whose intention was to make fun of the attempts at euphemism and whose tone was usually clearly ironic: mocking examples include cerebrally challenged, conversationally challenged, and follicularly challenged.
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Thursday, April 8, 2010

English Usage - chaise longue, chaise lounge - English editing.

Chaise longue comes from French, literally ‘a long chair’, with longue being the feminine form of the French adjective long. Since it has a very un-English spelling and pronunciation, it has been transformed by folk etymology into the logical chaise lounge in the US, where it is the accepted and dominant form.
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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

English Usage - Cervical - English editing.

Cervical means ‘relating to the cervix’ (the neck of the womb). With the advent of cervical screening and cervical smears the word has become part of general language. Its pronunciation in general use tends to be /ser-vi-k’I/, and in medical circles and the US /suh-vy-K’I/.
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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

English Usage - censure, censor - English editing.

Censure and censor, although quite different in meaning, are frequently confused. To censure means ‘to express severe disapproval of’ (the country was censured for human rights abuses), while to censor means ‘to examine (a book, film, etc.) and suppress unacceptable parts of it’: the letters she received were censored. Avoid writing censure when you mean censor, as in the incorrect the film was censured.
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Monday, April 5, 2010

English Usage - Celtic - English editing.

Celt and Celtic can be pronounced with the first letter c sounding like either k- or s-, but the normal pronunciation is what a k-, except in the name of the Glaswegian football club.
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Saturday, April 3, 2010

English Usage - Caucasian - English editing.

In the racial classification developed by Blumenbach and others in the 19th century. Caucasian (or Caucasoid) included peoples whose skin colour ranged from light (in northern Europe) to dark (in parts of North Africa and India). Although the classification is outdated and the categories are now not generally accepted as scientific , the term Caucasian has acquired a more restricted meaning. It is now used, especially in the US, as a synonym for ‘white or of European origin’, as in the police are looking for a Caucasian male in his forties.
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Friday, April 2, 2010

English Usage - Caribbean - English editing.

The word Caribbean can be pronounced in two different ways. The first, which is more common in British English, puts the stress on the -be-, while the second, heard in the US and the Caribbean itself, stresses the -rib-.
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Thursday, April 1, 2010

English Usage - candelabrum - English editing.

If we stick religiously to the Latin forms, the correct singular is candelabrum and the correct plural is candelabra. But candelabra has taken on a new life as the more common singular form, with its own plural candelabras.
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