Editor's Corner

Good morning!

I was chatting with my new friend Edith in a movie theatre and she asked what the difference between metropolitan and cosmopolitan is. I immediately thought of the vodka cocktail, while her husband thought aloud, “Neapolitan. Mmmmmmmmmm. Ice cream.”

Metropolitan (adj.) originated in the 15th century and comes from the Greek word metropolites, meaning resident of a city.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word cosmopolitan (adj.) comes from the word cosmopolite. Cosmopolite originated in the late 16th century and means man of the world or citizen of the world. Cosmopolite comes from the Greek word kosmopolites (kosmos means world and polites means citizen).

As far as cities go, a cosmopolitan city has residents of diverse cultural backgrounds. A metropolitan city is densely populated and surrounded by areas economically and socially linked to it. Some cities fall into both categories, for example, New York and Los Angeles.

Have a good week!

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cosmopolite&searchmode=none

http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-metropolitan-and-vs-cosmopolitan/

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

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Welcome to all of you who’ve just signed up for Editor’s Corner! At the request of one of our co-workers, I’ve been exploring the history behind some of the different symbols and punctuation marks we have on our keyboards. Today’s symbol is the division sign, which is technically called the obelus and was historically used to represent something other than division.
÷
From our friends at Wikipedia, “An obelus (symbol: ÷, plural: obeli) is a symbol consisting of a short horizontal line with a dot above and below. It is mainly used to represent the mathematical operation of division. It is therefore commonly called the division sign. The symbol represents a fraction with dots in place of the denominator and numerator.”
Here’s where it gets interesting. The word obelus comes from Greek “ovelos” which is the word for a lance, spit, or pointed pillar. (The word obelisk also comes from this root word.)
Obelisk in Place de la Concorde, Paris

The symbol was originally used as an editing mark to note passages in ancient manuscripts that were suspected of being written by someone other than the stated author, or that were corrupted (in particular, the texts of Homer). Obelism is the practice of editing manuscripts using marks, symbols, and abbreviations in the margins. The practice was developed by Aristarchus of Samothrace, an ancient grammarian and scholar of Homeric poetry. Though some of the symbols have changed, editors still use similar marks and some of the same abbreviations (such as the Latin word stet for “let it stand”). It was not until 1659 that the obelus was used to symbolize division in an algebra book, and it is still not universally used for that purpose.

Have a great weekend!

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

Today I’d like to tell a tale of a little fellow called the “pilcrow.” You may know this young buck by one of his other names: paragraph mark, paragraph sign, paraph, alinea, blind P, or “that little thingy up there on the toolbar.” Here is his mug shot:

So where did this typographical mark come from and what does it do? The pilcrow represents a new paragraph in word processing; in copy editing, it is used to indicate where a paragraph should be added; and in the Middle Ages (according to Design Decoded, a Smithsonian blog) the pilcrow was “used to mark a new train of thought, before the convention of visually discrete paragraphs was commonplace.”
Wikipedia, by way of other dictionaries, supplies us with this additional information: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word pilcrow "apparently" originated in English as an unattested version of the French pelagraphe, a corruption of paragraph; the earliest reference is c.1440. The Oxford Universal Dictionary says it may be from "pulled [plucked] crow," based on its appearance.
Possible development from capitulum to
contemporary paragraph symbol

In form, the pilcrow is understood to have originated as a letter C, for capitulum, "chapter" in Latin. This C was the paraph symbol that replaced the function of marking off paragraphs with the Greek-style paragraphos, and other symbols including the section sign. Moreover, the paraph also could be marked with a full-height sign similar to ¢ (cents) or with a double slash, originally symbols indicating a note from the scribe to the rubricator*.

*rubricator: specialized medieval scribe who received text from the manuscript’s original scribe and supplemented it with additional text in red ink for emphasis. (From the Latin rubrico, "to color red.”)
Detail showing both rubrication and
illumination in the Guttenberg bible.

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

Since you are already subscribers to the Editor’s Corner, you already know it’s full of helpful tidbits and answers to grammar and language questions you have, but were afraid to ask. Today, I’d like to encourage you to share the word with your buddies and get them to sign up, too.

You can send your friends to Editor’s Corner for a look at our daily fare, or have them follow us on Twitter at Symitar_EpisysU.

THE CONTEST
Who: Any and all JHA associates
What: Get non-subscribers to join the Editor’s Corner e-mail group
Where: All JHA offices and outposts
When: Now through the end-of-business on August 16, 2013
Why: Because my minions and I adore the English language and we want to share the love

How do you enter the contest?
Ever played Mad Libs? It’s a game where you are asked for different parts of speech and you deliver names, nouns, numbers, verbs, adverbs, and so on, to fill in the details of a “story.” The clincher is that you do not know what the story is! Your answers are entered into the right spots, and then the story is read to everyone. The more creative you are, the funnier the topic can be.

• Round up a co-worker or co-workers who would like to subscribe (please get their permission first)
• Jot down their names and e-mail addresses
• Click one of the following links to a topic of your choice:

• How to Cross a Piranha-Infested River
• Job Interview Do’s and Don’ts
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• Fill in your info, complete your Mad Lib, and click Submit.
• Submissions will be reviewed in the context of the corresponding “story.”

  Note: Not into games? You can just send me an e-mail at kchurch to sign up. If you recommend Editor’s Corner to somebody else and they sign up, make sure they include your name so that you get the points.

Prizes:

• The person who wrangles the most new subscribers wins a $25.00 Amazon gift card.
• The funniest Mad Lib answer wins a $25.00 Amazon gift card and I’ll publish your full story and answers in the Editor’s Corner after August 16.

Additional Rules:

• Subscribers must be new to my Editor’s Corner distribution list
• You can send your list of new subscribers:

• All at once via e-mail
• All at once when you fill out a Mad Lib form
• One new subscriber name per Mad Lib (which increases your chances to win Funniest Mad Lib Answer gift card)

• In the case of a tie for most names submitted, we will draw a winner from a hat (or lunchbox or broken vase)
• In the case of a tie for funniest story, we will leave the vote up to the subscribers
• One prize per customer

Questions?
Contact me at kchurch.

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Good morning, folks! Today I have a blurb about further and farther for many of you who’ve asked about when to use each one. This tips and examples are from The Blue Book of Grammar & Punctuation.

Have you wondered whether there is a right way and a wrong way to use the words farther and further? The different uses of the two words can be subtle. Let’s have a closer look.

Farther: Refers to physical distance only.

Examples:
We had to walk farther than the map indicated.

Reno is farther from San Francisco than from Sacramento.

Further:

1. Moreover; in addition; to a greater extent.

   Examples:
   We need to discuss this further.

   Nothing could be further from the truth.

2. May be used for physical distance although farther is preferred.

   Example: We had to drive further.

3. To help forward, advance, or promote a work, undertaking, cause, etc.

   Example: Elisa had more desire to further her own interests than to further the mission of the organization.

From Signspotting 4: The Art of Miscommunication
Compiled by Doug Lansky

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

Before I get started, I have a couple things to say regarding Friday’s e-mail about gender-neutral words:

• To those of you who laughed at my jokes – I’m glad somebody knew I was just having some fun. And by the way, what a great sense of humor you folks have! 🙂
• To Keith Slayton – You and your KC Masterpiece Great Work of Art BBQ Sauce are simply awesome and I wish I could hire you as a graphic artist.

Now, down to business!

Some weeks ago, my co-worker Sean Hannify asked me about the origins of punctuation marks and symbols on our keyboards, not just what they are used for. I’ve found all sorts of information—some mysterious, some that sounds like it was conjured up by kids cutting class, and some that sounds relatively true. Over the next few weeks I’ll share my findings with you.

The Exclamation Mark (!)
Today, I’d like to introduce you to the many sides of the exclamation point. Generally, we don’t use this much in business writing, since it is used to indicate volume, shouting, excitement, or some kind of interjection. Probably the most common place we’d find this mark is in an error or warning message, such as “Caution! Did you really mean to select the red button?”

As far as the history of the exclamation point, both Wikipedia and the Smithsonian magazine blog mention that nobody is certain, but they offer the same possible theory behind it and some interesting facts about its use. The current theory is that the mark comes from the Latin exclamation for joy: io, with the “i” written above the “o.” As you may remember from school or from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Latin letters are written as capitals, so with io written out (“i” above the “o”), you get something like this:
I
O

While the proportions aren’t quite right, you can see what they’re getting at, and it sounds like a good story to me.
As far as English goes, the exclamation mark was first introduced into printing in the 1400s to show emphasis. Wikipedia tells us it was “called the ‘sign of admiration or exclamation’ or the ‘note of admiration’ until the mid-17th century; admiration referred to its Latin sense of wonderment.”
Our next stop is all the way up in the 1950s, when typesetting manuals referred to it as “bang,” which was also the term used to indicate an exclamation point during dictation. One resource speculates that “bang” came from the use of the exclamation point in comic books, where gunfire was represented by spelling BANG! in a dialog balloon.
Up until 1970, if you wanted to type an exclamation point, you had to type a period and then go back and type an apostrophe above it. A few years after the Summer of Love, a lot of hippie babies were born and the exclamation point was added to the typewriter keyboard. The connection? None that I know of.
There are a ton of alternate names and slang terms for the exclamation mark, from the printing world to the land of hackers. Some of these include:

• exclamation point
• screamer
• gasper
• slammer
• startler
• bang
• shriek
• pling (British slang)
• dembanger
• shout pole

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

I’m probably going to regret this, but today I’d like to share some items from a list I found on the topic of gender-neutral terms. I know there are those out there who are tired of hearing the latest “politically correct” terms—I am sometimes torn about them myself. While I don’t feel like I could work a “man hour,” I always laugh when I am told “You are not a diabetic, you are a person with diabetes.” Honestly, after 36 years of injections and blood tests, I don’t care what you call me—diabetic, pin cushion, junkie—it doesn’t really change the fact that my pancreas doesn’t work.
I’ve selected just a few of these terms from a long list, based on my curiosity and personal amusement. I hope they open your eyes as they did mine. Happy Friday!
Following is a list of gender-specific words and terms with their recommended gender-neutral equivalents.

Instead of this…	Use this…	Examples and commentary
boss man, boss lady	boss, supervisor	“Hey boss, you want anchovies wit’ dat?”
brakeman (bobsled)	brake operator	I get upset when I am trying to stop my bobsled and Shane calls me a “brakeman” instead of a “break operator,” but if he calls me a “conductor’s assistant” one more time I’m jumping off when we reach top speed.
brakeman (train)	conductor’s assistant
Dutchman	Dutch person	<Cue sounds of a stormy sea> The sailors spoke quietly of the phantom ship of legends; the vessel that was doomed to sail the seas forever without ever reaching port. It was with great reverence that they spoke of this ship, The Flying Dutch Person.
fall guy	scapegoat	Something tells me that the ‘80s show, The Fall Guy, wouldn’t have lasted five years had it been named The Scapegoat.
Johnny-on-the-spot	prompt person, right-on-time	Exchanging “Johnny-on-the-spot” with “prompt person, right-on-time” just sucks all the life out of that description for me.
king-size	huge, very large	Mmm…no more “King Size.” It’s the new “Huge, Very Large Size” Kit Kat!
masterpiece	great work of art	Wow. I’d never taken the word “masterpiece” apart and considered it a piece of art that only a “master” could create. And even these days, the masters in guilds can be male or female, such as master weavers. I don’t think calling something “a great work of art” means quite the same thing as calling it a masterpiece.
mother lode	main vein	“I’ve hit the main vein!” Local prospectors mistakenly arrested for yelling about shooting smack.
penmanship	handwriting	Hmmm. Another word (penmanship) that I’d never considered weighted toward one gender over the other.
prodigal son	returning child	The prodigal son – memorable story from the bible. The returning child – common story of today’s college graduates.
snowman	snow person	“In the meadow we can build a snow person And pretend that he is Parson Brown.” I wonder how many snowmen and snowwomen have been offended by this oversight in the past?
taskmaster	supervisor, tyrant	Taking away “taskmaster” also takes away the umph behind the message. “Geez, that Fran in Sales is a real supervisor!”
toastmaster, toastmistress	toast maker	Okay, Toastmasters! Time to change your name to “The Toast Makers.”
Uncle Sam	U.S., United States	Yeah, I don’t even know what to say about this one.

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor

Today I have another tidbit in response to a question from one of our avid readers.

Dear Editrix,
I’ve seen people use the terms “recurring” and “reoccurring” in documents. Which one is correct?

Sincerely,
Curious in California

Dear Curious,
According to our dictionary, both words mean “to occur again.” With a little more research, however, I’ve uncovered the following subtleties:

• Recur – To happen again repeatedly at regular intervals

Example:
The arguments and shouting recur at 5:00 each day, when 500 people clock out and try to walk through the two lobby turnstiles.

• Reoccur – To happen again once or more than once; not necessarily repeatedly or recurring (unpredictable)

Example:
Tales of “random cupcake appearances” have reoccurred since Jackie returned to work.

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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Good afternoon, fellow travelers. I was reviewing some of the questions I have tucked away in my mailbox, and here are some questions I get a lot:

• Why did you use the word “whether” instead of “if”?
• Aren’t “whether” and “if” interchangeable in this sentence?
• What is the rule about using one instead of the other?

What is the rule? Well, we’ve been doing this for some time now, and you must know that there is never just one rule! Here are a few rules to help you navigate the rough seas of English, from BizWritingTip.com:

1. If you are expressing a simple condition, use “if.”

   Examples
   If you can’t attend, please let us know. (Contact us only if you can’t attend.)

   If you are going to attend, do you want to carpool? (We won’t expect to carpool, if you are not going.)

2. Use “whether” if there are two alternatives—even if the alternative is only implied.

   Examples
   Please let us know whether you can attend. (You should let us know your plans either way.)

   Let’s discuss whether this is the right thing to do—or not.

3. Use “whether” after the infinitive form of a verb. (These are the verbs beginning with “to.”)

   Examples
   I am trying to decide whether I should work overtime.

   I need to know whether we can hire a part-time person for the summer.

4. “Whether” and “if” are interchangeable if the answer would be yes or no.

   Examples

   She tried to remember whether she had replied to his email. (Yes, she did.)

   She tried to remember if she had replied to his email. (Yes, she did.)

5. “Whether” and “if” are interchangeable in “whether/or” or “if/or” constructions.

   Examples

   I would like to know if the figures are accurate or they are estimates.

   I would like to know whether the figures are accurate or they are estimates.

Note: “Whether” is considered the more formal word. If you are writing a report or a formal letter and have the option of using “whether” or “if” (rules 4 and 5), I would use “whether.” If you are writing an email or an informal letter and have the option, then use “if.”

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

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Today’s word for a certain type of other words is demonym. No, it isn’t another way to call someone a devil; demonym is derived from the Greek word for populace (demos) plus the suffix for name (-onym). A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is the name for a resident of a locality. For example, a resident of Seattle is a Seattleite; a resident of New England is a New Englander.

In English, we have many different ways to form demonyms for other countries, states, and cities. Here are a few common suffixes and examples, and some irregular demonyms toward the end, but for a much heftier list see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym.

-(a)n

• Hungary → Hungarian
• Utah → Utahn

-ian

• Brazil → Brazilian
• Calgary → Calgarian

-nian

• Panama → Panamanian
• Toronto → Torontonian

-in(e)

• Argentina → Argentine
• Florence → Florentine

-ite

• Denver → Denverite
• Wisconsin → Wisconsinite

-(e)r

• Amsterdam → Amsterdammer

• Auckland → Aucklander
• Netherlands → Netherlander

-(l)ese

• Aragon → Aragonese
• Benin → Beninese
• Bhutan → Bhutanese
• Congo → Congolese
• East Timor → East Timorese

-i

• Somalia → Somali (not Somalian)
• Tajikistan → Tajikistani (also "Tajik")
• Yemen → Yemeni
• United Arab Emirates → United Arab Emirati
• Uzbekistan → Uzbekistani (also "Uzbek")

Irregular

• Liverpool → Liverpudlian
• Lyons → Lyonnais (from French)
• Mumbai → Mumbaikar (either gender)
• Naples → Napoletano/a
• Nice → Niçois
• Parma → Parmesan in English, Parmigiano in Italian
• Bali → Balinese
• Chechnya → Chechen
• Denmark → Dane
• Isle of Man → Manx

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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