Editor's Corner

Yesterday, I wrote about gender-neutral titles (police officer, insurance agent, etc.), and I heard from a lot of you—thank you all for your thoughtful responses! Today, I want to discuss ways to avoid being gender specific with your pronouns.

We all know that we should avoid using the pronoun he to refer to everyone. But how do you do that gracefully? I’ve seen writers switch back and forth between he and she from paragraph to paragraph (not so graceful, really). I’ve also seen people use a hybrid like s/he (kind of odd and clunky). Most commonly, people use the term he or she. All three of those options are awkward, though. They draw attention to the phrasing rather than the message. Good writing should never do that.

An easy way to fix this is to use plural forms. For example, use the plural form students rather than the student so that you can use the pronoun they or their (rather than he or she) on the second reference.

From this: The student must register two weeks before he or she starts the course.

To this: Students must register two weeks before they start the course.

When you must speak about a singular individual, try replacing the pronoun (he or she) with an article (the or an). For example, you can say the student instead of he or she.

From this: The prerequisite must be met before he or she can register.

To this: The prerequisite must be met before the student can register.

Of course, you can also rephrase the sentence to avoid using he or she.

From this: If the student has not met the prerequisite, he or she cannot enroll in the course.

To this: Students who have not met the prerequisite will not be able to enroll in the course.

And one more thing, there is a big push from many circles to use they instead of he or she. For example, “The student should be told on the first day of class that they need to have met the prerequisite.” Although many people don’t like it, they has been usedto refer to singular nouns since the 1300s—it’s called “the singular they.” In the past few years, I’ve read a number of articles from grammarians who argue that it’s time to make the single they standard usage.

Don’t shoot the messenger.

On a lighter note, I recently had a very happy he or she incident. I found out my son and daughter-in-law are having a he baby in August.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

It’s a lovely spring day, so I thought we’d stir up some controversy and talk about gender-neutral language: terms like police officer (rather than policeman) and mail carrier (rather than mailman). Kara has covered this topic before, but I read a good article, and I like to share.

The article I read mentions a college student who tested her instructor by using the word mankind rather than humankind after being expressly directed to use only gender-neutral terminology in her essay. The student found out how serious the instructor was when, as warned, points were deducted from her score for the use of this one word.

So why do this professor and most authorities believe that gender-neutral terminology is important? Well, for one thing, it is more accurate. Consider the term policeman. When we hear this term, most of us instinctively imagine a man in a police uniform. Many women serve on the police force, however, and the term policeman (and the image it elicits) disregards all those brave women. The exclusion is usually not intentional, but it occurs all the same.

The goal of gender-neutral language is to be inclusive. To help you achieve that goal, I’ve compiled a partial list of gender-neutral titles from the internet. (Tomorrow, we’ll talk about gender-neutral pronouns. I hope you can survive the suspense!)

In case this topic is a little too serious, don’t think of this rule as mandatory. Think of it as persondatory.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Extension: 765432

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Many people are confused by the words purposely and purposefully. Are they synonyms? Is purposely even a real word?

Let’s start with some definitions from Merriam-Webster:

· purposely: with a deliberate or an express purpose : on purpose : INTENTIONALLY, DESIGNEDLY, EXPRESSLY

· purposefully: full of determination : guided by a definite aim

Although the two words are close in meaning, there is a subtle difference. You could say that purposely means "on purpose" and purposefully means "with a sense of purpose."

Merriam-Webster notes, "In everyday use, purposely is fine to merely show that something was done or said on purpose (as opposed to accidentally). But if that thing was done or said with a deliberate aim or intention, then purposefully is the adverb to use."

In case the distinction still seems fuzzy, here are some examples (four I made up, and two from recent news stories).

Example: The vandal purposely painted a bad word on the dumpster.

The vandal’s finger didn’t slip and fall onto the spray can nozzle, but he had no goal beyond causing mischief. The vandal chose the dumpster arbitrarily.

Example: The vandal purposefully painted "LIAR" on the front door of the senator’s campaign headquarters.

The message and the choice of target were deliberate. The vandal didn’t just want to cause mischief; he wanted to embarrass the senator and make a political statement.

Example: Alice purposely walked into the lecture hall.

Alice didn’t walk through the wrong door, but she wasn’t full of determination. She might be attending a lecture or trying to get out of the rain.

Example: Alice purposefully walked into the lecture hall.

Alice didn’t just wander into the lecture hall; she had determination and a definite aim. She might be the lecturer, or she might be extremely confident about taking the final exam.

Example: "Report: Driver purposely crashed during Border Patrol chase" – San Diego Union-Tribune

The driver allegedly chose to crash his SUV after the Border Patrol started chasing him. However, crashing wasn’t the driver’s goal (as it might be for a Hollywood stunt driver who crashes purposefully).

Example: "It’s the willfully eccentric characters and purposefully obtuse scenes that fuel enthusiasm for [the television show
Twin Peaks]." – NPR

Obtuse scenes in Twin Peaks aren’t just "on purpose"—they’re the whole point. Twin Peaks is a mystery show, and director David Lynch deliberately disorients the audience with dreamlike imagery and cryptic dialogue.

Ben Ritter | Technical Editor | Symitar®
8985 Balboa Avenue | San Diego, CA 92123
619-682-3391 | or ext. 763391 | www.Symitar.com

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In my last post, I wrote about using periods in acronyms and initialisms (tip: don’t do it!). Today, just for fun, I’d like to talk about words that look like abbreviations, but aren’t.

One of our readers recently alerted us to the following sentence, which appeared in The New York Times: “The two examples above – G.P.A. and ACT – provide just a glimpse into the growing field of data and analysis relating to college admissions.”

The New York Times uses periods in initialisms so readers don’t try to pronounce them as words. GPA is an initialism. It stands for grade point average. So far, so good.

But ACT is also pronounced one letter at a time (“A-C-T,” not “act”). Why didn’t The Times put a period after each letter?

Surprisingly, ACT is not an initialism; since 1996, those three letters have been the full name of the test. (From 1959 to 1995, it was called the American College Test.)

The other major college admissions test, the SAT, followed suit. It used to be the Scholastic Aptitude Test. In 1990, it became the Scholastic Assessment Test. Since 1997, it’s just SAT.

SAT is to Scholastic Assessment Test as AT&T is to what?

Words that started as abbreviations but lost their original meaning are called orphan initialisms or empty initialisms.

They usually occur when an organization wants to shift its focus, but doesn’t want to lose its name recognition. For example, AT&T (formerly American Telephone & Telegraph) discontinued telegraph service in 1991. The cable network AMC (formerly American Movie Classics) is best known these days for original shows like The Walking Dead, not classic films.

Here is a partial list of companies and other organizations that have rebranded themselves using just their initials:

· 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company)

· A&E (Arts & Entertainment Network)

· AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)

· ACT (American College Testing)

· AMC (American Movie Classics)

· AMC Theatres (American Multi-Cinema)

· AMF Bowling Centers (American Machine and Foundry)

· AOL (America Online)

· AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph)

· BP (British Petroleum)

· CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System)

· CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel)

· Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow)

· ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Networks)

· IFC (Independent Film Channel)

· KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

· MTV (Music Television)

· Nabisco (National Biscuit Company)

· SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test; Scholastic Assessment Test)

· Sega (Service Games)

· Texas A&M (The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas)

· TLC (The Learning Channel)

· TNT (Turner Network Television)

· VH1 (Video Hits One)

Ben Ritter | Technical Editor | Symitar®
8985 Balboa Avenue | San Diego, CA 92123
619-682-3391 | or ext. 763391 | www.Symitar.com

Symitar Documentation Services

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Happy Friday!

Today’s Editor’s Corner stems from the following question: What do you call those tiny bits of confectionary, which add a delightful crunch and festive flair to desserts ranging from ice cream cones to doughnuts to birthday cakes? According to this article from Cakespy (via the curious Peggy E.), the answer depends on where you live.

Sprinkles is the term favored in most of the United States, and is actually quite broad: it is used to not only to refer to those tiny cylinders of garnishing magic, but is also used to refer to sanding sugar, nonpareils, and even dragées (those little silver balls that will break your teeth on cakes!).

Sprinkles

Dragées

Jimmies is a term with a fun story: legend holds that the Just Born Candy Company in Pennsylvania (producer of PEEPS candy) began producing sprinkles in the 1930s and, since a gentleman named Jimmy ran the sprinkles machine, the product was named after its maker. While the product in question was specifically chocolate sprinkles (also the best kind to make trompe l’oeil caviar, btw), usage seems to have spread to multicolored sprinkles as well. This term is most commonly used in Pennsylvania, and the northeast United States.

Hundreds-and-Thousands is the term favored in England as well as countries which speak British English; this term seems to refer specifically to the tiny, round type of nonpareil sprinkles.

Hundreds-and-Thousands

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Recently, I was caught using the word principle when I should have written principal (thanks, Ron). As penance, I thought Id take a minute to define these two words, which are linguistically related: both terms generate from the Latin word prmus, meaning prime or first.

My mistake occurred because the word principal, when used as a noun, has two meanings. It can mean the chief or head of an organization (like the principal of a school), or it can mean the amount of money that can earn interest. I came to this financial world from a background in education, and I knew that I wasnt talking about the school principal, so, without thinking further (famous last words), I mistakenly used the word principle to mean the amount of money that can earn interest. Oh, so WRONG!

What makes this word pair even more confusing, is that along with serving as a noun (with two meanings), the word principal, can also serve as an adjective that means the most important. For example, Human encroachment and loss of habitat are the principal reasons that tigers are endangered.

The word principle, on the other hand, only serves as a noun, and it means an accepted rule of action or conduct or a fundamental doctrine or tenet. For example, It is against my principles to hide the fact that I used the wrong word (and Ron would snitch on me anyway).

To recap

Principle is a noun that has only one meaning: Rule of action or conduct/fundamental doctrine or tenet

Principal can be a noun or an adjective and has the following meanings:

o (noun): Chief or head of an organization (or most important person in a group)

o (noun): An amount of money that is put in a bank or lent to someone and that can earn interest

o (adjective): Most important

This is a good reminder that spell check doesnt catch everything. We need to review our own writing, and when possible, have Ron (or someone you trust) review your writing, too

.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Extension: 765432

Symitar Technical Publications Writing and Editing Requests

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I want to thank Phil R. for bringing these words (and the etymology of discussion, “dashed to pieces”) to my attention. While concussion, discussion, and percussion sound alike, you might think they are completely unrelated outside of their spelling. In fact, they are all from the same root originally, as you can see in their etymologies below. From my favorite etymology website, Online Etymology Dictionary:

concussion (noun)

c. 1400, from Latin concussionem (nominative concussio) "a shaking," noun of action from past participle stem of concutere "shake violently," from com "with, together" (see com-) + quatere "to shake" (see quash).

Modern brain injury sense is from 1540s.

discussion (noun)

mid-14c., "examination, investigation, judicial trial," from Old French discussion "discussion, examination, investigation, legal trial," from Late Latin discussionem (nominative discussio) "examination, discussion," in classical Latin, "a shaking," from discussus, past participle of discutere "strike asunder, break up," from dis- "apart" (see dis–) + quatere "to shake" (see quash).

Meaning "a talking over, debating" in English first recorded mid-15c. Sense evolution in Latin appears to have been from "smash apart" to "scatter, disperse," then in post-classical times (via the mental process involved) to "investigate, examine," then to "debate."

percussion (noun)

early 15c., "a striking, a blow; internal injury, contusion," from Latin percussionem (nominative percussio) "a beating, striking; a beat as a measure of time," noun of action from past participle stem of percutere "to strike hard, beat, smite; strike through and through," from per "through" (see per) + quatere "to strike, shake" (see quash).

Reference to musical instruments is first recorded 1776.

Robitussin® (noun)

From Latin robitussinem (nominate robitussio) “striking the chest hard.”

Reference to cold medication first used in 1951. Recorded in MC Chris’s song, The Tussin, 2001.

Okay, I totally made the last one up, except the part about the song, and it is definitely not safe for work, so no links today!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Dear Editrix,

Where did the term "a helping of food" come from?

Reaching out from Redmond

Dear Redmond Reacher,

What a fantastic question! I was hoping I’d find all kinds of stories and information on this idiomatic phrase, but instead, I mostly found definitions, such as “a portion,” and “a serving.”

Looking a little deeper, I found these two etymologies in the Online Etymology Dictionary, which tell a little bit of the story. I hope this helps!

Editrix

helping (noun)

"aid, assistance," late 13c., verbal noun from help (v.). Meaning "act of serving food" is from 1824; that of "a portion of food" is from 1883.

help (verb)

Old English helpan "help, support, succor; benefit, do good to; cure, amend" (transitive, class III strong verb; past tense healp, past participle holpen), from Proto-Germanic *helpan (source also of Old Norse hjalpa, Old Frisian helpa, Middle Dutch and Dutch helpen, Old High German helfan, German helfen), from PIE root *kelb- "to help" (source also of Lithuanian selpiu "to support, help").

Intransitive sense, "afford aid or assistance," is from early 13c. Recorded as a cry of distress from late 14c. Sense of "serve someone with food at table" (1680s) is translated from French servir "to help, stead, avail," and led to helping "portion of food." Help yourself as an invitation, in reference to food, etc., is from 1894. Related: Helped (c. 1300). The Middle English past participle holpen survives in biblical and U.S. dialectal use.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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The other evening as I was watching an episode of Peaky Blinders, I heard one of the characters get excited over her new house with a kitchen and a scullery. I thought a scullery was a kitchen, so of course I had to send myself a reminder to look it up and find out the real truth. Here’s what I learned from Wikipedia, and I have to say that Ada should be excited getting both a scullery and a kitchen!

A scullery is a room in a house traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen when the main kitchen is overloaded. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils (or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ironing, boiling water for cooking or bathing, and soaking and washing clothes. Sculleries contain hot and cold sinks, sometimes slop sinks, drain pipes, storage shelves, plate racks, a work table, various "coppers" for boiling water, tubs, and buckets.

The term "scullery" has fallen into disuse in North America, the room being more commonly referred to as a utility room or laundry room.

The term continues in use in its original sense in Britain and Ireland, or as an alternative term for kitchen in some regions of Britain typically Northern Ireland, North East England, and Scotland, or in designer kitchens.

In United States military facilities and most commercial restaurants, a "scullery" refers to the section of a dining facility where pots and pans are scrubbed and rinsed (in an assembly line style). It is usually near the kitchen and the serving line.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Sunday is Mother’s Day, so what better topic to discuss than moms? Actually, I won’t talk about your mom if you don’t talk about mine. J Let’s just cover the etymology and a little information from my favorite Online Etymology Dictionary.

mother (verb): 1540s, “to be the mother of.” Meaning “to take care of” is from 1863.

mother (noun): Old English modor "female parent," from Proto-Germanic *mothær (source also of Old Saxon modar, Old Frisian moder, Old Norse moðir, Danish moder, Dutch moeder, Old High German muoter, German Mutter), from PIE *mater- "mother" (source also of Latin mater, Old Irish mathir, Lithuanian mote, Sanskrit matar-, Greek meter, Old Church Slavonic mati), "[b]ased ultimately on the baby-talk form *mā- (2); with the kinship term suffix *-ter-" [Watkins]. Spelling with -th- dates from early 16c., though that pronunciation is probably older).

matron (noun): late 14c., "married woman" (usually one of rank), from Old French matrone "married woman; elderly lady; patroness; midwife," and directly from Latin matrona "married woman, wife, matron," from mater (genitive matris) "mother" (see mother). Sense of "female manager of a school, hospital, etc." first recorded 1550s.

matrix (noun): late 14c., "uterus, womb," from Old French matrice "womb, uterus," from Latin matrix (genitive matricis) "pregnant animal," in Late Latin "womb," also "source, origin," from mater (genitive matris) "mother" (see mother). Sense of "place or medium where something is developed" is first recorded 1550s; sense of "embedding or enclosing mass" first recorded 1640s. Logical sense of "array of possible combinations of truth-values" is attested from 1914. [KC – And you thought it was all about Neo and his adventures with Morpheus and Agent Smith!]

magna mater (noun): fertility goddess, 1728, Latin literally "great mother." See magnate + mother).

metronymic (adj): “derived from the name of a mother or maternal ancestor," 1881, from Late Greek metronymikos "named for one’s mother," from meter (genitive metros) "mother" (see mother) + onyma "name" (see name (n.)).

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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