Editor's Corner

Most days I wake up feeling a little tired but happy to greet the new day. It seems like almost anything is possible when you’re just getting started. And then your spouse walks into the office and says something like, “You should do an Editor’s Corner on the meaning of Cc, Bcc, and ditto machines! Some of my younger coworkers don’t know what they are.”

Then, I just feel old.

Well, my friends. If you were brought up never knowing a typewriter or ditto machine, I’m here to give you a little bit of history about the writing-related terms my hubby mentioned.

Let’s start with Cc and Bcc. Cc stands for “carbon copy” and Bcc stands for “blind carbon copy.” You might have heard the terms explained as “blind courtesy copy” and “courtesy copy,” but those are newer definitions used for folks that don’t understand the reference to carbon.

The references to carbon come from the days when a typist would put several pieces of paper together, with a piece of carbon paper between each blank paper. That way, they could type once, but end up with several carbon copies of the note or letter.

The blind carbon copy was a version of the message that was generated for “an additional recipient, without the primary recipient being aware.” (Blind carbon copy – Wikipedia)

The article in Wikipedia further explains how we use the address field in email:

To: Primary recipients

Cc: Carbon copy to secondary recipients—other interested parties

Bcc: Blind carbon copy to tertiary recipients who receive the message. The primary and secondary recipients cannot see the tertiary recipients. Depending on email software, the tertiary recipients may only see their own email address in Bcc, or they may see the email addresses of all primary and secondary recipients but will not see other tertiary recipients.

It is common practice to use the Bcc: field when addressing a very long list of recipients, or a list of recipients who should not (necessarily) know each other, e.g., in mailing lists.

There are many reasons to use Bcc, but that is for a different topic. For those of you who have only used the Microsoft® version of Cc and Bcc, here is a picture of the carbon sheets that used to go between the papers in the typewriter:

And then there is the term “ditto.” This term is probably older than you think. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it is from the 1620s.

ditto: “In the month of the same name," Tuscan dialectal ditto "(in) the said (month or year)," literary Italian detto, past participle of dire "to say," from Latin dicere "speak, tell, say.”

Italians used the word to avoid repetition of month names in a series of dates, and in this sense it was picked up in English. Its generalized meaning of "the aforesaid, the same thing, same as above" is attested in English by 1670s.

Here are some more definitions and examples from Merriam-Webster:

ditto

adverb:as before or aforesaid : in the same manner

—used to indicate that a previous statement also applies to something or someone else

"I’m ready for a break." "Ditto." [=so am I]

verb: to restate in support or agreement : echo

A resident dittoed the council members’ comments.—Gwen Davis

noun: a thing mentioned previously

—used to avoid repeating a word; often symbolized by inverted commas or apostrophes

Mr. Thomas Potter, then, was a clerk in the city, and Mr. Robert Smithers was a ditto in the same …—Charles Dickens

adjective: having the same characteristics : similar

It’s a ditto day …, with no change in the numbers of confirmed, probable, active or recovered cases …—thespinoff.co.nz

And here is a ditto machine, using something similar to the carbon papers that typists used. The copies from these machines were generally purple, though they could be green or red or other colors. And because of the fluid used with them, they had a very distinct smell when Sister Mary brought them back to the classroom!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, fellow verbivores!

I was just taking a breather from JH Connect slide shows, when I stumbled on something Merriam-Webster did for fun. They published names for different rhetorical devices, then asking people to send in examples of the terms as exemplified in music.

I’ve picked out a term that I didn’t recognize to discuss for today: zeugma.

Here is a definition of zeugma from another dictionary site, Your Dictionary:

In grammatical terms, a zeugma is when a verb or adjective modifies two or more nouns to form one idea. Essentially, one word is applied to two or more other words in different ways.

What are some examples? So glad you asked! The first few are from the Merriam–Webster contest; they are songs you might know:

"You held your breath and the door for me"
— Alanis Morissette, "Head Over Feet"

"I’m a thousand miles from anywhere
My pocketbook and my heart both just got stolen"
— Jewel, "Down So Long"

“She blew my nose and then she blew my mind”
— The Rolling Stones, "Honky Tonk Women"

And then from Your Dictionary, I have a list of zeugma examples, which are statements. I thought they were clever, funny, or both. Enjoy!

• All over Ireland, the farmers grew potatoes, barley, and bored.
• He fished for trout and compliments.
• He opened his mind and his wallet every time he went out with her.
• She firmly held her tongue and her hand.
• On our first date, I held my breath and the car door for her.
• When he came to pick me up, I opened my door and my heart to him.
• The disgruntled worker took his belongings and his leave.
• She kicked that bad habit and soon after the bucket.
• The student observed the specimen with a microscope and some disgust.
• The storm sank my boat and my dreams.
• You are free to execute your laws and your citizens as you see fit. (Star Trek: Next Generation)

Overly dramatic? Maybe, but that is why I find them amusing! I hope you have an enjoyable day.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Oh my goodness, we are suddenly super busy! Today I’d like to quickly delve into a couple of things related to speech. The first thing is called upspeak, the second is called vocal fry.

When you are speaking English and the pitch of your voice raises, it is called a “rising inflection.” In English, you most often hear this rising inflection at the end of a question, for example: “Are you go to Swami’s?” That higher pitch is called “upspeak” or “uptalk,” but upspeak has become more than just that word at the end of a sentence. Sometimes, rising inflection is used at the end of sentences and clauses, whether they are questions or not.

I was looking for an example, and some of them were too long, but here is a good one from a woman who demonstrates “uptalk” vs. “straight talk.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQWej-hMiZI

There are other countries where this has been noticed, so it isn’t just American English or Southern California valley girls. I read that it occurs in England (the British blame it on Scandinavians), Australia, Northern Ireland, and other places.

Vocal fry is something similar. According to this article What is vocal fry? it is when…

“…(S)omeone doesn’t use enough breath to speak or sing. The lack of breath causes a creaky sound as the vocal cords come into close contact. It usually happens at the ends of phrases, as the pitch of the sentence goes down and tapers off.”

While neither of these kinds of speech are gender-specific, my next example says that vocal fry is a female phenomenon. I’m including it because the minute you hear it, you will understand exactly what a vocal fry is.

Club Comix Vocal Fry

Many vocal coaches recommend against both of these types of speech, particularly if you want to sound authoritative, professional, and sure of yourself.

My favorite example is full of bad language, but I find it hilarious. If you aren’t easily offended, you can do a search for “Loudermilk and vocal fry” after work.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Greetings, fellow humans. At the zoo the other evening, my spouse and I were trying to remember names for groups of animals. We started with our own species, and due to the mass of people around us, we settled on the term crowd: we were part of a pretty big crowd of people. But our game got a lot more fun when we started remembering or looking up names for groups of animals.

At the front of the San Diego Zoo, there is a flamboyance of flamingos. They are striking, for sure. And that led us down a very entertaining rabbit hole: as you may know, a group of rabbits is called a colony or a warren. Following is a partial list of lesser-known names for groups of animals:

• A troop of baboons
• A colony, cloud, or cauldron of bats
• A caravan of camels
• A coalition of cheetahs
• A bed of clams
• A band of coyotes
• A convocation of eagles
• A parade of elephants
• A charm of finches
• A tower of giraffes
• A cloud or hoard of gnats
• A bloat of thunder of hippopotami
• A cackle of hyenas
• A shadow of jaguars
• A troop or mob of kangaroos
• An ascension or exaltation of larks
• A conspiracy of lemurs
• A leap of leopards
• An aggregation of manatees
• A watch of nightingales
• A parliament of owls
• A prickle of porcupines
• A gaze of raccoons
• An unkindness of ravens
• A stench of skunks
• A dray or scurry of squirrels
• A fever of stingrays
• A wisdom of wombats
• A descent of woodpeckers
• A zeal of zebras

What should we call a group of Jack Henry associates? A jump? A jaunt? A jewel? Or maybe you can think of something else…

Have a lovely Thursday, my people.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry

Pronouns she/her/hers

Symitar Education Resources (sharepoint.com)

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About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Good morning, friends.

While use of the words suspect and expect does not seem to be an issue for most people, a good friend asked me to explain the difference, so I thought maybe it was worth discussing here. Let’s start with some inquiry:

· When dark clouds are gathering, and you declare that it could rain this evening—do you expect it might rain or suspect it might rain?

· When Fatima bursts into the room with a red face, do you expect or suspect that she is angry?

· When you’re told that Uncle Seamus, who vowed never to get married is engaged to a very wealthy heiress, do you expect or suspect that he’s marrying her for her money?

I bet you have some good guesses about which word to choose in each of the examples above, but maybe you’re not sure why. That’s where I come in! I think, maybe, you expect me to provide a distinction between the two words. Expectation granted!

When you expect something, you have some proof or evidence that it is likely to occur. If you see dark clouds rolling in, there’s a good chance that it will rain.

When you suspect something, you have weaker proof, or maybe just a feeling—basically, you are simply guessing. Fatima’s red face and quick entrance could signal anger, but it could be something else entirely—she could be running late for an appointment, or she could have been out for a run.

The example about Uncle Seamus is a little more difficult, but there is still a pretty clear choice. We do have a suspicion that he’s gold digging since he vowed never to get married, but we really don’t have any proof, so until we have more evidence, we only suspect his motives.

To reiterate, use expect when you have proof or evidence that something will happen and use suspect when you have a feeling or a suspicion that something might happen.

I’m expecting today to be a good day. What’s my evidence? It’s a sunny day, I have a happy dog, and I’m having pizza for dinner. What can go wrong?

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry

Pronouns she/her/hers

Symitar Education Resources (sharepoint.com)

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Good day!

We all love words—at least this gang does. English is jam-packed with wonderful words that are borrowed from other languages and peculiar old English words that have evolved in tortuous ways. Some of those words, like the word tortuous, sound like they mean something other than what they actually mean.

The word tortuous sounds like it should mean painful—because it’s very similar to the word torturous (which has an extra r). However, tortuous (without the extra r) actually means winding or twisting, which aptly describes the evolution of so many English words.

Way back in 2023, I shared a list of words that don’t mean what you think they mean, and tortuous was on that list. Today, I want to share some other words that have meanings that might surprise you. It’s always good to expand our vocabulary, and some of these words are going to be fun to torture my family with.

• bodkin (noun): dagger, bayonet

Hester is not a violent person, but she carries a bodkin in her handbag to protect herself.

• commodious (adj): spacious and convenient; roomy

Tanzy’s house has such commodious closets!

• crapulous (adj): intoxicated, inebriated

Agatha called Neville a crapulous spendthrift.

• crepuscular (adj): of, relating to, or resembling twilight; dim

Foxes tend to show crepuscular or nocturnal activity patterns.

• funambulist (noun): tightrope walker

Freida the funambulist was the best act in the entire show!

• halitosis (noun): offensive bad breath

She’s very sweet, but she has horrible halitosis.

• noisome (adj): noxious, harmful

The environment at the event was uncomfortably noisome.

• nugatory (adj): of little or no consequence

Dixon made comments that were too nugatory to merit attention.

• prestidigitation (noun): sleight of hand; magic trick

Houdini’s powers of prestidigitation are legendary.

• prevaricate (verb): to deviate from the truth; equivocate

Hank was willing to prevaricate on the witness stand to protect his brother.

• probity (noun): adherence to the highest principals and ideals; uprightness

As a religious leader, she strives to be a person of indisputable probity.

• pulchritude (noun): physical comeliness

Everyone agrees, Yuri and Tatyana are specimens of glorious pulchritude.

Now come on—you have to admit that was interesting, not nugatory. Just admit it, and then you can go on and enjoy the rest of your day. Happy Thursday!

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Education Resources (sharepoint.com)

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Good morning, hot tamales! It seems the world is overheating everywhere you gowell, at least in the U.S. these days. To get away from it all, my husband and I filled a kiddie pool with ice and hopped in! No, not really. We did something boring and middle-aged: we started watching Shun.

Not the one from 1980, though I remember watching that with my dad. We started on the 2024 version. But what does my nighttime entertainment and a show about Japan have to do with English?

Im glad you asked! There was a scene with a Portuguese Jesuit priest, sporting a stunning shaved coiffure, and I ask aloud, Whats up with that hairdo, anyway?

We asked Google about it, and the response I heard was something about tonsils. That could not be right. I got on the computer and searched Google online and found my answer: tonsure. According to Wikipedia, tonsure is shaving the hair as a

sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word tonsura (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in medieval Catholicism, abandoned by papal order in 1972.

Though abandoned by the Pope, tonsure is still practiced these days by many religions and is a symbol of modesty or giving up worldly fashion and vanity as part of religious devotion. For example, some Catholic orders, Easter Orthodox church members, Buddhists, Hindus, and Islamic people still shave their heads or part of their heads.

Tonsure occurs at different times in life as part of a religious ceremony. It could be when joining a religion or as a particular religious ritual. In India, tonsuring (or Mundan) occurs as part of a ceremony for young children. Here is a little bit more information, from hindutsav.com:

By shaving off the first natural hair of the baby and immersing it in the holy river Ganga, we purify them from the thoughts, impurity, and karma of the past life.

It is also believed that tonsuring blesses the child with a healthy and long life. It is believed that the impurities during the pregnancy are also removed by shaving off the hair.

Many religions perform the ritual of shaving a babys head after birth. Not only Hindus but Muslims, Jews, Mongolians, Polish, etc. perform Mundan or tonsure. The tradition of shaving baby hair is common in parts of Asia and some Latin American countries. While the ceremonys names may differ, it is performed in several religions and countries worldwide.

I found it interesting that this isnt just a Catholic fashion saved for the monks. It is a much broader practice covering all ages and many religions. Still, I dont plan on getting a new haircut any time soon.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editors Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Greetings to you!

Today’s topic has been on my mind for some years now, and I finally decided to discuss it here. It’s a small but curious difference between British and U.S. English.

Here in the States, we add the article the before the word hospital. We say, “I’m going to the hospital.” In the UK, they say, “I’m going to hospital.”

The British phrasing has always sounded odd to me. I thought that dropping the was just another quaint British quirk. And then a while back I did a little digging and found out that what I thought was an oddity of British English is actually an oddity of U.S. English. We Yanks are not consistent in this phrasing—we don’t always add the—and I realized that there really isn’t much logic behind how and when we do use the in terms like the hospital. Here are some examples of when we don’t use the:

We say, “We go back to school in August,” not “to the school.”

And we say, “After high school, I went to college,” not “to the college.”

And not that any of you have reason to say this, but hypothetically speaking, you would say, “I was convicted and went to prison,” not “to the prison.”

My research did not turn up any rule or reason for this usage or the inconsistency. This just seems to be one more regional difference between British and U.S. English.

So, put that in the boot of your car and drive off down the dual carriageway.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Education Resources (sharepoint.com)

<![if !vml]><![endif]>

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
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Good morning, friends!

As most of you know, when studying English, I also love to see what other languages have to offer. Today I’m going to look at a few German words that English speakers think we could use, such as Backpfeifengesicht, “a face that is badly in need of a fist.” These words are sometimes called untranslatables:

“…single words whose definitions are wonderfully specific or complex enough that, when translated into another language, they require numerous words to express the same idea.”

From Dictionary.com, here are a few to start with. Since I don’t speak anything outside of Hogan’s Heroes German, I’m going to let the experts define how to say these terms and what they mean.

blaumachen

If you’re suffering from a case of the Mondays, you might be tempted to blaumachen [ blou-makh-in ]. Blaumachen means “to skip work” or “to play hooky” for no good reason. Blau translates to “blue” and machen means “to make,” so taken together, blaumachen is “to make blue.” What does shirking your responsibilities have to do with making something blue?

Well, the idea of blaumachen comes from “making a Blue Monday.” Traditionally in German culture, a Blue Monday (blauer Montag) was a day people chose not to work, either due to observing a celebration (or after celebrating too much). The blue is thought to originate as a reference to clothing worn on Sundays and holidays. The blue is sometimes connected to the use of the color around the period of Lent in the Lutheran church.

Luftschlösser bauen

We all have hopes and dreams, but if your dreams are extravagant, you might be accused of Luftschlösser bauen [ looft-shles-uh bou-in ], or “building castles in the air.” The German verb bauen means to “build.” Das Luftschloss (die Luftschlösser in the plural) is a “daydream” or “pipe dream,” but it literally means “air castle” (Luft means “sky,” and Schloss means “castle”).

The idea of Luftschlösser bauen runs parallel to the old French expression faire des châteaux en Espagne, “to make castles in Spain” (i.e., a difficult task in a country you don’t rule), first recorded in the 13th century. Whatever the construction and whatever the language, the expression building castles in the air is dismissive of fanciful plans that will never pan out.

quatschen

Don’t talk nonsense—or, as they may say in German, nicht quatschen. Quatschen [ kvach-in ] is a German word that translates as “to talk nonsense, babble, gossip, chatter” and is said to be a favorite of German schoolteachers trying to get their students to zip it.

The etymology of quatschen is unclear. It’s possible that it comes from the sound of stepping into mud or something else squishy. It’s also suggested that the word comes from the Low German word quat, which means “bad, evil.”

The related Quatsch! can be issued as an interjection to express disbelief or dismissal akin to the English baloney or nonsense.

A few more next time!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, good people!

Today, I’m taking a break. It’s summer, and even though it is foggy out right now, I’m pretending to be on vacation! Here is one of Richard Lederer’s articles on English. I’ve heard from some of you about how many words in English have multiple meanings, and here is a take on the same topic from Richard and the San Diego Union-Tribune. The full article is at the link.

DEAR RICHARD: The word buck has nine different definitions as presented in dictionary.com.

This set me to wondering “Is there a definition of words with many definitions? What words in the English language are like this? Which has the most? How does this happen to begin with?” — Michael Stewart, Scripps Ranch

If you need a fancy term for multiple meanings of a word, it’s polysemy, from the Greek poly, “many,” as in polygamy, and sem, “signification, meaning,” as in semantic. Polysemy is common for nouns, verbs, and modifiers because there are more objects and ideas in the world than there are words for them, so many words have to do double (or more) duty.

Take the plain, little word run. Turns out it’s actually our longest word, in the sense that with 645 — you read that right: 645! —meanings, run takes up more room in our fattest dictionaries than any other word. How many meanings can run have beyond “to move rapidly on alternate feet”? Well, you can run a company, run for the school board, run the motor of your car, run a flag up a pole, run up your debts, run your stocking, run your mouth, run a fence around a property, run an idea past a colleague, run the numbers, run an antagonist through with your sword, run an ad in a newspaper, run into a childhood friend, never run out of meanings for run — and your nose can run and your feet can smell.

Run takes up half again as much space as its nearest polysemous competitor, put, which itself is far more polysemous than the third word in this category, set. So the three “longest” words enshrined in our dictionaries are each composed of three letters.

Rounding out the top ten most polysemous words, each but a single syllable are, alphabetically, cast, cut, draw, point, serve, strike, and through.

There you have it! Take that to your local trivia night and win…something. 😊

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/