Editor's Corner

Happy Friday, everyone! I’ve received several photos of the cup (below) and other funny “i before e” tidbits from several of you, and this week—like magic—this article from Richard Lederer showed up on my desk. Here is Mr. Lederer’s answer to a woman’s inquiry about the i before e rule, from the San Diego U-T:

The most renowned of mnemonic spelling jingles advises:

I before e,

Except after c,

Unless sounded as a,

As in neighbor and weigh.

You don’t have to be Sheila Meister to realize that the i-before-e rule is breached as often as it is observed. If you want to find out just how many proper names violate the rule, remember this sentence: “Eugene O’Neil and Dwight Eisenhower drank a 35-degree Fahrenheit Budweiser and Rheingold in Anaheim and Leicester.“ You also don’t have to be an Einstein to see that the name Einstein itself is a double violation of the i-before-e rule, along with the likes of Weinstein, Feinstein, deficiencies, efficiencies, proficiencies and zeitgeist.

Among the scores of instances in which e precedes i in uncapitalized words are these dozen words: caffeine, counterfeit, either, feisty, heifer, height, kaleidoscope, leisure, omniscient, protein, seize, sovereign and therein.

And among more scores of words in which c is immediately followed by ie I offer these dozen: ancient, concierge, conscience, fancier, financier, glacier, omniscient, science, society, species, sufficient and tendencies.

To show how much this rule was made to be broken, I’ve contrived a little poem that I hope will leave you spellbound. In my ditty, I’ve spelled every relevant word according to the “i-before —e, except-after- c” rule; as a result, each of those words is misshapen.

E-I, I-E — Oh?

There’s a rule that’s sufficeint, proficeint, efficeint.

For all speceis of spelling in no way deficeint.

While the glaceirs of ignorance icily frown,

This soveriegn rule warms, like a thick iederdown.

On words fiesty and wierd it shines from great hieghts,

Blazes out like a beacon, or skien of ieght lights.

It gives nieghborly guidance, sceintific and fair,

To this nonpariel language to which we are hier.

Now, a few in soceity fiegn to deride

And, to forfiet thier anceint and omnisceint guide,

Diegn to worship a diety foriegn and hienous,

Whose counterfiet riegn is certain to pain us.

In our work and our liesure, our agenceis, schools,

Let us all wiegh our consceince, sieze proudly our rules!

It’s plebiean to lower our standards. I’ll niether

Give in or give up — and I trust you won’t iether!

If you still don’t believe that I’m telling the truth about the multitudinous violations of the i-before-e-rule, you are welcome to ask the Deity.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

In my last two posts (here and here), I discussed fossil words (words that are not widely used outside of one or two well-known phrases) and gave some examples.

Here are 13 more fossil words, along with the phrases in which you can still find them. The definitions are from Merriam-Webster.

· mettle: vigor and strength of spirit or temperament ("test one’s mettle")

· offing: the near or foreseeable future ("in the offing")

· petard: a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall ("hoist by one’s petard")

· riddance: deliverance, relief ("good riddance")

· shebang: everything involved in what is under consideration ("the whole shebang")

· shrift: a remission of sins pronounced by a priest in the sacrament of reconciliation ("short shrift")

· sleight: dexterity, skill ("sleight of hand")

· turpitude: inherent baseness; depravity ("moral turpitude")

· ulterior: going beyond what is openly said or shown and especially what is proper ("ulterior motive")

· vim: robust energy and enthusiasm ("vim and vigor")

· wedlock: the state of being married; marriage, matrimony ("out of wedlock")

· wreak: bring about, cause ("wreak havoc")

· yore: time past and especially long past ("days of yore")

Bonus Spelling Tips

This list contains two commonly misspelled phrases: "wreak havoc" (not "wreck havoc") and "sleight of hand" (not "slight of hand").

The Mnemonic Dictionary has several tips for remembering how to spell wreak. This is my favorite:

Tip: Wreak sounds like (and is spelled like) creak. The ship creaked when the pirates wreaked havoc on it.

I couldn’t find a good mnemonic for sleight, so I conjured one up. When magicians perform sleight of hand, they commonly hide things in their sleeves.

Tip: When you’re talking about magic, the word sleight has a silent e hidden in its sleeve.

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

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Today’s topic is a little bit tricky. I’d like to provide you the etymologies of two words (deprecate and depreciate) and then discuss how one of those words means something a little different in our world of software development.

From my favorite dictionary, the Online Etymology Dictionary:

· deprecate (verb)

1620s, "to pray against or for deliverance from," from Latin deprecatus, past participle of deprecari "to pray (something) away" (see deprecation). Meaning "to express disapproval" is from 1640s.

· depreciate (verb)

mid-15c., from Latin depretiatus, past participle of depretiare "to lower the price of, undervalue," from de– "down" (see de-) + pretium "price".

And from Wikipedia, more etymological information on the word deprecation, and the special meaning of the word in the world of software:

In general English usage, the infinitive "to deprecate" means "to express disapproval of (something)". It derives from the Latin verb deprecare, meaning "to ward off (a disaster) by prayer". Thus, for one to state that a feature is deprecated is merely a recommendation against using it. It is still possible to produce a program or product without heeding the deprecation.

Software Deprecation

While a deprecated software feature remains in the software, its use may raise warning messages recommending alternative practices; deprecated status may also indicate the feature will be removed in the future. Features are deprecated rather than immediately removed, to provide backward compatibility and give programmers time to bring affected code into compliance with the new standard.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Nope, it’s not time for Lady Gaga, but it is time for some card game terms from page 653 of the book I Never Knew There Was a Word for It, by Adam Jacot de Boinod.

· crimp: to bend one or more cards so that a cheat will be able to cut the deck as he wishes, or to know that an innocent player will be cutting the deck at the same desired card

· flag–flying: to make an overbid that will almost inevitably fail, just to liven up the game

· hop: a secret move made after the cut which puts the card back in the original position and negates that cut for the cheat’s benefit

· motown: a poker hand consisting of “jacks-on-fives”

· pone: the player who cuts the cards

· runt: a poker hand worth less than a pair

· there’s work down: the announcement by one player that someone somehow is cheating

· vole: the winning by one player of all the tricks of a deal: a grand-slam

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

I was talking with a friend recently about my plans to go to England for the new year, and he said, “I wish I was going with you.”

I make it a habit not to correct people’s speech, because we all make mistakes when we are speaking informally. We don’t have time to prepare, and sometimes things just come out wrong. I know—it happens to me a lot.

So, I didn’t correct my friend, but I made a mental note to bring it up here in the Editor’s Corner. My friend, let’s call him Herman Fizzleton, should have used the subjunctive mood. He should have said, “I wish I were going with you.”

According to the Grammarist website, “In English, the subjunctive moodis used to explore conditional or imaginary situations.”

If you are wishing for something, dreaming about something, or imagining something (any kind of hypothetical), you should use the subjunctive. Here are a few examples:

· If I were your boss, I’d give you a raise.

· If you were to hand-knit my holiday present, I would absolutely love it!

· I wish you were here to keep me company.

Understand, though, that getting the subjunctive mood correct does not necessarily mean that your wish comes true. We’re talking about a verb mood, not a genie in a bottle

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

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Are you wondering if there is an apostrophe in Veterans Day?

According to the Office of Public Affairs website, “Veterans Day does not include an apostrophe but does include an ‘s’ at the end of ‘veterans’ because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans."

And in honor of Veterans Day, here is a list of words that have military origins (from Merriam-Webster).

ginormous: extremely large

picket: a person posted for a demonstration or protest

jamoke: coffee

umpteen: very many : indefinitely numerous

raunchy: (1) slovenly, dirty (2) obscene, smutty

skedaddle: run away, scram; especially : flee in a panic

skosh: a small amount

clobber: to defeat overwhelmingly

spit and polish: extreme attention to cleanliness, orderliness, smartness of appearance, and ceremony

cannibalize: to make use of (a part taken from one thing) in building, repairing, or creating something else

Thank you to all the brave men and women who serve or have served our country to protect our freedom.

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Dear Editrix,

I see this all of the time: people misuse the words aw and awe. Can you please tell people what these words mean, what part of speech they are, and when each one should be used?

Sincerely,

Thankful in Texas

Dear Thankful,

It would be my pleasure to discuss this!

Let’s start with aw (sometimes spelled aww). Aw is an interjection that is used for a couple of reasons. Sometimes it indicates disappointment or pity, such as “Aw, I’m so sorry that you didn’t get a cookie.” Other times, it indicates that someone thinks something is cute or adorable. For example, “Aw, that is the cutest wagon full of puppies I’ve ever seen!” Surprisingly, this interjection has been around since 1797.

Now, let’s look at awe. Awe is a noun that used to mean dread or terror. Now, Merriam-Webster defines it as “fear mixed with dread, veneration, reverence, or wonder.” I think today it has a more positive feeling associated with it—when someone says something is awesome, they tend to mean it is really fantastic, not really scary. (See more about Awesome and Awful in Ben’s article.)

Awe is also a verb, meaning “to inspire with awe.”

Here are a couple examples of using awe:

· She looked at the playroom in awe; thousands of Legos were covering the floor, except where the children were kneeling.

· The altar of gold and sapphires was created with awe-inspiring craftsmanship, but it was also blinding.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

My first real job many, many years ago, was in a butcher shop. I was 15½ years old, so I didn’t get to do any cutting or chopping—I just got to clean the saws, grinder, and rotisserie; rake up the fallen “parts” in the sawdust; and dance in the dumpster to make room for more garbage.

Anyway, the other day, one of our clients wrote to me about the term “sausage-making.” Oh yeah, that’s its own special kind of fun in the meat department. But she was saying that she heard it being used in conjunction with politics, so I thought I better find out more about this term.

The most lengthy reference I found was on a blog about political terms and clichés, including sausage-making. While I won’t comment on the politics, I will give you the usage and definition of this term by providing some excerpts.

Legislation is like sausage. You want the outcome but you don’t want to see how it’s made.

When the intricacies of one proposed health-care model [KC – Or any political issue and legislation.] get too complicated to discuss any further, the commentator dismisses the line of discussion with, It’s all part of the sausage-making process.

Clearly, sausage-making has become a conventionalized term, a micro-cliché meant to encapsulate both the ugliness of the legislative process as well as the implication that the public would be better off not knowing about this ugliness. Like most clichés, it started with a clever idea but has now become a lazy shorthand, an expression that permits us not to dwell too long on its meaning.

Here’s a word to the wise: never eat anything called ham salad.

Thank you to Mr. Hooper for sending this our way!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services