Oy vey! You folks ask some tough questions. Today we’ll address the following:

• What is the difference between further and farther?
• Are further and farther interchangeable?
• If the root word for farther and farthest is far, is the root word for further and furthest fur?

Grammar Girl (on http://www.quickanddirtytips.com) gives us some good guidance:

Use “farther” for physical distance and “further” for metaphorical, or figurative, distance. It’s easy to remember because “farther” has the word “far” in it, and “far” obviously relates to physical distance.

Looking at the definitions on Merriam-Webster.com, you can use either word when your intended meaning is one of the following:

• a considerable distance in space : to a remote place
  Example: The cabin is farther/further away than we thought it would be.
• a considerable distance in time
  Example: The design of the 5000 BC wooden mask is the farthest/furthest from our current technology.
• to an advanced point or extent : a long way
  Example: I’ve never walked farther/further than that in my life!

When you use the root word, however, you’re stuck with far. In other words, it is “this road takes you far beyond the village”; not “this road takes you fur beyond the village.” (Unless, of course, you are talking to a dog.)

And further is the word to use under these circumstances:

• in addition: moreover
  Example: Their super-smoothies are further enriched by bee pollen.
• going beyond what exists: additional
  Example: Further information is provided in the New Employee Handbook.
•  to help forward: promote, advance
  Example: Taking additional courses while you work will further your career.

Have a good weekend! I have nothing further to say. 🙂

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor
S Y M I T A R
8985 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92123

And here are the verses again, this time with the answers:

Without her I know that there wouldn’t be me; (ma)

Turn her around, she’s a word from ‘to be’. (am)

Detractors will say I’m too greedy by far; (avid)

Turn me around, I’m an opera star. (diva)

If I bore you by boasting and putting on airs, (brag)

Turn me around, and I’m something one wears. (garb)

A river will do this, though shallow, though deep; (flow)

Turn it around, and it likes eating sheep. (wolf)

This is not so much a quiz as it is a puzzle. There is no need to send your answers to me—we’ll work on the honor system. I will send the answers out this afternoon so you can see how you did.

These are “Reverse Verses” from The Game of Words, by Willard R. Espy.

Each of the couplets below defines two words, the first is the reverse of the second in spelling but otherwise unrelated to it.

KC – For example:

“It’s used on your luggage to fasten about;
Turn it around, and your clothes may fall out.”

In this case, the answer to the first line is strap; the answer to the second line (the reverse) is parts. Solve one line, solve the other.

Good luck!

Without her I know that there wouldn’t be me;
Turn her around, she’s a word from ‘to be’.

Detractors will say I’m too greedy by far;
Turn me around, I’m an opera star.

If I bore you by boasting and putting on airs,
Turn me around, and I’m something one wears.

A river will do this, though shallow, though deep;
Turn it around, and it likes eating sheep.

Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
S Y M I T A R
8985 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92123

This is something I wrote about before, back when the Editor’s Corner went to about 20 people. Since I’ve had some questions and comments on these recently, it’s time to take them for another spin.

Frequently confused nouns (sometimes used as noun modifiers) and verbs:

· login = noun; log in = verb

Click the login field and enter your user name.

To log in to the system, you will need the secret password.

· backup = noun; back up = verb

If you don’t run a daily backup, you may lose important information.

After you back up your car, I will park my lovely ’76 Gremlin in the driveway.

· checkup = noun; check up = verb

Margarita’s checkup was great; the scrofula had disappeared!

He asked me to check up on Grandpa and make sure he wasn’t teaching the kids how to play mumblety-peg.

· holdout = noun; hold out = verb

During deliberations, the only holdout was Joey the baker; he wanted more information before he decided the woman’s fate.

As it snowed, Pepper’s father told her to hold out her hand to catch the flakes.

· standby = noun; stand by = verb

The standby travelers looked glum; it would be thirty hours before the next flight out of Reykjavik.

If you stand by Clara, she will try to hold your hand.

There are others, but this should get you off to a good start.

Note: Some of the nouns have alternate spellings that include hyphens. The option you use would be defined by your house style guide. Additionally, if you run into other pairs like this, and can’t remember which one is the noun and which one is the verb, the dictionary is always willing to tell you!

Good morning,

Today I have a request to go over the terms any time versus anytime. Silly me, I thought this was going to be an easy one. 🙂

I thought this article summed it up the best, so I’m leaving it to the anonymous professionals at the Grammarist web site (www.grammarist.com) to explain. Pay particular attention to the last paragraph!

anytime vs. any time

Dictionaries list the one-word anytime as an adverb meaning at any time, and they don’t assign it any other functions. But the word is also frequently used as a subordinating conjunction, synonymous with whenever and usually meaning every time that.

Anytime is a new word. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary lists 1926 as the year of its first known use (though earlier instances are easily found in historical Google searches). The Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t list it at all. Some sources say it is an Americanism, and while it’s true that the word is especially common in American publications, it is used throughout the English-speaking world.

There are a few situations in which any time is two words. When it is embedded in the adverbial phrase at any time, it’s two words because at must be followed by a noun or a noun phrase, and anytime doesn’t work as a noun. It’s also two words in constructions like I don’t have any time to spare because any is an adjective modifying the noun time, and the words together don’t directly modify anything.

If you have trouble with anytime and any time, the easy solution is to always make it two words. Garner’s Modern American Usage calls the newly formed contraction a casualism (and indeed many of the examples we find in news sources are in quoted speech), and the fact that it is not listed in the OED or in other British dictionaries shows that it has yet to gain full acceptance. No one questions any time.

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Good morning, everyone!

Today I’d like to direct you to the online version of the Editor’s Corner. More specifically, this page: https://episystechpubs.wordpress.com/style-guides/. Since I’m often referring to the different style guides we use throughout the company, I thought I’d take a minute to tell you a little bit about this important tool that editors and writers here use on a daily basis. It also includes a bit of information on JHA’s own Brand Identity Standards—a companywide set of guidelines that promotes the “one company” maxim, and looks darn spiffy, too!

Additionally, I’ve added a tab with the resources I use and quote in the daily e-mail and posts. You can find that here: https://episystechpubs.wordpress.com/editors-corner-references-and-resources/.

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together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
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Today’s topic is the palindrome. A palindrome is a word, phrase, sentence, or number that reads the same backwards and forwards (with some allowance for punctuation and spacing).

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome), the first palindrome is dated back to 79 AD:

This palindrome, called the Sator Square, consists of an entire sentence written in Latin: "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" ("The sower Arepo holds works wheels"). It is remarkable for the fact that the first letters of each word form the first word, the second letters form the second word, and so forth. Hence, it can be arranged into a word square that reads in four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left.

Sator Square

And now, from Fun with Words (http://www.fun-with-words.com/palindromes.html) I have some more recent palindromes (in English):

· Murder for a jar of red rum

· Never odd or even

· Too bad – I hid a boot

· No trace; not one carton

· Go hang a salami; I’m a lasagna hog!

· Doc Note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.

· Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna.

· Campus Motto: Bottoms up, Mac

· Go deliver a dare, vile dog!

· Madam, in Eden I’m Adam.

· Dennis sinned.

Here are the answers to the jumble today. I’m sorry some of you found it simple and boring, but difficult and exciting would take too much time out of your workday. 🙂

· independence

· barbeque

· July

· America

· fireworks

Here is a gold star for those of you who had the correct answers:

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Good morning, and as John Cleese might say—“And now for something completely different!” Today, in place of a quiz, I have a word jumble for you. Unscramble each of the words below and you will find they have a common theme. I’ll send the answers out today around noon. Have fun!

1. DNEEIEPNNCDE

2. AUEBBEQR

3. LJUY

4. EIRMACA

5. EFRIOWKRS

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

So many eager folks yesterday, begging for “ordinal numbers” and the like! Here is the other half of the article “10 Types of Numerical Terms,” by Mark Nichol, from DailyWritingTips.com:

Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers — first, second, third, and so on — represent sequential order. Second is anomalous in that it alone comes from Latin rather than Old English; it supplanted the ambiguous English word other (still used in this sense in the phrase “every other”). There was never a twoth — or a [sic] onth, for that matter; that latter vacancy was filled by a form of fore, while third and so on are derived from the cardinal numbers.)

This is a good place to remind writers to deactivate the function on their computer that, by default, creates superscript ordinal indicators (miniature renditions of st, nd, rd, and th perched on the right shoulders of numerals). The perverse persistence of this Victorian affectation in state-of-the-art word-processing programs is a puzzler — and an annoyance to editors, who have to convert such aberrant symbols into baseline indicators before production. [KC – While I do not get annoyed by this “perversity,” it
is something many editors change, including those of us in the San Diego shop.]

Partitive Numbers

Partitive numbers — half, thirds, fourths, and so on — represent fractions. Half, which is from Old English, originally meant merely “part.” (Behalf, meaning “on the part of,” retains this imprecise meaning.) The others are just variations on Old English terms for the associated numbers.

Ranking Numerals

Ranking numerals – primary, secondary, tertiary, and so on (this class shares quaternary and higher values with the composite-numbers category) — represent degrees of importance or relevance. These terms are ultimately Latin in origin.

Reproductive Numbers

Reproductive numbers — single, double, triple, and so on, plus the generic multiple — represent replication. Single and double are from Latin by way of French; the higher values are all directly from Latin.

Miscellaneous Terms

Deuce, from the similarly pronounced precursor to French deux, is an old-fashioned synonym for two that persists in sports and gambling references. The mild oath “What the deuce,” a euphemism for “What the devil?” probably comes from association with deuce as a low score and therefore the outcome of bad luck.

Trinity, from Latin through French, and triad, directly from Latin, both mean “a group or set of three.” Triplicate, meaning “threefold,” is from Latin; -fold is from the Old English cognate of -plus, which is where we got the element -ple and its extension -plicate. Treble is the French form of triple; both come from the Latin triplus. Trice, used in the phrase “in a trice,” meaning “quickly,” is unrelated to thrice (“three times”); it’s of nautical origin, from a Middle English word borrowed from a Dutch term meaning “pull, hoist.”

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