Editor's Corner

I’m not sure how we got started, but the other day my dear amigo Javier and I started discussing nicknames. And not just regular nicknames, but Spanish nicknames. I was really excited, because to me, Spanish nicknames are so much more interesting than calling young Jim “Jimmy,” or referring to Margaret as “Margie” or “Maggie.” This is, however, a blog about English, so I will be certain to connect the dots somehow.

Let’s start with the word nickname. What does it mean? A nickname is “a familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name”. It could be a shorter version of your name (“Rob” instead of “Robert”), a bit of a tease (calling your short friend “Stilts”), or just a pet name (like “Bunny”—don’t ask).

Where did the word nickname come from? Did someone named Nick or Nicholas want to invent something for the dictionary? Not even close! It’s actually from very old words that were misheard or written incorrectly. Here is the etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

nickname (n.)

mid-15c., misdivision of ekename (c. 1300), an eke name, literally "an additional name," from Old English eaca "an increase," related to eacian "to increase" (cognate with Old Norse auknafn, Swedish öknamn, Danish ögenavn.

I still have so much information for you! But let’s move back to the Spanish nicknames, and tomorrow I will share more with you about English. (And to Javier, ¡muchas gracias!)

Alberto, Robertoà Beto

Antonio à Toño

Dolores à Lola

Eduardo à Lalo

Francisco à Pancho

Guadalupe à Lupe

Guillermo à Memo

Isabel à Chabela

Jesús à Chuy

Jose à Pepe

Ignacioà Nacho

Kara Church

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Do you have trouble remembering whether to include periods in abbreviations like ATM, NASA, and TGIF (or A.T.M., N.A.S.A., and T.G.I.F.)?

Good news! Our rule is much easier than you might think: Don’t use periods between each letter.

Acronyms vs. Initialisms

Much of the confusion comes from the fact that some abbreviations are pronounced as words (like NATO and UNICEF) and other abbreviations are pronounced as a series of letters (like FBI and CIA).

Many people use the word acronym to describe both types of abbreviations, but some sticklers distinguish between acronyms and initialisms.

The Oxford English Dictionary is very clear about this distinction:

· acronym: an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g., ASCII, NASA)

· initialism: an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately (e.g., BBC)

Merriam-Webster (our dictionary of choice) is less decisive:

· acronym: a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

· initialism: an acronym formed from initial letters; especially one that is pronounced as separate letters

Dictionary.com considers the two words to be synonyms, defining acronym as “an initialism” and vice versa.

For our purposes, the distinction doesn’t matter; we treat acronyms and initialisms exactly the same.

Chicago Manual of Style

Some style guides have complicated rules for dealing with abbreviations, taking into account how the word is pronounced, how long it is, and whether any two letters come from the same word (like the T and the V in MTV).

We follow The Chicago Manual of Style, which is clear on this point: “Use no periods with abbreviations that appear in full capitals.”

Ben Ritter | Technical Editor | Symitar®
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Happy Friday!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a couple of articles on shouting bloody murder or blue murder. While some of you suggested I make a trip to the massage therapist, others gave me meditation and relaxation techniques. Still others went the other direction and wanted to delve deeper into these terms. Nathan A. posed a question, wondering if those shouting terms were related to “cursing a blue streak.” I haven’t found anything yet in the book I’m reading (What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves), but I did find this article from The Word Detective.

Enjoy!

Human beings have identified a wide spectrum of colors (and catalog copywriters are constantly inventing new ones), but when it comes to popular figures of speech, “blue” takes the prize for both number and variety of senses. We speak, for example, of sadness or depression as “the blues,” although no one has ever come up with a convincing explanation why. “Blues” music does often center on depressing “blue” subjects (lover left, dog died, etc.), but that “blue” may actually be a reference to the genre’s use of “blue notes,” halfway between proper scale notes. Elsewhere, “blue blood” is said to signify royalty or high social class, but was originally just a reference to very light skin, which made the oxygen-rich blood in one’s veins visible under the skin. The opposite of the blue-blooded idle rich are, of course, “blue-collar” workers, so-called for the denim shirts that once were standard factory wear.

Some towns in the U.S. still enforce “blue laws” forbidding or restricting certain activities on Sundays, but the origin of the term has been lost in the mists of time along with the Puritans who concocted the laws. And, at the other end of the spectrum, we have the slightly antiquated (but equally mysterious) adjective “blue” meaning “obscene,” which dates to the 1820s (and thus predates “blue movies” by a century). It’s possible, however, that “blue” in the “porn” sense arose from the term “blue laws” being generalized to mean any kind of censorious legislation.

Meanwhile, as the stock exchange tumbles and staid “blue chip” stocks take a beating, it’s appropriate to note that “blue chip” meaning “top rank, best” comes from the highest denomination chips in the very un-staid game of poker, which are traditionally blue.

All of which brings us to “blue streak,” which means “with great intensity or speed” and originated in the U.S. in the early 18th century. In all likelihood, the term did arise by analogy to the speed and force of a bolt of lightning, especially in “talk a blue streak,” meaning to speak rapidly and excitedly. The “blue” in “curse a blue streak” probably also invokes “blue” in the sense of “obscene.” A similar phrase, “blue blazes” (“And the two Jacobs swore like blue blazes agin him,”1858), was originally a reference to the fires of Hell, where it is said that brimstone burns with a pale blue flame.

Kara Church

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Good morning!

I viewed an interesting slideshow titled Six Words that Can Ruin Your Sentence. I know that some of the words in the slideshow are on your list of pet peeves, because you’ve told me. And I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, but we could all use this reminder: avoid the following six words. They weaken your writing (and speech), and people find them annoying.

The following words and the explanations are taken directly from a Dictionary.com slideshow. Click here to see it.

· Actually
Crutch words are words that we slip into sentences in order to give ourselves more time to think, or to emphasize a statement. Over time, they become unconscious verbal tics. Most often, crutch words do not add meaning to a statement. Actually is the perfect example of a crutch word. It is meant to signify something that exists in reality, but it is more often used as a way to add punch to a statement (as in, "I actually have no idea").

· Literally
This adverb should be used to describe an action that occurs in a strict sense. Often, however, it is used inversely to emphasize a hyperbolic or figurative statement: "I literally ran 300 miles today." Literally is one of the most famously used crutch words in English.

· Basically
This word is used to signal truth, simplicity, and confidence, like in "Basically, he made a bad decision." It should signify something that is fundamental or elementary, but too often this word is used in the context of things that are far from basic in order to create a sense of authority and finality.

· Honestly
This crutch word is used to assert authority or express incredulity, as in, "Honestly, I have no idea why he said that." However, it very rarely adds honesty to a statement.

· Like
The cardinal sinner of lazy words like is interspersed in dialogue to give a speaker more time to think or because the speaker cannot shake the habit of using the word. Like should describe something of the same form, appearance, kind, character, or amount. But, very often, it is used involuntarily in conversation, just like um.

· Obviously
This word should signify an action that is readily observable, recognized, or understood. Speakers tend to use it, however, to emphasize their point with regards to things that aren’t necessarily obvious: "Obviously he should have thrown the ball to first base."

Enjoy your day!

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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Symitar Technical Publications Writing and Editing Requests

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A few weeks ago, someone mentioned a phrase he heard about somebody’s Uncle Bob, and was wondering if I knew what that was all about. I think what he was getting at was the phrase “and Bob’s your uncle.” One of my coworkers here actually says that on occasion, so he’s explained it to me. Rather than try to remember another past conversation, I have an article from the present to share with you from Wikipedia:

…And Bob’s your uncle is an expression of unknown origin, that means "and there it is" or "and there you have it." It is commonly used in Great Britain and Commonwealth countries. Typically, someone says it to conclude a set of simple instructions or when a result is reached. The meaning is similar to that of the French expression "et voilà!"

"Bob’s your uncle" is an exclamation that is used when "everything is all right" and the simple means of obtaining the successful result is explained. For example: "left over right; right over left, and Bob’s your uncle – a reef knot." Sometimes the phrase is followed with "and Nellie’s your aunt" or "and Fanny’s your aunt." It is sometimes elaborately phrased Robert is your mother’s brother or similar for comic effect.

This information, along with a lot of speculation, is expanded upon in The Phrase Finder. (I personally like the Australian-Greek version, “And Spiro’s your uncle.”)

Kara Church

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Dear Editrix,

Once of my biggest pet peeves is the usage of the word till in place of until. While I know The Grammarist tells us that this is completely acceptable usage, seeing this substitution in writing such as documentation or written correspondence is like nails on a chalkboard to me. While I don’t have an issue with this usage verbally, it feels uneducated and ignorant to me when used in writing. I always thought that till is what you do to the dirt before you plant. Could you please tell us more about this so that I will know if I’m the lone ignorant one?

Best regards,

Banging Head On Wall

Dear Head-Banger,

A few years ago, this topic came up because of my own misunderstanding. I’d grown up thinking that ‘til was a shortened version of until. I looked up these words and I was shocked and appalled to find out that I was sorely mistaken. Here are some tips I learned:

· According to some dictionaries, ‘til is not an acceptable shortened form of till or until.

· If you want to use a shortened version of until, till is acceptable.

· Till has been around longer than until, but both mean “before that time” or “up to that time.”

· Use until if you want to avoid arguments or controversy.

So, till doesn’t just mean moving that soil to prepare for the seeds, but you are completely safe with using until as your go-to word. As far as the sound of the nails on the chalkboard, I recommend earmuffs.

Editrix

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

No, I didn’t spend the weekend on a bender, I’m just exhausted after several weeks of editing long documents, so I’m taking a break and letting the people at the Grammarist do all of the hard work today.

-aholic, -oholic and -holic

The origin of the suffixes -aholic, -oholic and -holic is unusual as they are not directly derived from a Latin or Greek root. We will look at the meaning of the suffixes -aholic, -ohlic and -holic, where they came from, some examples of their use in words and some examples the use of these words in sentences.

The suffixes -aholic, -ohlic and -holic indicate an addiction to the item depicted in the stem word, an abnormal dependency on it or an abnormal desire for it. These suffixes were created as an abstraction of the ending of the word alcoholic. The word alcoholic was coined at the end of the 1700s by adding the suffix -ic to the stem word alcohol, the suffix -ic means having the nature of. During the twentieth century the suffixes -aholic, -ohlic and -holic were coined, patterned on the ending of the word alcoholic, to indicate items to which people had become dependent or had an abnormal desire for. In the 1960s, especially, the system of word formation became popular with the words sugarholic, foodoholic, and workaholic. In the 1970s, the words chocoholic and golfaholic were coined, and in the 1980s, the word shopaholic. Today, any word that is invented with either the suffix -aholic, -oholic or -holic is automatically assumed to mean an obsession or addiction, though usually in a humorous manner.

Kara Church

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Dear Editrix:

We put things in alphabetical order all the time, but who decided what order that should be? We can all recite the alphabet, but we all recite it in exactly the same order. Why isn’t it “I before E”? Who determined that we should start with A and end with Z? I smell a conspiracy somewhere.

Sincerely,

R Before F

Dear Mr. F.,

I found a great article about this, including information on the alphabet song. It is four or five times longer than the Editor’s Corner usually is, so I will include part of it here, along with a link to the original Mental Floss article, by Matt Soniak. If you skip through most of it, at least have a look at the link towards the end, with the University of Maryland’s animation. It’s super cool!

Warm regards,

Editrix

The alphabet, as best as historians can tell, got its start in ancient Egypt sometime in the Middle Bronze Age, but not with the Egyptians. They were, at the time, writing with a set of hieroglyphs that were used both as representations of the consonants of their language and as logographs (a logograph or logogram is a letter, symbol, or sign used to represent an entire word). While the glyphs were sort of alphabetic in nature, they were used more for their logographic component than as “letters.”

It was either Canaanite workers living on the Sinai Peninsula in the 19th century BC or Semitic workers living in Central Egypt in the 15th century BC who created the first purely alphabetic script. Over the next few centuries, this alphabet spread through the rest of the Middle East and into Europe. Almost all subsequent alphabets in the Western world have either descended from it, or been inspired by or adapted from one of its descendants.

The first people to extensively use the alphabet as it emerged from Egypt were the Phoenicians, who ruled a small empire of maritime city-states and colonies around the Mediterranean. Their extensive use of the alphabet in business dealings throughout their vast trade network led to its quick spread throughout the Mediterranean region — later versions were called the Phoenician alphabet.

The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet sometime in the 8th century BC or earlier, keeping the order and adapting it for use with their own language. (For example, the Phoenician alphabet did not have letters representing vowel sounds, which were important in the Greek language and had to be added). After they had worked out the finer points of their new alphabet, Greeks living on the Italian peninsula came in contact with a tribe known as the Latins. Sometime in the 5th century BC, the tribe adopted writing from the Greeks and another tribe called the Etruscans, choosing and mixing letters from the two alphabets as they needed.

The Latins would expand in population, geographic size, and cultural influence over the centuries, creating a little empire called Rome. As they conquered most of Europe, the Romans took their alphabet with them and spread it to new lands. Even when the empire contracted and fell, the Latin alphabet survived with the people of former Roman lands. The alphabet was adapted to some native languages and exerted influence on others — most notably for us, Old English, which gave rise to Middle English and the Modern English we use today.

Simple as ABC

For all the adaptations and mutations, the alphabet’s order of letters has been relatively stable. In the 1920s, archaeologists found a dozen stone tablets used in a school in Ugarit, a city in what is now Syria, that are from the fourteenth century BC and preserve two orders of the Ugaritic alphabet. One, the "Northern Semitic order" is related to the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets and features bits and pieces of an order familiar to Modern English speakers: a, b…g, h…l, m…q,r.

As the alphabet traveled around the world, those who adopted it did very little to change the basic order. Looking at this animation from the University of Maryland, you can see how things have remained largely the same between the Phoenicians and Latin. Long strings of letters, like abcdef, remain untouched for thousands of years.

Kara Church

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Symitar Documentation Services

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Some of you may have already read this article about a grammar vigilante. For those of you haven’t, a man in in Bristol, England has been correcting signs with grammatical errors for over a decade.

He does his work during the night and specializes in correcting apostrophes. He doesn’t think he is committing a crime and says, “It’s more of a crime to have the apostrophes wrong in the first place.”

Click here to read the article, which also contains a short video of the “Banksy of punctuation” and his “apostrophizer” in action.

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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One of our tech writers sent me this joke about the words complete vs. finished. (Thanks, Todd!) He also thought it might be good to discuss the two words. First, the joke:

There is a subtle but important difference between the words "complete" and "finished."

When you marry the right one, you are complete.

When you marry the wrong one, you are finished.

And if the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are completely finished.

Whether you are a grammar guru or not, you can see the fun created by using these two words, which are both sometimes adjectives and sometimes verbs (and at the very end, one becomes an adverb). If you aren’t into grammar, you still might appreciate a little bit more information on complete vs. finished. Here are some edited definitions from Merriam-Webster since the full definitions and examples are several pages long.

Complete (adjective)

1a : possessing all necessary parts, items, components, or elements : not lacking anything necessary : entire, perfect

b : having all four sets of floral organs [KC – Woo hoo!]

2: brought to an end or to a final or intended condition <a complete period of time><a complete act>concluded, completed

3 of a person : possessed of all necessary, usual, or typical qualities, habits, or accomplishments

4 a : fully realized : carried to the ultimate : thorough

b : absolute

Finished (adjective)

1a: brought to conclusion : ended, completed

b : processed

c of an animal : fattened especially for the market

d : in a hopeless condition : defeated, wounded, or ailing beyond hope of recovery : done for

2: possessed of, brought to, or displaying the highest degree of skill, polish, or excellence : marked by the highest quality : consummate, perfected

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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