Editor's Corner

Good morning! Not long ago, I made a careless mistake in the subject line of one of my Editor’s Corner articles. I used the word loose instead of lose. Of course, I did have the article edited, but I typed the subject line just before sending it out, and I obviously lost control of my fingers (and my senses).

A number of you caught the mistake (which makes me proud and a little embarrassed). So, to atone for my grammar sin, I’m writing today’s article on the often confused pair of words: loose and lose.

Loose (rhymes with moose) is an adjective meaning not rigidly fastened or securely attached.

Example:

· His pockets were full of loose change.

Lose (rhymes with shoes) is a verb meaning to part with in an unforeseen or accidental manner or to become deprived of or lacking in.

Examples:

· You could lose your savings if you make a poor investment.

· A blow to the head can cause you to lose your memory.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Hello to all of our new readers. I thank you for joining us in the Editor’s Corner.

Now a disclaimer for today:

For those of you who don’t like reading or talking about potentially sensitive subjects, I will warn you now that this is a discussion about bathrooms. That said, let’s get to it!

The other day we were out at the San Diego Museum of Man, visiting the new Cannibals exhibit. At one point, our friend said he had to “hit the head.” We all knew what that meant and found the restroom. But that got me thinking about the term head for bathroom, and from there I couldn’t stop. Here is some information from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

head

Old English heafod "top of the body," also "upper end of a slope," also "chief person, leader, ruler; capital city," from Proto-Germanic *haubudam (source also of Old Saxon hobid, Old Norse hofuð, Old Frisian haved, Middle Dutch hovet, Dutch hoofd, Old High German houbit, German Haupt, Gothic haubiþ "head"), from PIE *kaput- "head" (source also of Sanskrit kaput-, Latin caput "head").

Modern spelling is early 15c., representing what was then a long vowel (as in heat) and remained after pronunciation shifted. Of rounded tops of plants from late 14c. Meaning "origin of a river" is mid-14c. Meaning "obverse of a coin" (the side with the portrait) is from 1680s; meaning "foam on a mug of beer" is first attested 1540s; meaning "toilet" is from 1748, based on location of crew toilet in the bow (or head) of a ship. [KC – Emphasis mine.]

loo

"lavatory," 1940, but perhaps 1922, probably from French lieux d’aisances, "lavatory," literally "place of ease," picked up by British servicemen in France during World War I. Or possibly a pun on Waterloo, based on water closet.

john

"toilet," 1932, probably from jakes, used for "toilet" since 15c

jakes

"a privy," mid-15c., genitive singular of jack (n.), perhaps a humorous euphemism.

And the “lou” in the song “Skip to my lou, my darling” is completely unrelated. It is from “a Scottish word for ‘love’,” at least that’s what Wikipedia says!

Enjoy your weekend,

Kara

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One of our readers recently asked whether it is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition. Kara and Donna discussed this topic previously, but this myth is so pervasive that it’s worth revisiting.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is acceptable and, in some cases, preferable. "What are you waiting for?" is a sensible sentence. "For what are you waiting?" sounds awkward or overly formal to many English speakers. Worse, clumsy attempts to relocate prepositions can mangle sentences beyond recognition. Consider the following examples:

Some grammar rules are violated so often that the incorrect usage becomes acceptable. This is not one of those cases. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a widely accepted rule against ending sentences with prepositions.

Fussbudgets like John Dryden (1672), Robert Lowth (1762), and Henry Alford (1864) proposed such rules because they wanted English to follow rules of Latin grammar. But for most speakers, intelligibly is a higher goal than mimicking the sentence structure of a dead language.

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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[Originally posted July 1, 2013]

Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you all enjoy this short work week. Kara is taking a well-deserved day off today. So I’m guest hosting with a brief discussion about whether or not it’s grammatically correct to end sentences with prepositions. I know! Riveting, right?

To begin, I should probably first provide, just to be clear, the definition of the word preposition.

According to Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ending-prepositions.aspx), “prepositions create relationships between other words.” Some examples of prepositions are: about, at, beside, on, over,etc.

What’s the controversy?

While many of us believe that it’s wrong to end a sentence with a preposition, you may be surprised to learn that most grammarians disagree. Still, many people adhere to this mythical rule—mostly in written communication—which sometimes makes their writing stilted and draws attention to the writer and the style rather than the message.

So, what do you need to know to speak and write correctly?

Your goal should be to create simple, clear sentences. Sometimes trying not to end your sentence with a preposition leaves you with an awkward sentence. For example:

Instead of:
I am interested in the topic about which you wrote.

Say or write:
I am interested in the topic you wrote about.

While the word about is a preposition, it’s absolutely grammatically correct to use it to end a sentence. Remember, your primary goal should always be to be clear and easy to understand.

I would like to go on the record as saying that you, your families, your friends, and everyone else on the planet should avoid the phrase “Where are you at?” We hear it all the time, but in this case, the preposition at is not serving any purpose. Just say, “Where are you?”

And if you don’t want to take my word that it’s okay to end a sentence with a preposition, maybe you’ll listen to Winston Churchill:

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

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Dear readers,

The other day I received an email asking me about the term “charley horse” and how it came to mean “muscle cramp.” My standard resources could not pin down the exact origin of the term, but I thought these explanations might be interesting, nonetheless.

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

· charley horse (n.) 1887, sporting slang, origin obscure, probably from somebody’s long-forgotten lame racehorse. Charley horse seems to have been a name for a horse or a type of horse (perhaps especially a lame one) around that time.

From the Free Dictionary:

· charley horse Cramp or stiffness in a muscle, most often in the thigh, as in After working in the garden I frequently get a bad charley horse. First used in the 1880s among baseball players, the term was soon extended to more general use. Its true origin is disputed. Among the more likely theories proposed is that it alludes to the name of either a horse or an afflicted ball player who limped like one of the elderly draft horses formerly employed to drag the infield.

And lastly, from Wikipedia:

· Charley horse is a popular colloquial term in Canada and the United States for painful spasms or cramps in the leg muscles caused by a punch or knee to the thigh, typically lasting anywhere from a few seconds to about a day. It can also refer to a bruise on an arm or leg and a bruising of the quadriceps muscle of the anterior or lateral thigh, or contusion of the femur, that commonly results in a haematoma and sometimes several weeks of pain and disability. In this latter sense, such an injury is known as dead leg. In Australia, it is also known as a corked thigh or corky….

Another term, jolly horse, is used to describe simple painful muscle cramps in the leg or foot, especially those that follow strenuous exercise. [KC – Okay, I had never heard of a jolly horse, so I looked this up and didn’t find anything except for this:
Jolly Ball Horse. I don’t think that’s
what the author of this article meant.]

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning!

The other day, I sent out an article about druggists and chemists and pharmacists (Oh my!), and I asked for input from anyone who could verify whether the term you use depends on the region you live in. I received input from a lot of people, including a druggist’s daughter!

Before I respond, I’d like to share our coworker John Ryan’s response because I like the way he phrased things:

It may not be as much regional as generational. I grew up in Southern California seeing and hearing the term “druggist” used as being synonymous with either a pharmacy or a pharmacist. My parents were from the Midwest (Chicago and Cleveland), but it was a common term I heard used in television reruns from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Sheriff Andy Taylor’s girlfriend Ellie was referred to as a druggist on the Andy Griffith Show (originally aired from 1960-1968), as was Mr. Gower in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946). It seems to be a small-town term. Big cities have pharmacists, small towns have druggists. I’ve found current references on the internet to druggists in small towns in Colorado and Ohio. It’s become a quaint term.

I think John is on to something here. What I heard from most folks, across the country, was that in the ‘60s and earlier, it was called a drug store and you’d see the druggist. Something that many people also mentioned was that there aren’t many little drug stores left—it is all Rite Aid and Walgreens and big box stores where the pharmacy is only a tiny part of the establishment.

The other thing that a few of us agree on is that the word “drug” started to have a more negative connotation in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Though not all drugs are bad, Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No campaign started making it sound that way. I suspect that it became more popular to talk about pharmacists as time passed.

Whether it is generational or a blemish on the word “drugs,” I think if you refer to “the druggist” these days, you may be met with an arched eyebrow for a response.

Photo Contest

From G. David Walker, an error on the back of a book jacket.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning, friends and colleagues. Are you up for a vocabulary test? I found this one on the Daily Writing Tips website and thought it was fun (and a little unnerving in a good, challenging way).

The test is multiple choice. You are given a word and asked to pick the correct definition, or you are given a definition and asked to pick the correct word. You are tested on 20 words you’ve probably heard before but most of which are not common, everyday words. So give yourself a few minutes to take the test. You may need to ponder some of them. Hint: don’t forget to use the process of elimination.

Give it a try, and see how you do: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/vocabulary-test-1/.

Have a happy day today.

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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In English, we have a lot of single words that sound (and look) like two-word phrases, such as everyday and every day. These words may sound the same, but they are different parts of speech and serve different purposes. Today we’re going to have a look at always and all ways.

always: Always is an adverb that means at all times or every time. For example: Bernie is always late to football practice. Other definitions for this adverb are “as a last resort,” “no matter what,” or “in any event.” For example: If this job isn’t delightful, you can always go back to selling candy corn at the stadium.

all ways: All ways is an adjective and a noun that means in every way, from every direction. For example: He looked at the situation in all ways, and each solution he came up with seemed impossible.

For some additional information on these words, see The Grammarist.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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If you have ever needed a word to describe an unpleasant person, here is a list, courtesy of Merriam-Webster. Some of these words may be outdated, but they are still fun to say.

ruffian: a brutal person; bully

scalawag: a mischievous and often morally corrupt person

smellfungus: a captious critic

knave: a tricky deceitful fellow

rapscallion: rascal, an idle worthless person

backfriend: a seeming friend who is secretly an enemy

anonymuncule: an insignificant anonymous writer

reprobate: a morally corrupt or depraved person

gobemouche: a credulous person; especially : one who believes everything he or she hears

mammothrept: a spoiled child

cad: a man who acts with deliberate disregard for another’s feelings or rights

mumpsimus: a bigoted adherent to exposed but customary error

scapegrace: a reckless unprincipled person; an incorrigible rascal

gillygaupus: a stupid awkward person

hooligan: a usually young man who does noisy and violent things as part of a group or a gang; hoodlum

choplogic: an absurdly argumentative person

scamp: rascal; rogue

guttersnipe: one belonging to or suited to the lowest moral or economic condition of usually urban civilization : a street urchin

wretch: a base, despicable, or vile person; a miserable person

blellum: a lazy talkative person

mawworm: a mealymouthed sanctimonious hypocrite

purse-leech: one that is excessively greedy for money

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Symitar Documentation Services

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I thought this was an interesting article from Grammarphobia, and I’d love to hear from any of you who refer to the pharmacist as a druggist (or have heard that before).

Druggist or chemist?

Q: In a pharmacy in the US, the person filling the prescriptions is often called a druggist. In England, that person is often called a chemist. How did this come about? [KC – I wonder if this is regional; I’ve never heard anyone talk about the druggist, only the pharmacist. I couldn’t find anything specific, but I’m guessing
New Englanders might use the term druggist.]

A: “Druggist” is one of many old words that Americans have preserved and the English have lost. Others include “stove,” “skillet,” “sidewalk,” “apartment” (now a “flat” in the UK), “merry-go-round,” and “fall” (the season).

In the 17th century, English speakers in both America and England used the word “druggist” for someone who prepares and dispenses medicine (the Scots still do), but the English began switching to “chemist” in the 18th century. (A somewhat older term, “drugger,” is rarely seen now.)

English borrowed the word “druggist” from the French droguiste in the early 1600s….

In the 1600s, according to the OED, a “chemist” was someone who practiced chemistry or alchemy…In the mid-1700s, the English began referring to pharmacists as “chemists.”

…(T)he word “pharmacist,” which is used on both sides of the Atlantic, comes from pharmacia, classical Latin for the preparation of drugs.

For the complete article, with samples of each word in literature, see Grammarphobia.

Photo Contest
I have several entries from Robert Trescott, whose local paper seems to be in need of a copyeditor.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services