Hello there, folks! I hope today finds you happy, healthy, and almost ready for the weekend!

I was just looking back in my “to do” folder for Editor’s Corner and I stumbled on a cryptic note to myself: “trionym, aptronym, inaptonym.” Once I got started, I found several items we’d covered before with the suffix -nym (from Greek όνομα (onoma)—name). Most of the following definitions are from Dictionary.com, many of the examples are from my head bone, and the rest of the examples are from sites that I’ve noted.

euonym, aptronym, aptonym, charactonym

A person’s name that is well suited to the person, place or object which bears it; a person’s name that is regarded as amusingly appropriate to their occupation.

Examples:

• Flora Gardener, owner of a flower shop
• William Wordsworth, the poet
• Charity for a woman who gives her time and money
• Dr. Cutt the surgeon
• Crusty Baker, the pie shop owner
• Michael Fast, an Olympic runner
• Rusty Ford, the repair shop owner

inaptonym

This one wasn’t acknowledged as a real word by most dictionaries, but I like it, so it made the cut.

A name that is poorly suited to the nature, career, or other personal characteristics of the person so named.

Examples:

• Mr. Lucky proved to be an inaptonym for a man who suffered a series of misfortunes that left him destitute and alone.
• Johnny Good was the name of the criminal arrested for the assault, battery, and murder of a dozen people.
• Mr. Black worked many jobs, always spending money until the company was in the red.
• Mrs. Fields lived on a mountain during the winter, at the desert in the spring, and by the sea in the summer.

trionym

A trionym is a name consisting of three terms. This word is mostly used to refer to scientific names. For example, modern humans may sometimes be referred to by the trionym Homo sapiens sapiens in anthropology.

So as not to tire you out, I’ll save the rest of our -nym words for Tuesday. I hope you enjoy your day.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

A friend of Editor’s Corner sent me an article from The New York Times about children’s books, the opener was this:

The Threads That Bind Us

A boy embroiders the moon, a girl makes coats for canines, and a knitted-cape crusader saves the day.

I read a little bit more:

Tao Nyeu’s The Legend of Iron Purl is more fanciful [KC – More fanciful than the precious book in this article], its young forest animals riveted by Granny Fuzz’s tales of a caped crusader whose weapon of choice is knitting. Don’t scoff: It’s no weirder than a superhero who slings spider webs. Purl’s identity is concealed by a hand-knit hooded cape, and her utility belt includes yarn and knitting needles. While Bandit Bob is a tepid villain, the “Busy World”-style illustrations are fun, and I appreciated the big reveal: Purl is Granny Fuzz! It’s subversive, one might say crafty, to cast an older woman, whose invisibility is rarely deemed a superpower, as a crack crime-fighter.

I was sold. Those of you who know me know that I love to knit. I learned at public school when I was eight and I’ve been doing it since. Maybe a little less in San Diego—Seattle was more suited to scarves and hats and blankets—but it’s one of my favorite hobbies.

But today’s topic isn’t knitting. It is from the subtitle of the article. Today we’re going to have a look at English terms related to the textile industry.

From The George Washington University Museum:

Batik: Indonesian term for the wax-resist dyeing process, or a fabric patterned with this process. Such fabrics reached fantastic heights of virtuosity on the island of Java in Indonesia in the late-19th and early-20th centuries after the introduction of machine-made cotton fabrics permitted more finely controlled designs.

Carding: A method of preparing fibers for spinning. It is used to even out the density of short fibers, most often wool, by laying them on the teeth of a wire brush (called a card) and scraping them with another matching wire brush. Cards with metal teeth are first recorded in Europe in the 13th century.

Couching: A patterning process in which a yarn or object is attached to the surface of a fabric with one or more stitches. [KC – Like embroidery.]

Embroidery: The embellishment of fabrics by means of needle-worked stitches. An extensive variety of stitches and materials are used in embroidery. [KC – In embroidery, the thread is referred to as “floss.”]

Felt: A fabric made of loose, haphazardly arranged wool fibers, which have surface scales that stick to each other as a result of the felt-making process. In Central Asia, nomadic peoples live in circular tents called yurts, the roofs and walls of which are covered in felt.

KC – I learned how to make felted purses and slippers and other items from yarn. It was so addictive, I broke my washing machine’s clutch and ended up finishing the job on the stove. (My husband asked what stinky thing I was cooking for dinner.) The process of heating the wool in water makes it shrink and thicken so that it resembles the texture of the felt squares (above) rather than the original texture—something more like a knit scarf. It’s like magic!

knit

knit and felted

Piecing: The joining of pieces of fabric to make a larger textile. The top layer of “patchwork” American quilts is pieced before being quilted.

Spindle: A narrow tapered stick that is twirled in the spinning process, and onto which the spun yarn is wound. Hand spindles usually have a weight, or whorl, to help provide momentum.

whorl drop spindle

This is just a handful of terms related to textiles. For more, see the website above, The George Washington University Museum.

Jolie, thank you for the topic suggestion!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Hello to my favorite people! I was just looking through some of my emails and I stumbled on one about words with multiple meanings. In English, that’s pretty darn common, so why did I choose these? Well, I follow this fellow Anu Garg (at wordsmith.org) and he discusses five words a week that have a general theme. These two words amused me personally, so I’m sharing them with you.

I know what decolletage is, but I was curious how it might relate to decollate. Now you’ll find out too!

decollate

1. To behead.
2. To separate sheets of paper, from a multiple-copy printout, for example.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1: From Latin decollare, from de– (from) + collum (neck). Earliest documented use: 1599.
For 2: From de– (from) + collate (to gather, merge, etc.), from conferre (to bring together). Earliest documented use: 1967.

NOTES:

Sometimes the word decollate is used as an alternate spelling for the decollete (which is short for decolletage: a low neckline on a woman’s dress). But when you need to refer to a low neckline in a formal context—an office memo, a research paper, a court brief, a patent application, etc.—it’s best to go with decollete. [KC – Hmm…I don’t think this will be in any of our office memos!]

This next one (with multiple meanings and spellings) reminds me of my mom. She’s the one that taught me what a dickey was when I was a little kid. She went to an all-girl Catholic college where they had to wear their black graduation gown over their clothes for certain events. Once you see the first definition for dickey, you’ll understand why it might’ve been useful for a quick change with the graduation gown.

dickey, dicky, or dickie

ETYMOLOGY:

For noun: A diminutive of Dick, a nickname for Richard. Earliest documented use: 1753.
For adjective: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1788.

And now you can buy a four-pack of dickeys from Amazon, for under $20!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

A few months ago, our manager had us try ChatGPT and test how this artificial intelligence might work for documentation in the future. We produced a few fun items, but we found that ChatGPT is not able to write detailed instructions very well. In addition, you don’t want to test with company material because it becomes part of ChatGPT’s “encyclopedia” of information for the public.

Outside of testing ChatGPT, I’ve received numerous emails about how AI is going to make writers and editors unnecessary, and other emails about how you can’t just throw writers and editors away, because AI cannot understand the subtleties of writing and being human.

I heard an interview the other day with David Simon, the writer of the scripts for The Wire, among other shows. The interviewer was trying to get Mr. Simon to admit he might try AI for writing scripts. Simon’s response was one of disgust and he said, essentially, he’d rather be dead.

And I agree. It will be some time before creativity can be programmed…and why? It’s a great thing to be a human and be able to write stories, make things with your hands, and use your imagination. But I digress. I read a great article that my former manager sent my way. I’m only going to include some of it here, but the link is below if you’d like to all of it.

Why Learning to Write Well Is Still Important in the Age of A.I.

…It’s clear A.I. is advancing incredibly rapidly and soon will transform how a lot of white collar work gets done.

What exactly those changes will look like is the subject of fierce debate and is probably anybody’s guess at this point. But already impressive tools like ChatGPT make plain that a lot of routine writing will probably be done by bots in the future.

Marketers are already experimenting with having chatbots write social-media posts and ads. College professors are rethinking the essay for the age of A.I. Real estate agents are handing off writing listings to the bots. So if you’re a young person today, should you conclude that it’s time to decrease the time and effort you invest in learning to write well?

Writing makes you smarter.

Actually no, answers a chorus of experts. …(W)riting isn’t just banging out the right string of words to get your meaning across…. The most important function of writing isn’t to teach others, but to teach yourself.

"Writing is the process by which you realize that you do not understand what you are talking about. Importantly, writing is also the process by which you figure it out," writes Farnam Street blogger Shane Parrish. "Writing about something is one of the best ways to learn about it."

…(E)ven those with not a shred of literary ambition—should perfect their writing. Not to persuade others, but to make themselves smarter.

"Everyone is full of ideas they’re not aware of. They’re gut feelings. Intuitions. You use them a dozen times a day. But you’d shrug your shoulders if someone asked why. How you react to career risk. Why you invest the way you do. Why you like some people and question others. We’re all brimming with opinions on these topics that we may never discuss, even with ourselves," Housel argues. Writing is the way to turn that "phantom intelligence" of hunches and half-formed opinions into usable tools for the betterment of yourself and your career….

If you want to learn to think, you need to learn to write.

One day in the not-too-distant future, a chatbot may be able to write a convincing email to your boss or polish up that important presentation in minutes. Use those abilities to your advantage. But no bot is going to figure out how complex ideas fit together and apply that to your specific situation any time soon. No bot can help you pick your way through a challenging intellectual puzzle. [KC-Emphasis mine. No bot can do this, but editors can!]

Chatbots can convincingly regurgitate human knowledge, but they still struggle to expand it or even combine it in new and enlightening ways.

In this world, empathetic, experimental, humane writing may end up being an even more valuable career skill. But even if you don’t plan to market yourself as a wordsmith or communicator, you still need to be able to think. And the best tool for thinking humans have ever invented—up to and including these mind-bending new A.I. tools—is good old-fashioned writing. So if you want to be able to think clearly and well, you still need to learn to write.

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Good morning, friends!

Most of the time when I have a topic to discuss that requires examples, I make the examples up. Well, I’ve been saving a bunch of phrases from the editing I’ve been doing so I can provide some alternatives to the material we receive.

This started out because I was feeling peevish. Today I’m a happy camper, so perhaps I will advise more gently. I would file most of these examples under “hidden verbs,” but I have also noticed the overuse of this formation: the ____ of ____. It’s a way of “hiding” verbs with unnecessary words.

Here are some examples:

• The application of payments
• The sharing of programs
• The tracking and reporting of products
• Support the tracking of disbursements

Can you feel the passiveness? Can you see where those verbs are hiding? Let’s look at making those statements more active, lively, and exposed!

As you can see, I’ve taken the nouns—the application, the sharing, the tracking, etc.—and turned them into verbs: applying, sharing, tracking. I’ve also gotten rid of “of,” and just used the objects alone after the verbs, “payments, programs, products, etc.”

Here are some other phrases I found that could just be clearer and more direct. They don’t all follow the pattern above, but you’ll see the phrases are padded with extra words, which diverts the reader from understanding your basic message.

For more information check out our Symitar Knowledge Base lesson:

Hidden Verbs

Dear Editrix,

Shouldn’t this message say Reports can be run?

Or am I wrong? I see this quite a bit. 😊 We “run” reports, we don’t “ran” reports, unless we are referring to reports that we have already “run.”

Dear reader,

Yes, this is like reading something and being beaten over the head with a lead pipe at the same time. The confusion is understandable, but let’s see if we can unconfuse people and put a stop to this error.

The first issue is using can or could, which are modal verbs (can, could, would, shall, etc.), in the error message. These auxiliary verbs make things cloudier and tend to cause confusion, so we avoid them in documentation when possible.

The present tense of run is run.

• The community center instructors run a fantastic tennis program.
• The credit union runs their reports every evening after closing.

The past tense of run is ran.

• Heranto the stadium to get tickets to the show, but they were already sold out.
• The report ran for an hour and produced 300 pages.

The past participle is also run (with the appropriate conjugation of “to have”).

• I have run this 5k every year for the past seven years, but this year’s was the most fun.
• He has run the specfile three times, and each time it has produced a blank report.

The problem occurs when people use the past tense (ran) rather than the past participle (have run). The following are both incorrect:

• I have ran this 5k every year…
• He has ran the specfile three times…

If those last two items seem okay to you, they aren’t. Please lather, rinse, and repeat reading from the top again. If the last two examples make you want to pull your hair out, and you see someone using them in an error message or documentation, please send this Editor’s Corner to them and ask them to make some updates.

Thank you for checking in with us about this common mistake!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Hello, good morning, greetings!

Last week I covered misplaced modifiers (descriptive words or phrases that are misplaced in a sentence so that they cause ambiguity), and as promised, this time we’re looking at dangling modifiers. A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that has nothing to modify. It’s just dangling, unattached to anything else in the sentence. Typically, these sentences are missing a subject (the person or thing doing the action). I know, I know. We need examples!

• Walking through the park, the squirrels were chattering.

The phrase “walking through the park” is a dangling modifier. It’s not modifying anything. Who is walking through the park? Here is one way you could rewrite the sentence:

Walking through the park, Darius heard the squirrels chattering.

• Waiting in line, the time went by slowly.

Who is waiting in line? For whom is time going by slowly? Here’s a possible revision:

While Merced was waiting in line, the time went by slowly.

• While driving to the park, my dog stuck his head out of the window.

I think you’ve got this figured out. We’re missing the subject—the person driving the car.

While I was driving to the park, my dog stuck his head out of the window.

The takeaway is to make sure that your sentences have a clear subject. Don’t leave us dangling.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Welcome to a new day and another literary term: maxim. No, I’m not talking about the magazine Maxim, which purports to be a magazine that caters “to the modern man with content that promises to seduce, entertain, and continuously surprise readers.” Our friends at Merriam-Webster offer this definition:

: a general truth, fundamental principle, or rule of conduct

: a proverbial saying

With the term maxim, you will see some crossover with other terms we’ve discussed (or will discuss soon). As mentioned with fables, they are followed by a moral, or perhaps you might call it a maxim. When we get to proverbs, you will also see some crossover. Here are some examples of maxims from ThoughtCo:

• Actions speak louder than words.
• The pen is mightier than the sword.
• You’re never too old to learn.
• You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
• All good things come to those who wait.
• Many hands make light work.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth.

In researching maxims, I tried to find out what set them apart from similar literary terms like axiom or proverb. A scholar by the last name of Grice said there are four types of maxim, as follows:

• Quality. Must be truthful and supported with evidence.
• Quantity. Must provide as much information as required.
• Relation. Must be relevant.
• Manner. Must avoid ambiguity.

Hmm. These explanations of the different types didn’t really shed any light on what makes a maxim a maxim. I decided to dig further and found an interesting article on the Literary Terms website.

A maxim is a brief statement that contains a little piece of wisdom or a general rule of behavior. Maxims are sometimes written by a single author, for example in the form of philosophical quotations. When a maxim has no specific author, it becomes a kind of proverb–something that just emerges from the culture and survives because people use it, not because any specific person wrote it in a book.

The defining characteristic of a maxim is that it’s pithy–that is, it packs a lot of meaning into just a few words. [KC – There we go. More “pithy” words as I mentioned in my Aphorism article. Wait! These folks give us a difference between pithy aphorisms and pithy maxims!]

Maxims are very nearly the same as aphorisms. The only difference is that maxims are often more straightforward. Whereas aphorisms tend to use metaphor, maxims may or may not do this.

Hmm. Here are two examples and explanations of maxims, that I hope will help:

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

This famous saying is a good example of a maxim with a metaphor in it. Rome is a metaphor for whatever you might be working on – a career, a relationship, a long-term project, etc. Whatever it is, the idea of building Rome reminds you that these things take time.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

A maxim without a metaphor. This one is the essence of pithiness – pithy writing is writing that uses the bare minimum number of words while packing in a lot of wisdom and information, without sacrificing clarity!

Here’s hoping that you maximize the fun parts of your day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, my people.

Today I want to share information about how to avoid using misplaced modifiers. Kara and I have covered this subject before, but it’s been a while. And since this is a persistent issue that we deal with when editing, it is a good topic to revisit.

First, what is a misplaced modifier? It is a descriptive word or phrase that is misplaced in a sentence so that it causes ambiguity or outright confusion (sometimes they can be pretty funny!).

To make sure we’re on the same page, let me give you some examples:

• When Jenny got home, she fell onto the sofa covered in sweat.

The misplaced modifier in this sentence is covered in sweat. The misplacement of the phrase makes it sound like the sofa, rather than Jenny, is covered in sweat. We can rewrite the sentence this way to correct it:

When Jenny got home, covered in sweat, she fell onto the sofa.

• Shahin bought a puppy for his son called Sniffy.

You see how this works now. The pup’s name is Sniffy, but the misplaced modifier makes it sound like Shahin’s son is called Sniffy.

Those are examples of misplaced modifier phrases, but single words can also be modifiers. The following words are known as limiting modifiers: almost, hardly, just, nearly, and only. To avoid ambiguity, we also need to be careful about where we place these words in our sentences. Notice how moving these words in the following sentences changes the meaning. I gathered these examples from the Grammar Diva:

• Only Judy kicked her friend in the leg. (Modifies Judy. No one else kicked the friend, just good old Judy.)
• Judy only kicked her friend in the leg. (Modifies kicked; she kicked her friend, but she didn’t do anything else to her.)
• Judy kicked only her friend in the leg. (Slightly different meaning: Judy didn’t kick anyone else, just her friend, thank goodness!)
• Judy kicked her only friend in the leg. (Modifies friend; no surprise this was her only friend.)
• Judy kicked her friend only in the leg. (She didn’t kick her anywhere else.)
• Judy kicked her friend in her only leg. (Modifies leg; poor friend.)

The trick is to make sure the limiting modifier is next to the word it modifies as in the examples above.

Here’s a lovely old, misplaced modifier you may have heard before:

That’s it! Now you’re an expert on misplaced modifiers. Next time, we’ll tackle dangling modifiers.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

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Today’s literary term is proverb. As you will see, it is defined using some of the terms we’ve already discussed in past weeks. Merriam-Webster says a proverb is a brief popular epigram or maxim, also called an adage. Again, we have some crossover. Literary Terms provides this additional information.

A proverb is a short saying or piece of folk wisdom that emerges from the general culture rather than being written by a single, individual author. Proverbs often use metaphors or creative imagery to express a broader truth.

And a little more, from Grammarly.com:

Proverbs and idioms are similar and easily confused with one another. Both are forms of expression that are natural to groups of people and are short and pithy, and both are very challenging for English language learners to understand because they include innate meaning that isn’t always discernible just by reading the words.

But they do have a few key differences. Idioms express an idea or thought and are phrases that contain a group of words that typically wouldn’t make sense together (e.g., it’s raining cats and dogs, pulling someone’s leg, by the skin of your teeth). They are also frequently used in poetry. Proverbs have a literal meaning and tend to express a truth or dispense advice such as actions speak louder than words; all’s well that ends well; a leopard never changes its spots.

For fun, I’m giving you a few proverbs from languages besides English, from ESLGrammar:

§ “To make the tea cloudy” – Japanese proverb

It means to be evasive or non-committal about something, it comes from a Japanese wedding and tea rituals.

§ “A drink precedes a story” – Irish proverb

When a man is inebriated, they are more likely to tell the stories or occurrences that they normally wouldn’t if they were sober.

§ “He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself.” – Swedish proverb

A person should spend only on essential or necessary items and avoid frivolous expenses.

§ “An axe forgets what the tree remembers.” – African proverb

It is easy for someone who is hurting another person to forget the wrong and move on but the person who was hurt never forgets.

§ “The eyes believe themselves, the ears believe other people.” – German proverb

Do not believe everything that everyone says to you, trust your own judgement or wait to see something with your own eyes before believing someone.

§ “A clear conscience is a soft pillow.” – French proverb

If a person is guilty of some wrongdoing, their guilty conscience will let them have no rest, while an innocent person will be peaceful and calm.

§ “To call a man a thief gives him the right to be one.” – Old Arabic proverb

Treating someone in an unfair or cruel way will ensure a similar behavior from them in the future.

§ “Opportunity knocks only once.” – Spanish proverb

Always seize an opportunity when it comes your way as you may not get another chance at it.

§ “Your elbow is close but you can’t bite it.” – Russian proverb

A way to express when someone is physically present but emotionally distant or when something can be seen but is just beyond your reach.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/