Editor's Corner

I was reading through a list of techniques for more precise writing the other day, and I came across a technique I don’t think we’ve discussed. Mark Nichol created the list for Daily Writing Tips, and he said that “to produce more vivid, direct, concise prose,” we should convert nouns to verbs.

On my recent trip to England, I converted all my dollars to pounds and then I spent them. While I was there, I also learned the formula to convert the temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit to figure out how cold I was. So I like to think I’m pretty good at converting things, but I wasn’t at all sure what Mr. Nichol was talking about when he said to convert nouns to verbs. It turns out he wants us to convert nouns that end in –tion to verbs (specifically infinitive verbs, which are the verbs that begin with to). Here is his example:

Before: They will collaborate in the creation of new guidelines.
After: They will collaborate to create new guidelines.

Changing the phrase “in the creation of” to “to create” uses fewer words and it’s clearer. It’s a win-win!

So look for those –tion words in your writing, and when you can, convert them to verbs. Everything we can do to make life easier for our readers is worth the effort.

And by the way, the formula to convert the temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit is: °C x 1.8 + 32 = °F (for example, 5° C x 1.8 + 32 = 41° F).

I survived.

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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Dear Editrix,

How about posting something on the questions “How come?” versus “Why?”

Sincerely,

Mindful in Missouri

Dear Mindful,

I find your question very interesting because I know many people say, “How come?” when they want to know why something is the way it is. It just isn’t something I recall saying or hearing recently. I think I generally associate it with kids asking their parents for an explanation of why they aren’t allowed to do something. (“Well, Autumn, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to take the dog bungee jumping,” said Mr. Oates. Autumn returned with a high-pitched, squealing, “How come, Dad?”)

According to other resources I’ve found, “How come?” is considered by some as grammatically incorrect and by others as “too casual.” Grammar Girl gives us a little more information on the history of the term, which I’m more than happy to share.

The oldest reference for "how come" in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is an entry in Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms published in 1848. Although the OED calls "how come" an American coinage, the entry in Bartlett’s indicates it originated in England: "Doubtless an English phrase, brought over by the original settlers." "How come" is believed to be short for "how did it come about that," "how is it that," or "how comes it."

A web search turned up examples of these older phrases:

§ How comes it then that this her cold so great is not dissolved through my so hot desire . . . (British poet Edmund Spenser in "Sonnet 30," 1611)

§ How comes it that the Church has attained such greatness in temporal power . . . (Machiavelli, in The Prince, 1513)

I hope this helps!

Editrix

Thank to Tracy K. for this photo.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Tomorrow is April Fools’ Day, so if your phone rings and someone asks about your refrigerator, the caller may be setting you up for the following classic joke:

Caller: Is your refrigerator running?
Victim: Yes.
Caller: Then you’d better go out and catch it!

Everyone agrees that this joke is hilarious. But not everyone agrees on what to call this kind of trick: a prank call or a crank call.

The phrase crank call originated between 1924 and 1953 (probably in the 1940s, the decade in which the percentage of American households owning a phone exploded from 35 percent to 60 percent). Prank call didn’t become popular until the late 1960s.

Today, prank call is more popular online (9.8 million Google® search results, compared with 142,000 for crank call), but crank call remains more popular in books (1.4 times as common as prank call).

Although many people use prank call and crank call interchangeably, some draw a subtle distinction between the two terms.

A prank is a mildly mischievous act, according to Merriam-Webster. A crank is an annoyingly eccentric person. So, a prank caller is trying to play a joke, whereas a crank caller is being weird without trying.

Crank in this sense does not refer to the hand cranks found on the sides of very old phones, but to the idea that an eccentric person is crooked or out of line, like the shape of a crank.

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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Welcome to the second part of the Latin Phrases You Should Know, from the Daily Writing Tips website. My training as an altar girl did not prepare me for any of these!

23. in toto (as a whole)

24. ipso facto (by the very fact): because of that fact

25. inter alia (among other things)

26. mea culpa (I am responsible): forgive me

27. memento mori (remember that you must die): a reminder of mortality

28. mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body)

29. mirabile dictu (amazing to say)

30. modus operandi (method of operating): way of working (also MO)

31. ne plus ultra (none more beyond): without equal, the greatest degree

32. non sequitur (it does not follow): said of something that does not logically relate to what came before

33. nota bene (note well): take note (also NB)

34. o tempora o mores (oh, the times, oh, the morals): said in criticism of behavior

35. omnia vincit amor (love conquers all)

36. panem et circenses (bread and circuses): said of things offered to the masses to distract them from what they should attend to for their own benefit

37. per se (by itself)

38. post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this): effect follows cause

39. prima facie (at first look): based on the first impression, or accepted as correct until proved otherwise

40. primus inter pares (first among equals)

41. pro forma (for form): for the sake of appearances or form

42. quid pro quo (this for that): something given in exchange for something else (hence quid, the nickname for the pound in UK currency)

43. quis custodiet ipsos custodes (who watches the watchers?): who shall protect us against those who (supposedly) protect us?

44. sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world): fame is fleeting in this world

45. sine qua non (without which thing . . . not): said of something indispensable

46. sub rosa (under the rose): happening or done in secret

47. sui generis (in its own class): unique

48. tabula rasa (scraped tablet): blank slate (the concept of the human mind before it receives impressions from experience)
49. tempus fugit (time flies)

50. terra firma (solid ground): often used figuratively to refer to certainty

51. vox populi (voice of the people)

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Well, not only did I not find this before the Ides of March (March 15), but I almost missed the entire month of March! Today, I have the first half of a list of Latin Phrases You Should Know, from the Daily Writing Tips website.

I know we recommend against using i.e. and e.g. in our technical documentation these days, but the phrases in this list are used in many different fields—from drama to medicine to law. In fact, Law & Order fans are already ahead of the game, I bet!

From Daily Writing Tips:

Latin expressions are often adopted into English, often with an extended or figurative meaning. Here are fifty of the most common phrases, followed by their literal translation in Latin and the meaning in English (omitted when the meaning follows the literal translation).

1. a posteriori (from the latter): based on experience

2. a priori (from the earlier): independent of experience

3. ad hoc (for this): said of something created or formed for a special case

4. ad infinitum (to infinity): something that keeps going forever

5. alea jactus est (the die is cast): said when a plot is set into motion

6. ars longa, vita brevis (art is long, life is short)

7. casus belli: (cause of war): where the blame lies

8. caveat emptor (let the buyer beware): a reference to the principle that a customer is responsible for making sure that a product is in good working order

9. compos mentis (of healthy mind): sane

10. ex cathedra (from the chair): with the full authority of office (often used in reference to the Catholic pope’s infallibility, but also employed in other contexts)

11. ex post facto (after the fact): realized with hindsight

12. de facto (from fact): something that happens in practice but is not necessarily established by law

13. de jure (from law): the contrary of de facto; something established by law

14. dies irae (day of judgment)

15. dramatis personae (persons of the drama): refers to a list of actors, or to the principal participants of an event or in a group

16. genius loci (guardian spirit): the character of a place

17. honoris causa (for the sake of the honor): an honorary degree

18. horribile dictu (horrible to say)

19. in extremis (in the farthest reaches): in a difficult situation, or at the point of death

20. in flagrante delicto (in the burning crime): caught in the act

21. in media res (into the middle of things): in the midst of action (said of the opening of a story or account)

22. in situ (in that place): in its original place

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning, folks. I received an interesting article from Daily Writing Tips, which lists ten words derived from the word scribe. Scribe comes from the Latin word scribere, meaning to write, so this information is of interest to all of us!

All the words in the list are verbs, but some can all be changed to nouns by changing ­­-scribe to ­-scription, as in describe/description.

ascribe: attribute (literally, “write to”: “It is largely to this that we must ascribe the national conservatism and contempt for foreigners”)

circumscribe: constrict or surround, or define (literally, “draw around”: “To circumscribe the influence of the ruling favorites, he next suggested the formation of a cabinet council of six or eight ministers”)

conscribe: synonym for circumscribe or variant of conscript

describe: represent by drawing something or talking about it, or trace the outline of something (literally, “draw from”: “I can’t describe how helpless I felt”)

inscribe: write on something (literally, “write in”: “They would then inscribe a verse over the door of the house for protection”)

prescribe: make a rule, or tell someone to use a remedy or treatment (literally, “write before”: “The numerous fasts of the national church prescribe a fish diet”)

proscribe: prohibit (literally, “write for”: “When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen’s constitutional right to free speech, it acts lawlessly”)

subscribe: sign or support, or pay regularly for a publication or service (literally, “write beneath”: “Long ago, she had learned that many people didn’t subscribe to her morals”)

superscribe: write outside or on top of or over (literally, “write over”: “Kindly superscribe renewal on the envelope if you are sending it by post”)

transcribe: copy something written or write something spoken, or rewrite music for a different instrument or voice or in a different key (literally, “write across”: “She will transcribe the speech and send you a copy tomorrow”)

This topic caught my eye because it reminds me of an excellent short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” by Herman Melville. A scrivener or scribe is a person who drafts legal documents. In Melville’s day, a scrivener wrote out or copied legal documents by hand (which would hurt both your hand and your sanity!). If you’re a fan of classical literature and you haven’t read it, you should check this story out. Or, you could be like Bartleby and say, “I would prefer not to.”

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Good morning! This article caught my eye because I’m currently planning a trip to Greece to visit my relatives and do some celebrating during Orthodox Easter. As I drool over thoughts of my aunt’s cooking and the neighborhood gyros maker’s delights, I send you this article on Greek letters, from Daily Writing Tips.

Alpha and beta, the words for the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, were combined—in Greek, Latin, Middle English, and Modern English consecutively—to denote a set of letters, constituting a language’s written system, arranged in a traditional order. The first and last letters, alpha and omega, also have a resonance in Christianity, as the Bible has God referring to himself as “the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

Alpha also has a sense borrowed from the use of the term in science to describe the first, primary, or dominant specimen in a group, as in referring to the leader of a wolf pack as the alpha. By extension, in popular culture, an alpha male is a dominant, competitive, and aggressive man. Alpha is also the first stage in development of a product, especially software or hardware, during which the bugs are (ostensibly) worked out.

Beta, in turn, refers to the next iteration of a product when a select group of people not involved in development of the product are invited to test it to enable further refinement. The word is also used in rock climbing as slang for “advice,” but this usage apparently stems from the name of the obsolete Betamax videotape format, not directly from the name of the second letter of the Greek alphabet.

Delta, based on the shape of the Greek letter by that name, came in English to refer to a triangular area of land where a river divides into smaller flows of water as it nears an ocean; numerous deltas exist around the world, but the most prominent are the Nile Delta, in Egypt, and (to Americans, at least) the Mississippi River Delta, in Louisiana—the latter not to be confused with the Mississippi Delta, a land-bound geographic region in the northern part of Mississippi. It is the latter designation, not the former one, that inspired the phrase “Delta blues” to refer to the distinctive music form that developed in that part of the United States.

Iota, as the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, came to mean “a very small amount,” as in “He doesn’t have an iota of common sense.” The word was sometimes transcribed by Latin scholars as jota, which led to the synonym jot. (This is also the source of the verb jot, meaning “quickly make a note.”).

Omega, as mentioned before, refers to the last or least of anything, including the omega wolf in a pack, while psi, in addition to its frequent use in scientific and technical contexts, refers to psychic or paranormal activity.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Some of you may have already gotten a jump-start on your spring-cleaning. If not, don’t worry, here’s a list of clean idioms from Daily Writing Tips to motivate you.

1. clean (one’s) plate: eat all the food served

2. clean (someone’s) clock: beat or defeat soundly

3. clean as a whistle: pure or free of involvement in illegal activities

4. a clean bill of health: notification that a person or entity is in good health or operating condition (from a report from a health official that all crew and passengers on a ship arriving in a port are free of illness)

5. clean break: abrupt and complete disassociation

6. clean code: well-written computer-programming code

7. clean conscience: absence of guilt or remorse (also “clear conscience”)

8. clean cut: tidy and well groomed

9. clean getaway: uninterrupted escape

10. clean house: rid an organization of corruption or inefficiency

11. clean (someone or something) out of: remove people or things

12. clean sheet: variant of “clean slate” (mostly used in British English); alternatively, said of an athlete or team that allows no goals (British English)

13. clean slate: a fresh chance or start (from the now-outmoded use of chalk on slate to record one’s debt at a tavern)

14. clean sweep: the winning of all competitions or prizes

15. clean the floor up (with someone): beat someone up

16. clean up: make something clean or proper, earn or win a lot of money, reform, or defeat

17. clean up (one’s) act: improve or reform

18. clean out: leave bare or empty, or take or deplete

19. come clean: be honest

20-21. have clean hands/keep (one’s) hands clean: be without guilt

22. keep (one’s) nose clean: stay out of trouble

23. make a clean breast of it: admit the truth

24. squeaky clean: completely clean or incorruptible

25. wipe the slate clean: give someone a fresh change or start (see “clean slate”)

Thank you,

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Symitar Documentation Services

This past Sunday, our local language-loving Richard Lederer wrote a nice tribute about the San Diego Zoo in his column. Along with that, he included some interesting animal-related etymologies and idioms that I thought you might enjoy. For the full article, click this link: San Diego Union-Tribune.

The English used to call the yellow, shaggy weed a “lion’s tooth” because the jagged, pointed leaves resemble the lion’s snarly grin. During the early 14th century, the lion’s tooth plant took on a French flavor and became the dent-de-lion, “tooth-of-the-lion.” Then it acquired an English accent: dandelion….

When people are capricious and caper about, they are acting like a frisky, playful billy goat. Caprice, capricious, caper and Capricorn all come to us from the Latin caper, “goat.” Goats caper through our English vocabulary:

· A goatee is a trimmed chin beard that resembles the tufts of hair on a goat’s chin. Perhaps the most famous goatee adorns the chin of our own Uncle Sam.

· A cabriolet was originally a light, two-wheeled vehicle drawn by one horse. The jaunty motion of the small carriage reminded some of the frisky leaps of a goat. Hence, cabriole, ultimately shortened to cab.

· The island of Capri is so named because of the goats that graze on it.

· And goats caper in one very common expression in American English. High-strung racehorses are sometimes given goats as stable mates to calm them, and the two animals can become inseparable companions. Certain gamblers have been known to steal the goat attached to a particular horse that they want to run poorly the next day. By extension, when we get someone’s goat, we upset them and throw off their performance.

Biologically, a tadpole is a larval amphibian. Etymologically, tadpole is formed from the Middle English tode, “toad”+ polle, “head” because a tadpole looks like a toad that is all head, with the limbs to grow out later. The clipped form tad swam into American English around 1915 with the meaning “a small amount,” as in “a tad of sugar” and “a tad chilly.”

As for muscle, it is easy to see why the word derives from the Latin musculus—“little mouse.” A twitching muscle resembles the movements of a small mouse beneath the skin.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Dear Editrix,

I’m seeing this more often now and it bugs me: When did publicly become publically?

Publicly Curious in San Diego

Dear Curious,

This is one of those examples of our ever-changing language. I’m with you. I like publicly, and that has been considered the correct spelling for a long time. However, this article I found is interesting, so I thought I’d share part of it with you. For the full article, see the Stroppy Editor. (And by the way, the punctuation and spelling is British, so don’t get too upset with the author.)

Publicly vs. Publically

From time to time I see “publically” in copy. I’ve even caught myself typing it once or twice. It’s widely regarded as a mistake (although some dictionaries now list it as a variant spelling).

But the approved spelling, “publicly”, is a unique oddity. It’s the only adverb ending in “–icly” formed from an adjective that ends in “–ic”.

Compare:

· hectic – hectically

· tragic – tragically

· archaic – archaically

· cryptic – cryptically

· idiotic – idiotically

And so on. But “public” alone bucks the trend to become “publicly”.

People who write “publically” – whether through momentary carelessness or because they think that’s how it’s spelt – may be mistaken but they’re not stupid. They’re promoting regularity in the language. They’re like children who say “runned” and “buyed” and “bringed” because they’ve worked out the rule for forming past-tense verbs but haven’t realised that there are exceptions.

We get taught about these exceptions, though: there are over 100 irregular verbs, most well-known. But there’s only one “publicly”, so people are less aware of it as an issue and it appears in adult usage far more than over-regularised verbs.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services