Let’s take another look at Merriam-Webster’s Top 10 Commonly Confused Words today. Coming in at number seven, we have imminent vs. eminent.

Question:

Is danger imminent or eminent?

Answer:

imminent

How to remember it:

Think of the first syllables of immediately and imminent to remember that imminent means "about to occur" – often in a threatening sense.

Eminent means "prominent" or "famous." [KC – As in “His Eminence, Cardinal Canestri, is here to deliver last rites to the Pope.]

As it happens, these words have a shared root: -minent comes from a Latin word meaning "to project" or "to stand out." In imminent, this root originally suggested something like a threatening overhang above your head; in eminent it suggested something conspicuous.

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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There’s a phrase out there that drives many of you batty because it is so often misused. The correct phrase “I couldn’t care less” means that you are indifferent to something. It means that you do not care. It is often misspoken as “I could care less.” According to Grammar Girl, this phrase crossed over to the United States from Britain in the 1950s and got turned upside in less than 10 years.

I don’t use the phrase myself—I tend toward several more “colorful” options that aren’t to be uttered in polite company. They may or may not involve animal parts and flying, but I can’t say I’ve ever been misunderstood when I’ve used them. If you must express your lack (or someone else’s lack) of caring with this phrase, just make sure you say “I couldn’t care less” and keep the “not” in there.

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We made it! It’s Friday! What a rude awakening to those of you who got used to being at home snuggled up by the fire, roasting chestnuts and drinking hot cocoa over the holidays. Well, the weekend is coming and I thought I’d choose this couplet from the Merriam-Webster’s 10 Commonly Confused Words: discrete vs. discreet.

Question:

Does the process involve a number of discrete or discreet steps?

Answer:

Discrete

How to remember it:

Try this one: "discrete" means "separate" – so picture the letter "e," divided from its twin in both discrete and separate.

Discreet has an entirely different meaning: it’s often used to describe something not likely to be seen or noticed (e.g., "He made discreet inquiries about the job").

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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I wish a happy, happy Thursday to you, my dear co-workers and friends. Today I have another brief tidbit from Merriam-Webster’s Top 10 Commonly Confused Words. We’re skipping to the tenth pair in this list, because this is another one of those errors that makes your Jack Henry co-workers peevish.

Lose vs. Loose

Question:

Did the speaker loose or lose his train of thought?

Answer:

Lose

How to remember it:

Think of the related words lost, loser, and loss: they all have just one "o."

Loose and lose cause confusion partly because the spelling of lose is odd: it looks like it should rhyme with nose, but instead it rhymes with shoes. Loose, on the other hand, rhymes with words you’d expect it to rhyme with: goose, caboose, moose, noose (but not, of course, choose.)

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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I’m not sure what it is about this topic, but it comes up year after year around the holidays. Today we’re talking about “fleshing out” vs. “flushing out.” Merriam-Webster’s list of Top 10 Commonly Confused Words of last year rated it the number one most confusing set of terms. Here is their explanation:

Flesh Out vs. Flush Out

Question:

To provide more details, should you flush out or flesh out your plan?

Answer:

flesh out

How to remember it:

Think of fleshing out a skeleton. To flesh out something is to give it substance, or to make it fuller or more nearly complete.

To flush out something is to cause it to leave a hiding place, e.g., "The birds were flushed out of the tree." It can also be used figuratively, as in "flush out the truth."

For my last article on this topic (complete with the Ty-D-Bol man) see:

https://episystechpubs.com/2012/12/05/editors-corner-flesh-and-flush/

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Today’s item is a double whammy!

· Whammy one: when these two words are misused, many of your co-workers notice it, cringe, and send emails to me with this at the top of their peeve lists.

· Whammy two: this couplet was rated number five on Merriam-Webster’s list of Top 10 Commonly Confused Words of last year.

· Whammy Kiss: The second single released by The B-52’s from their 1983 album Whammy!

Introducing then vs. than:

Question:

Is this room hotter than or then a sauna?

Answer:

than

How to remember it:

Use then only when you’re talking about sequences and time, e.g., "First we’ll go here, then we’ll go there."

When you’re comparing things, as in the example above, use than. (If it helps, consider that than, like compare, has an "a.")

Happy Tuesday!

Kara

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Good morning and welcome back to all of you vacationers! I hope you are rested, relaxed, and ready for the delights the new year brings.

As I was researching a few topics, I found Merriam-Webster’s list of “Top Ten Commonly Confused Words”. Since several of the word pairs and trios are things you’ve asked me about, I thought it might be good to visit these topics. It being a Monday, I’m skipping to number six on the list: tortuous and torturous.

Question:

Is an overly-elaborate plan best described as torturous or tortuous?

Answer:

Tortuous

How to remember it:

Torturous (with a second "r") really does suggest torture, the word it comes from. It’s reserved for things that are very unpleasant, painful, difficult, or slow.

But something that is tricky, complicated, or circuitous – such as an overly elaborate plan – is tortuous. Think of twists and turns, and consider a related word: torque, which refers to a force that causes something to rotate.

Welcome back to the real world!

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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For those of you who remember Schoolhouse Rock, you might recall being told to “unpack your adjectives” and to go to Lolly, Lolly, Lolly to “get your adverbs here.” Today, I have some different advice for you now that you are living in the world of business writing. To be a lean, mean writing machine, here is a list of adverbs to use sparingly.

When you are writing, ask yourself: “Does this word add to the meaning of what I am trying to say?”

For example, words like “essentially,” “basically,” “generally,” “mainly,” “perhaps,” “pretty,” and “somewhat” are wimpy words! These words are often used to avoid committing to a statement, such as “I’m pretty sure she took your pen,” or “My project is essentially complete.” What a bunch of wishy-washiness!

Other words, such as “absolutely,” “certainly,” “definitively,” “extremely,” “hugely,” “obviously,” “particularly,” “strongly,” and “very” are the opposite of non-committal. These adverbs are strong and definite, but they don’t add a lot to what you are saying, except a few more syllables and a little redundancy. For example, “This project is hugely important.” Isn’t it enough that the project is important? Will you pay less attention to its importance without the word “hugely” there?

Kara

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Happy New Year!

Let’s start off 2014 with a list of words that many of you would like to leave back in 2013. These are from the Lake Superior State University’s 2014 List of Banished Words. The link will take you to the full article with definitions, detested usage, and examples.

General

· selfie

· twerk/twerking

· hashtag

· Twittersphere

· Mister Mom

· T-bone

· _______ on steroids

Suffering Suffixes:

· –ageddon

· –pocalypse

Politics:

· intellectually/morally bankrupt

· Obamacare

Sports:

· adversity

· fan base

And an entertaining article on the same topic: Words for the Dumpster by Timothy Egan.

Enjoy!

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On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 drummers drumming. In honor of those noisy little drummers I’m including some sound-related information on this last day of the Editor’s Corner Christmas articles. For a special treat, I bring you pronunciations from the world of farm animal sounds! It’s interesting to me how different languages interpret animal sounds—the animals are making the same noises worldwide, but with different alphabets and different languages, we interpret them differently.

I also just realized that it’s interesting that animal sounds are one of the first things we teach kids. Why is that, when so much of the population lives in the city? Is it that the sounds are easy to make? Is it easier for a baby to say woof-woof or ruff-ruff or grrrrr? Do Hungarian babies have a harder time learning the sound for horse than Korean babies?

I don’t have the answers today—just questions and farm animal noises from Woman’s Day magazine:

P.S. The cost of the 12 days of Christmas gifts in today’s prices? $114,000!

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