Editor's Corner

Today is a quick follow-up to yesterday’s topic of “time.” This information is from the “time zone” section in the Chicago Manual of Style. According to our house dictionary, Merriam-Webster, the spelled out versions of eastern, central, and mountain, are often capitalized.

Time zones, where needed, are usually given in parentheses—for example, 4:45 p.m. (CST).

GMT Greenwich mean time

EST eastern standard time

EDT eastern daylight time

CST central standard time

CDT central daylight time

MST mountain standard time

MDT mountain daylight time

PST Pacific standard time

PDT Pacific daylight time

“I don’t mind going back to daylight saving time. With inflation, the hour will be the only thing I’ve saved all year.”

Good morning, folks. This may be a repeat to some, but since I have a lot of new subscribers, I’m going to review “time.” These are the rules according to the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), and the standards we use for Episys eDocs. I know some departments use the AP Stylebook, so before making big changes or going on a grammar attack, understand that these are guidelines. 🙂

Time of day

The following abbreviations are used in text and elsewhere. Though these sometimes appear in small capitals (with or without periods), Chicago prefers the lowercase form, with periods, as being the most immediately intelligible. [KC – Emphasis mine.]

• a.m. – ante meridiem (before noon)
• m. – meridies (noon [rarely used])
• p.m. – post meridiem (after noon)

The abbreviations a.m. and p.m. should not be used with morning, afternoon, evening, night, or o’clock.

• 10:30 a.m. or ten thirty in the morning
• 11:00 p.m. or eleven o’clock at night

[KC – I am including this section because some of our system documentation includes settings and interfaces that
use the twenty-four-hour clock. This is not the formatting you’d normally see in newsletters or prose.]

The twenty-four-hour system

In the twenty-four-hour system of expressing time (used in Europe and in the military), four digits always appear, often with no punctuation between hours and minutes.

• 1200 = noon
• 2400 or 0000 = midnight
• 0001 = 12:01 a.m.
• 1438 = 2:38 p.m.
• At 1500 hours (or 1500h) we started off on our mission.
• General quarters sounded at 0415.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

It’s Friday, so let’s have some fun. A faithful reader and fellow language lover, Samuel Dean, sent this topic to me several weeks ago. First, a brief definition and history of eggcorns, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn:

In linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker’s dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original, but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers’ disease" for "Alzheimer’s disease…"

…the term eggcorn was coined by professor of linguistics Geoffrey Pullum in September 2003, in response to an article by Mark Liberman on the website Language Log, a blog for linguists. Liberman discussed the case of a woman who substitutes the phrase egg corn for the word acorn, arguing that the precise phenomenon lacked a name; Pullum suggested using "eggcorn" itself.

Here are a few examples of eggcorns, from the Eggcorn Database (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/2/eggcorn/):

fetal » feeble

Chiefly in: (curled up) in the feeble position

Spotted in the wild:

I was impressed. He was looking quite happy for someone who spent the last night sleeping in the feeble position. (fanfiction.net, July 26, 2009)

dog-eat-dog » doggy-dog

Chiefly in: doggy-dog world

Spotted in the wild:

the [sic] true matter is: it’s a doggy dog world out there and they’re all in it for the money.

cruller » crawler

Chiefly in: French crawler

Spotted in the wild:

A local doughnut shop had a sign advertising “French crawlers”. [sic] (Wilson in ADS-L)

ghost » goat

Chiefly in: give up the goat

Spotted in the wild:

§ Luckily our old Toyota just got us through and then gave up the goat. (ABC Rural, SA Country Hour, Jan. 11, 2006)

§ Stay calm, collected, and don’t give up the goat. (Paul Davidson, Ten Rules for Making Rules, Apr. 16, 2006)

Have a great weekend, and welcome to all of you new readers!

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

In place of a quiz today, we’re going to go over something that is tough for many people, including yours truly. I am hoping that sharing this information might help all of you who’ve asked about “lie” and “lay,” and maybe sear it into my brain while I type it. This is the “lay vs. lie chart” and a ton of examples from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, by the late Jane Straus.

lay vs. lie chart

Examples in the Present Tense:

I lie down for a nap at 2:00 P.M. everyday.

I am lying down for a nap today.

The hens lay eggs.

The hen is laying eggs.

I am tempted to lie about my age.

I am not lying about my age.

Examples in the Past Tense:

I lay down for a nap yesterday at 2:00 P.M.

The hen laid two eggs yesterday.

He lied on the witness stand.

Examples with a Participle (has, have):

I have lain down for a nap every day this week.

The hen has laid two eggs every day this week.

He has lied each day on the witness stand.

For additional information and more examples, see the Purdue OWL (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/purdueowlnews/535) and read “The Owl’s Nest” article.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

I’m skipping the last day of “dis-“ and “mis-” words since I think it’s putting everyone to sleep. For the final five words in the DailyWritingTips article, click here: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-dis-words-and-their-relations/

Moving on, today we’ll have a look at the word “blond.” Or is it “blonde”? If you had to suffer—I mean take—four years of French, you’re probably hip to the answer. For those of you who took Spanish, German, or Japanese, here’s the scoop. (Definition from The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl™, by Mignon Fogarty.)

“The word comes to English from French, in which it has masculine and feminine forms. As an English noun, it kept those two forms; thus, a blond is a fair-haired man and a blonde is a fair-haired woman. When you are using the word as an adjective, there is only one spelling: blond.”

[KC] I’ve written some examples for you:

· They chose a blonde to play the role of Mrs. Tibbles. (noun, female)

· She remembers her husband as a blond, but the children remember their father as grey-haired. (noun, male)

· When Dotty found the long blond hair on the car seat, it reminded her of the fun she and Rosemary had on their road trip. (adjective, neutral)

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Our “dis-” and “mis-” list continued from yesterday (courtesy of DailyWritingTips.com*):

Disconnect/Misconnect
To disconnect is to uncouple or unhook. To misconnect is to put together erroneously. (The shared root, connect, is from the Latin word connectere, “to join together.” That word’s root, in turn, is related to nexus, meaning “a link or bond.”)

Discount/Miscount
A discount is a markdown on a price. A miscount is a tabulation made in error. (The source of the root count is the Latin word computare, from which, of course, compute and computer are derived.)

Disinformation/Misinformation
Disinformation is a form or propaganda intended to cover up inconvenient facts and/or sway public opinion. Misinformation is a more neutral term referring merely to incorrect data. (The Latin root they share is formare, which means “to form or shape.”)

Disinterest/Uninterest
These seemingly indistinguishable words sharing the root word interest (from the Latin term interesse, meaning “to be between” or “to make a difference”) have a key difference of connotation: To be disinterested is to have no stake in something, to be impartial, and uninterested denotes the more basis sense of a lack of concern or investment in something.

Dislocate/Mislocate
To dislocate is to put out of place; to mislocate is to misplace, or lose. (Locate is from the Latin word locare, “to place,” and is related to locus, which refers to a site or center.)

*http://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-dis-words-and-their-relations/

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Feeling a little dissed by the weather gods? Well, I have 15 more disses for you! From DailyWritingTips.com, the first few “dis-” words from the article 15 “Dis-” Words and Their Relations, by Mark Nichol.

Oh, and a quick refresher:

Synonym – a word that means the same thing as another word. For example, some synonyms for the word “quiet” are silent, tranquil, and inaudible.

Antonym – a word that means the opposite of another word. For example, some antonyms for the word “quiet” are loud, noisy, or piercing.

**************

Words with the antonymic prefix dis- are easily confused with similar-looking terms starting with mis- or un- that usually have differing connotations or entirely distinct senses. Here are comparative definitions of some of these terms, along with etymological identification:

1-2. Disassemble/Dissemble/Misassemble
The first two words have a shared etymology but distinct meanings. To disassemble originally meant “to disperse” and now means “to take apart,” but to dissemble is to conceal or simulate. The Latin root they share is simulare, which means “to make like or to compare.” (Resemble, semblance, and the like also stem from this word, and similar is closely related.) Dissimulation is dissemble’s more directly descended synonym. To misassemble, meanwhile, is to assemble incorrectly.

3-4. Disassociate/Dissociate
These interchangeable words mean “to separate,” either literally, as in withdrawing from a social group, or figuratively, as in diverging from past behavior. (The common root stems from the Latin term sociare, which means “to join,” from which English derives social, society, and similar words.)

5. Discharge/Mischarge
Discharge means “to release,” “to unload,” or “to perform one’s duties.” Mischarge is a rare word meaning “to make a mistake in charging,” as in loading a weapon. (The root word, charge, is from the Latin term carricare, meaning “to load.”)

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

It’s the first day of June, and the Chicago Manual of Style has released a new crop of questions and answers. If you’d like to read more, you can go to the original source: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/new/new_questions01.html

Q. I’ve always thought that when you use any as a pronoun it should be treated as singular. But in the following sentences, “Do they all match? Is any missing?” using is feels awkward. Does any in this case refer to they in the previous sentence?

A. Yes, it does. Any can be singular or plural (which I’m sure by now you have learned from checking the dictionary you keep at hand): “Have you checked the pizza? Is any missing?” or “Have you checked the Twinkies? Are any missing?” Both are correct (and around here, most likely missing).

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

(Please excuse me, my sentence fragments are showing.)

Today’s results? Fantastic—except that I didn’t get a single comment on my reference to Deliverance. 🙂

Out of 104 responses, 102 were for the correct answer: B.

1. Their/there/they’re is a skunk in my laundry room!

2. I can’t wait to see the looks on their/there/they’re faces when they I tell them that pâté was made from cat food.

3. Toady, Cody, and Brodie just called to let us know their/there/they’re going canoeing down the Cahulawassee River.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Since we’ve been on the topic of word confusion, today’s quiz is on there, their, and they’re. These homonyms (words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings and spellings) can be tricky when you’re writing quickly and typing according to the “voice” in your head. Or am I the only one that hears that?:-)

Read the sentences below and select the correct option. Jot down your answers and select the correct combination of words(using the voting buttons) before noon today. I’ll send the answers and explanations this afternoon.

1. Their/there/they’re is a skunk in my laundry room!

2. I can’t wait to see the looks on their/there/they’re faces when they I tell them that pâté was made from cat food.

3. Toady, Cody, and Brodie just called to let us know their/there/they’re going canoeing down the Cahulawassee River.

A) there/they’re/they’re

B) there/their/they’re

C) they’re/their/they’re

D) their/their/their

E) there/their/their

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123