Editor's Corner

Happy Halloween!

I’ve selected a few Halloweenish words for you today and included abbreviated versions of their definitions from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

· bogeyman: a monstrous imaginary figure used in threatening children; broadly: a terrifying person or thing
Etymology: from bogey + man (bogey: goblin, specter, phantom; an object of dread, fear, or loathing)

· cadaver: a dead human or animal body usually intended for dissection
Etymology: from Latin, from cadere to fall

· crypt: a vault or other chamber wholly or partly underground; especially: a vault under the main floor of a church

· grim reaper (or Grim Reaper): death especially when personified as a man or skeleton with a scythe

· hocus pocus: 1) obsolete: juggler, trickster, sleight of hand 2) words or a formula used (as by jugglers) in pretended incantations without regard to the usual meaning 3) nonsense or sham used or intended to cloak deception <the hocus-pocus of city politics>; broadly: something that confuses, misleads, or is difficult to comprehend
Etymology: probably invented by jugglers in imitation of Latin

· jack-o’-lantern: 1) obsolete: a man carrying a lantern: a night watchman 2) a lantern made of a pumpkin or other vegetable so prepared as to show in illumination features of a human face

· mausoleum: 1) a magnificent tomb 2) a tomb for more than one person
Etymology: Latin, from Greek mausoleion, from Mausolos Mausolus died 353 B.C. ruler of Caria commemorated by a magnificent tomb at Halicarnassus

· phantasm (or fantasm): 1) illusion, deception 2) ghost, specter, spirit 3) a figment of the imagination, fancy, or disordered mind
Etymology: Middle English fantasme, from Old French, from Latin phantasma, from Greek, from phantazein to present to the mind

· specter (or spectre): 1) a visible disembodied spirit apparition, ghost, phantom 2) a ghostly and usually fear-inspiring vision of the imagination: something that haunts or persistently perturbs the mind
Etymology: French spectre, from Latin spectrum appearance, specter, from specere to look

(Photo of Chia Dog from thecutestdogever.com)

(Photo of Bat-Dog from http://familyfrugalfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dog-in-Halloween-bat-costume.jpg)

Good morning! I hope Hurricane Sandy has miraculously missed everyone from JHA that is on the East Coast. The news says billions of dollars will be required to repair damages, so today we’re going to look at fifty different words for the green stuff, from Daily Writing Tips (www.dailywritingtips.com).

1. Bank: money
2. Benjamins: a one-hundred-dollar bill (in reference to the portrait of Benjamin Franklin that distinguishes it)
3. Big ones: multiples of one thousand dollars
4. Bills: multiples of one hundred dollars
5. Bones: dollars (origin unknown)
6. Bread: money in general (on the analogy of it being a staple of life)
7. Bucks: dollars (perhaps from a reference to buckskins, or deerskins, which were once used as currency)
8. Cabbage: paper money (from its color)
9. Cheddar (or chedda): money (origin unknown, but perhaps from the concept of cheese distributed by the government to welfare recipients)
10. Clams: dollars (perhaps from the onetime use of seashells as currency)
11. Coin: money, either paper or coinage
12-13. Cs (or C-notes): multiples of one hundred dollars (from the Roman symbol for “one hundred”)
14. Dead presidents: paper money (from the portraits of various former US presidents that usually distinguish bills of various denominations)
15. Dime: ten dollars (by multiplication of the value of the ten-cent coin)
16. Dough: money in general (akin to the usage of bread)
17-18. Doubles (or dubs): twenty-dollar bills
19. Ducats: money (from the Italian coin)
20. Fins: five-dollar bills (perhaps from the shared initial sound with fives)
21. Five-spots: five-dollar bills
22. Fivers: five-dollar bills
23. Folding stuff: paper money [KC – Not exactly creativity at its best.]
24. Greenbacks: paper money (from the color of the ink)
25. Gs: thousand-dollar bills (an abbreviation for grand)
26. Grand: one thousand dollars (as in “three grand” for “three thousand dollars”)
27. Large: thousand-dollar bills
28. Lettuce: paper money (from its color)
29. Long green: paper money (from its shape and color)
30. Loot: money (originally denoted goods obtained illicitly or as the spoils of war)
31. Lucre: money or profit (from the biblical expression “filthy lucre,” meaning “ill-gained money”)
32. Moola (or moolah): money (origin unknown)
33. Nickel: five dollars (by multiplication of the value of the five-cent coin)
34. Ones: dollars (also, fives for “five-dollar bills,” tens for “ten-dollar bills,” and so on)
35. Quarter: twenty-five dollars (by multiplication of the value of the twenty-five-cent coin)
36. Sawbucks: ten-dollar bills (from the resemblance of X, the Roman symbol for ten, to a sawbuck, or sawhorse)
37. Scratch: money (perhaps from the idea that one has to struggle as if scratching the ground to obtain it)
38. Shekels: dollars (from the biblical currency)
39. Simoleons: dollars (perhaps from a combination of simon, slang for the British sixpence and later the American dollar, and napoleon, a form of French currency)
40. Singles: one-dollar bills
41. Skrilla: money (origin unknown)
42. Smackers: dollars (origin unknown)
43. Spondulix: money (either from spondylus, a Greek word for a shell once used as currency, or from the prefix spondylo-, which means “spine” or “vertebra”; these have a common etymology)
44. Stacks: multiples of a thousand dollars
45. Tenners: ten-dollar bills
46. Ten-spots: ten-dollar bills
47. Two bits: twenty-five cents (a reference to pieces of eight, divisible sections of a Mexican real, or dollar)
48. Wad: a bundle of paper money
49. Wampum: money (from the Native American term wampumpeag, referring to native currency)
50. Yards: one hundred dollars

There are, of course, many other terms, dated or current, including borrowings of foreign terms like dinero.

The answers for today’s test, according to Games magazine and the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Fourth Edition:

EINORTU = ROUTINE

AEGNNTT = TANGENT

DEGINOS = DINGOES

EIOOSTT = TOOTSIE

AAGLNRU = ANGULAR

Congratulations for those of you that came up with the answers!

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Today I have something a little different for you—an anagram test (from the latest edition of Games magazine). I’m only including 5 of 10 so you don’t get too distracted. Here are the instructions:

In a game of Scrabble, it would not be unusual to find any of the following sets of common letters on a player’s rack. Each set can be anagrammed [KC – rearranged] to form one—and only one—seven-letter word recognized by the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Fourth Edition.

1. EINORTU

2. AEGNNTT

3. DEGINOS

4. EIOOSTT

5. AAGLNRU

Write your answers down on a sheet of paper and I will send out the official answers around noon so you can compare!

Today we have a timely Q&A article from Grammar Girl. (www.quickanddirtytips.com)

Question: "What’s your take on the apostrophe in ‘Hallowe’en’? To use or not to use?"

Answer: One early spelling of "Halloween" was "all hallows’ even," in which "even" meant "evening." The "all" and "s" got dropped, "hallows’ " and "even" became a closed compound, and the apostrophe took the place of the "v," giving us "Hallowe’en"—just one of many transitional spellings along the way to "Halloween."

If you’ve ever been in training with John Thomas, you may have been asked to share something about yourself that nobody else knows. I always freeze up when on the spot, but today, John, I have an answer for you! I am a secret follower of tattoo contests, tattoo TV shows, documentaries about tattoos, and I’m just fascinated by them. I change my mind often enough that I couldn’t think of something I’d want to look at until I’m on my deathbed—but I like to see what other people want to keep on their bodies forever.

For “Fun Friday,” I have portions of an article from DailyWritingTips.com, that combines English and tattoos! Tip to tattoo lovers: take a dictionary with you if you’re getting a tattoo with script!

The Internet-o-sphere abounds with images of tattoo tragedies, and it was difficult to pare the possibilities to a manageable number for this post. But here, in order of egregiousness, are four of the most boneheaded blunders:

No, you’re not. Oh, it’s not a misspelling of handsome? It’s supposed to be awesome. But you would be if you returned to the tattoo artist and—free of charge, of course—had a red caret (^) and a matching “e” inscribed.

Um, the biblical verse, as usually translated into English, is, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”—the statement elegantly terminates with the key word. This fellow’s artistic license in altering the wording and word order is excusable, but the misspelling of fore—not likely a pun on forearm—is not. I would have recommended the standard version, broken after drink—but “broken after drink” is probably the reason for the mistake in the first place.

This isn’t the only tragedy tattoo typo one can find (and you might be surprised by how many ways tattoo artists can render regret/regrets), but it’s the most prominent—and therefore the most tragic.

This misbegotten masterpiece wins the prize for sheer spectacle, and for lasting significance. My surmise is that this fellow has a spot in his heart for his alma mater. Unfortunately, there’s no Clemons University—it’s Clemson. (I hope he got his money back—that looks like a four-figure flub.)

Happy Friday!

The other day, I reminded someone of the “i before e” rule, and then today received this funny sentence:

“I before e except when you run a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor.” (Thank you, Mr. Wilms!)

I’ve included some of the exceptions here, from an article on Wikipedia. If you are interested in the specific groupings of the words by sound, root words, and more, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_before_E_except_after_C

Exceptions

cie

· ancient

· bouncier

· conscience

· deficiencies

· efficiencies

· fancied

· fancier

· financier

· glacier

· policies

· prescient

· proficiencies

· science

· society

· species

ei not preceded by c

· atheism

· beige

· caffeine

· casein

· codeine

· counterfeit

· deify

· deign

· deindustrialize

· deity

· eider

· eight

· either

· feign

· feint

· feisty

· foreign

· foreign

· forfeit

· freight

· geisha

· height

· heinous

· herein

· inveigh

· inveigle

· kaleidoscope

· keister

· neigh

· neighbor

· nonpareil

· obeisance

· onomatopoeia

· peignoir

· protein

· reign

· rein

· seismic

· sheikh

· skein

· sleigh

· sleight

· sovereign

· stein

· surfeit

· surveil

· their

· unveil

· veil

· vein

· weigh

· weight

· weird

· zeitgeist

· Many proper names, often because they are adopted from other languages

o Keith, Neil, Sheila, Stein, etc.

o Leith, Keighley, Rheims, Raleigh, etc.

o Rottweiler, Cassiopeia

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As I was looking for some information on capitalization today, I did a double-take when I saw a listing in the Chicago Manual of Style for “Particles.” The only particles I studied in school were in the science courses…what could they be?

Here is what I found in the CMOS:

Names with particles

Many names include particles such as de, d’, de la, von, van, and ten. Practice with regard to capitalizing and spacing the particles varies widely, and confirmation should be sought in a biographical dictionary or other authoritative source. When the surname is used alone, the particle is usually retained, capitalized or lowercased and spaced as in the full name (though always capitalized when beginning a sentence). Le, La, and L’ are always capitalized when not preceded by de; the, which sometimes appears with the English form of a Native American name, is always lowercased.

Here are some examples listing the person’s full name, followed by the last name only:

Alfonse D’Amato; D’Amato

Diana DeGette; DeGette

Walter de la Mare; de la Mare

Thomas De Quincey; De Quincey

W. E. B. DuBois; DuBois

Daphne du Maurier; du Maurier

Robert M. La Follette Sr.; La Follette

John Le Carré; Le Carré

Pierre-Charles L’Enfant; L’Enfant

Anwar el-Sadat; Sadat

Abraham Ten Broeck; Ten Broeck

Robert van Gulik; van Gulik

Stephen Van Rensselaer; Van Rensselaer

Wernher von Braun; von Braun

If that’s not enough for you, CMOS has additional topics and rules for names in each of the following languages: French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Hungarian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful that our everyday work no longer includes bibliographies!

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Hello!

It’s time for Editor’s Corner again. Since I’m easing back into work after a vacation filled with the French and Dutch languages, I thought I’d share some words with you that we have borrowed from Dutch. It turns out we share many words, since English and Dutch are both Germanic languages. In particular, the nautical world is full of Dutch terms (only a few listed here).

boss from baas

brawl from brallen

buoy from boei (="shackle" or "buoy")

coleslaw from koolsla (literally "cabbage salad")

cruller from Dutch krullen (="to curl")

dam from Middle Dutch dam (compare Amsterdam or Rotterdam)

domineer from Dutch domineren (="to rule")

elope from ontlopen (run away)

frolic from vrolijk (="cheerful")

furlough from verlof (="permission [to leave]")

grab from grijpen (="to seize, to grasp, to snatch")

kink from kink (referring to a twist in a rope)

knapsack possibly from knapzak (literally "bag of snacks")

landscape from landschap

rucksack from rugzak (="bag that is carried on your back")

skipper from Middle Dutch scipper (now schipper, literally "shipper")

slurp from slurpen

splinter from splinter

split from Middle Dutch splitten

wiggle from wiggelen (="to wobble, to wiggle") or wiegen (="to rock")

Terms from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Dutch_origin

This will be the last Editor’s Corner for a few weeks, as I prepare to go on vacation to some not-so-imaginary places. Today’s gift from me to you is a list of 12 imaginary places, from Daily Writing Tips (http://www.dailywritingtips.com/12-imaginary-places/).

Religion, legends, and literature alike are replete with various conceptions of ethereal or terrestrial paradises or places with romantic flair. Here are a dozen examples of ideal locales, including their names, their origins, and their definitions.

1. Arcadia (the Greek region of Arcadia): an idealized, unattainable pastoral state, bereft of civilization

2. Atlantis (allegorical legend recounted by Plato): an island with a complex, advanced civilization that was submerged in a cataclysmic disaster in preclassical times)

3. Camelot (European legends and folklore): the seat of the court of King Arthur, renowned for its splendor

4. Cockaigne (European medieval legend): a place of idleness and luxury

5. El Dorado or Eldorado (Spanish legend): the name given to a Native American chieftain and, by extension, to the prosperous city and surrounding empire he supposedly ruled; later, a metaphor for happiness or personal fulfillment

6. Erewhon (Samuel Butler’s satirical novel Erewhon): a seemingly utopian society with the same flaws as actual civilization

7. Faerie (European fairy tales and folktales): the magical realm of fairies and other legendary beings

8. Neverland or the Neverlands or Never Never Land (J. M. Barrie’s stage play Peter Pan and his novelization Peter and Wendy): an idyllic land serving as a metaphor for escapism and perpetual childhood

9. Shambhala (Buddhist tradition): a mythical hidden kingdom in Central Asia adopted as an ideal state by believers in mysticism

10. Shangri-La (James Hilton’s romantic novel Lost Horizon): an idealized paradise in a hidden valley in Asia

11. Utopia (Sir Thomas More’s allegorical novel Utopia): an island with a harmonious sociopolitical system; in uncapitalized form, any idealized society

12. Xanadu (Chinese history): a city in what is now Inner Mongolia, the historical summer palace of Kublai Khan, but also, inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan, an idealized place of luxurious splendor

Kara Church

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