Editor's Corner

Now and then, I receive some interesting articles from the Editor’s Corner audience. The latest one was about two terms from the Engineering business world: yak-shaving and bikeshedding. The mental image of shaving a yak made me laugh and made me curious, so I’ll share that term with you. To learn about bikeshedding, you’ll have to check out the full article at Medium.com.

And remember to always offer your yak a hot towel after a shave!

Yak-Shaving

“Shaving a Yak” means performing a seemingly endless series of small tasks that must be completed before the next step in the project can move forward.

For example, let’s say you want to drive to the store to pick up some groceries, and you notice that your car has a flat tire. So you decide to put some air in the tire, only you remember that you lent your tire pump to your neighbor. So now you have to go to your neighbor’s house and ask them for the tire pump back. Only, there’s a problem: last week your 5-year-old daughter ruined one of the neighbor’s couch cushions, and you promised you’d replace it, so now you feel guilty about asking the neighbor for the tire pump when you haven’t fulfilled your promise. Unfortunately, the couch cushions were stuffed with genuine Tibetan yak fur, so now you end up having to shave a yak…

Although this is a silly story (see the original story here), it is characteristic of the kinds of nested task dependencies often found in a large engineering project. It may seem like you are spending a lot of time working on things that have nothing to do with your overarching goal.

Yak-shaving is a value-neutral term: if the small tasks are really required, then it’s a good thing; but if they are not, then it’s not. In the story given above, it’s not actually necessary to shave the Yak in order to get to the grocery store; what’s really happening is the protagonist is making life difficult for themselves as a strategy for avoiding what they believe to be an emotionally difficult interaction with the neighbor. Similar scenarios happen in software projects fairly often.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

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

Good morning, word lovers.

BuzzFeed recently shared a list called “32 Of The Most Beautiful Words In The English Language.” As I read through the words, two things came to mind. First, most of them really are words that make you go “ahhh,” in the same way a lovely piece of art does. Or, you know, when you have the first taste of a food or drink you really love? Yeah, like that. If these words don’t make you go “ahhh,” your “ahhh barometer” needs replacing.

And second, there are some beautiful words on this list that are new to me, and I’m hoping that will be the case for you too, because we all need more beauty in our lives. I’m going to give you the whole list, all 32 of them. If that’s too much beauty for you to experience in one day, divide them up over the next few days. Savor the splendor.

1. aquiver (adjective): quivering, trembling

2. mellifluous (adjective): a sound that is sweet and smooth, pleasing to hear

3. ineffable (adjective): too great to be expressed in words

4. hiraeth (noun): a homesickness for a home you can’t return to, or that never was

A Welsh word without direct English translation, and utterly beautiful. Thanks, Wales.

5. nefarious (adjective): wicked, villainous, despicable

6. somnambulist (noun): a person who sleepwalks

7. epoch (noun): a particular period of time in history or a person’s life

8. sonorous (adjective): an imposingly deep and full sound

9. serendipity (noun): the chance occurrence of events in a beneficial way

10. limerence (noun): the state of being infatuated with another person

11. bombinate (verb): to make a humming or buzzing noise

12. ethereal (adjective): extremely delicate, light, not of this world

13. illicit (adjective): not legally permitted

14. petrichor (noun): the pleasant, earthy smell after rain

15. iridescent (adjective): producing a display of rainbowlike colors

16. epiphany (noun): a moment of sudden revelation

17. supine (adjective): lying face upwards

18. luminescence (noun): light products by chemical, electrical, or physiological means

19. solitude (noun): a state of seclusion or isolation

20. aurora (noun): dawn

21. syzygy (noun): an alignment of celestial bodies

22. phosphenes (noun): the light and colors produced by rubbing your eyes

23. oblivion (noun): the state of being unaware of what is happening around you

24. ephemeral (adjective): lasting for a very short time

25. incandescence (noun): light produced by high temperatures

26. denouement (noun): the resolution of a narrative

27. vellichor (noun): the strange wistfulness of used bookshops

28. eloquence (noun): the art of using language in an apt, fluent way

29. defenestration (noun): the act of throwing someone out of a window

30. sonder (noun): the realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own

31. effervescence (noun): bubbles in a liquid

32. cromulent (noun): appearing legitimate but actually being spurious

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

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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Dear Editrix,

I may be a bit too bored, because I’ve been thinking a lot about the use of the word verbiage. Maybe I spent too much time in creative writing workshops, but I always thought that verbiage meant unnecessary words, such as, “You need to cut the verbiage here.” I’ve been noticing many people use it to mean a specific section of text. I would just use “this text” or “these lines” or, maybe if I was feeling hoity-toity, “the phraseology here.” Am I being too persnickety or has this struck you as well?

Andrew

Dear Andrew,

Oh my goodness! Every time I see or hear the word verbiage I think the same thing! We must have had teachers from the same part of the country. I learned that verbiage means wordy or overly verbose. I can hear Mozart (well, the one from the movie Amadeus in 1984) saying, “Too many notes!” So, let us see if you and I remember this correctly.

According to Merriam-Webster (and the synonyms listed below), we are definitely on to something. The first definition is as follows:

verbiage (noun)

1: excessive use of words: superfluity of language in proportion to sense or content: prolixity, verbosity, wordiness

On the side of all the people who use the word to just mean “wording” or “phraseology” in general, here is the second definition:

2: manner of expressing oneself in words: diction, wording

There is also a longer explanation on Grammarly, which includes this:

• Verbiage is a noun that means a plethora of words—usually unwelcome ones.
• Verbiage can also be used to refer to someone’s style or manner of speaking.
• Verbage is a non-standard word, possibly a portmanteau of the words verbiage and garbage. Its meaning is close to the meaning of verbiage and carries a negative connotation.

The word’s etymology, from the Online Etymology Dictionary is as follows: "abundance of words," 1721, from French verbiage "wordiness" (17c.), from Middle French verbier "to chatter," from Old French verbe "word," from Latin verbum "word."

While the Latin verbum doesn’t carry any particular negativity, the French verbiage (wordiness) is something we try to avoid.

So, what does all this mean? I think we should be changing verbiage to wording during editing, and asking those that use it if they mean to refer to their wording as excessive, verbose, and unwelcome. That said, I hear it so often that I think we may be fighting a losing battle.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Dear Editrix,

I just heard a radio commercial refer to the phrase “Get by with a little help from your friends” as a cliché. Isn’t it just quoting a song? Or was this a saying before it became a famous song lyric? If not, how old does the song have to be for it to become a cliché?

Jane

Dear Jane,

This was interesting to investigate, so thank you for the question. According to Wikipedia, a cliché is “an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being trite or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel.”

It is more a matter of overuse that makes a cliché than it is a matter of time, though of course the more time that passes, the more overused a phrase could become. I love this quote I found from a French poet, Gerard de Nerval, about clichés: “The first man who compared a woman to a rose was a poet, the second, an imbecile."

I went on to look more into song lyrics as clichés, and found a funny article on a website called Sonicbids, called “8 Terrible Lyric Clichés You Need to Stop Using in Your Songs (And What to Write Instead).” Here are a few of the items from the article that I hope will entertain you.

If you’re 16 and in your first band, you can be forgiven for coming up with the same metaphors and phrases that have occurred to thousands before you, but if you want to be a real lyricist, you should be aware of these overused lyrical concepts. It’s the only way to avoid them!

"It cuts like a knife"

This is not only a common metaphor for love, it’s a stupid one. Love makes one feel lots of things, but it’s never once made me feel as though I was cut by a knife. Stabbed, perhaps, but not sliced.

Try this instead: If one must use a painful metaphor for love, consider some other sources of pain and/or death (probably skipping drowning – that one’s overused, too): choking, electrocution, burning, gunshots, blunt-force trauma, road rash, or some sort of allergic reaction….

When everything happens "tonight"

Is there a word or syllable missing in your lyric? Just add the word “tonight.” This word haunts the end of millions of phrases, more common than a comma or a period….

Try this instead: The worst thing about this one is the total lack of any sense of time in most lyrics that feature it. It’s always “tonight,” a night that is going on now and will never end…and it would be more effective in future tense.

For example, “You’re my baby tonight”…is a lot less interesting than whatever is going to happen later, creating a sense of tension. “I’m crawling out my window tonight,” or “Meet me at the railroad tracks tonight” are examples.

"Things aren’t always what they seem"

Well, no, they’re not, but this trite vaguery doesn’t actually mean anything,

Try this instead: Maybe this concept of confusion and uncertainty can be expressed more easily through music than lyrics. That’s what psychedelic music is, right? Grab your wah-wah pedal and soak those tracks in delay. [KC – I am not a musician, but I suddenly feel the need for my own wah-wah pedal.]

As for the phrase “I get by with a little help from my friends,” maybe it was wonderful and new when the Beatles first sang it, but too many advertisements and speeches and yearbook signatures turned it into a cliché.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Hello everyone,

I remember saying “Calgon, take me away!” one day in the office and having the person I was talking to stare at me like I was speaking another language. Then I realized, this peer of mine was too young to remember the Calgon commercials. Outside of feeling old, I also wondered what other advertisements or phrases I might utter that the younger folks might not relate to.

When I received this email the other day about the idiom “a Kodak moment,” I thought that it might be one of those things. Here’s a definition of the idiom from The Grammarist:

A Kodak moment is a moment in time that is so precious because of its sentimental value or its beauty, one wishes to preserve it on film. For instance, a baby’s first steps may be considered a Kodak moment. A couple’s first dance at a wedding may be considered a Kodak moment. However, the view of the sweeping vista of the Grand Canyon may also be considered a Kodak moment, or the budding of a beautiful flower.

The expression Kodak moment came from a popular advertising campaign for the American Kodak cameras in the latter half of the twentieth century, produced by Eastman Kodak. Kodak cameras such as the Brownie and Instamatic cameras were reasonably priced and easy to use, so even the most inexperienced or busy people could operate them. Digital photography and phone cameras led to the demise of the once ubiquitous home Kodak camera, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

Today, Kodak focuses on business imaging. Note that the word Kodak is capitalized in the idiom Kodak moment, because it is a proper name.

I distinctly remember the last time I heard the phrase “This is a Kodak moment!” I was at the San Diego Zoo®, where they actually had little signs around the zoo in places they thought you might want to snap a picture (or grab your cell phone and click). A crowd was gathered around the Komodo dragon exhibit. Our dear dragon was outside, which was unusual, but that wasn’t what the moment was about. People were yelling, kids were being shuffled away, and folks like me gathered closer to take photos as the dragon moved around the cage—wearing part of his lunch (a dead dear) on top of his head. It was feeding time, and the dragon was wandering about with this awkward deer toupee. When a man shouted, “This is a definite Kodak moment!” I cracked up. So much for it being a precious moment…like a baby’s first step.

I wonder what, in twenty years, the equivalent of this phrase will be, and whether it will make today’s 30-year-olds feel like grandparents.

“There he is, your Komodo dragon.”

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Last week, I shared some word lists: a list of new words, a list of old words with new meanings, and a list of fading words. The list of new words may have got you wondering how words get included in the dictionary. Who decides? How do they decide on some words and not others?

This information, along with the lists I shared last time, comes an article called “How does a Word Become a Word?” The article points out that the first English dictionary, called The Elementaire (1582), contained about eight thousand words. In 2020, we English speakers use more than one million words; and interestingly, fewer than half of those are listed in a dictionary. But how do words get into a dictionary?

Well, some lucky (and I’m sure fascinating!) people are paid to spend their days researching English usage and then updating dictionaries based on what they find. There are numerous dictionaries—our dictionary of choice is Merriam-Webster, but there are many others. For a new word to be included in a dictionary, it must meet two specific criteria: it must “be used across a wide area by many people who agree on its meaning,” and it must have “staying power.”

Dictionary writers and editors watch word usage, and if a word meets the two criteria, they consult with colleagues to be as sure as they can that it has permanence, and if they determine that it does, they add it to the dictionary.

Not only are they always adding words, they are also evaluating existing words and removing those that have faded from use. What a job, eh? I’d like, just for a day, to have the power to remove words I don’t like from the English language. Bye bye phlegm. Bye bye impactful.

If you’re interested and you have a strong stomach, you can find quite a few lists online of English words that people hate. Phlegm is on most of the lists as are many other words that have to do with bodily fluids.

But some bodily fluids are music to our ears:

Blood, Sweat & Tears, circa 1969

BTS, released their song “Blood, Sweat, & Tears” in 2016

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

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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Dear Editrix,

I was wondering last night (I do my best thinking in the middle of the night!) why the abbreviations for pounds is lbs. and ounces is oz. Maybe you can shed some light on this?

Sincerely,

KS

Dear KS,

What a great question! I found an article on this topic in Mental Floss that provides an explanation for both of those abbreviations. I hope this sheds that needed light on your nighttime thoughts!

Lb is an abbreviation of the Latin word libra. The primary meaning of libra was balance or scales (as in the astrological sign), but it also stood for the ancient Roman unit of measure libra pondo, meaning “a pound by weight.” We got the word “pound” in English from the pondo part of the libra pondo but our abbreviation comes from the libra. The libra is also why the symbol for the British pound is £—an L with a line through it. The Italian lira also used that symbol (with two lines through it), the word “lira” itself being a shortened version of libra.

“Ounce” is related to the Latin uncia, the name for both the Roman ounce and inch units of measurement. The word came into English from Anglo-Norman French, where it was unce or ounce, but the abbreviation was borrowed from Medieval Italian, where the word was onza. These days the Italian word is oncia, and the area once covered by the Roman Empire has long since switched to the metric system.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Happy Thursday, friends!

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some words that have evolved to have different meanings than the ones they started with. Today, by popular demand, I have something similar for you.

GrammarBook.com provided three interesting lists of English words:

• New words
• Old words that have added a new meaning
• Words that are fading in usage

I don’t think there are any real surprises here. But it’s exciting to be aware of changes like these as they are happening. It makes me feel like I’m helping to shape the English language by being conscious of the words I do and don’t use.

Next week, I’ll share some information about how words get included in the dictionary. Enjoy your day!

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

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.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

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

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

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

Being a silent movie fan, I see a lot of “to-day” and “to-morrow.” I thought that maybe this changed in the 1930s, but the other night I was watching a documentary and the 1950s film clips showed a “to-day.” When was the hyphen finally dropped?

Signed, High-Fan.

Dear High-Fan,

You and the author of this article (DC Blog Spot) have made several of the same observations as far as the time line of the hyphenation of these terms. His observations are in literature, and he explains the trends as follows:

The origins of the practice lie in etymology: the three words were originally (in Old and Middle English) a preposition (to) followed by a separate word (dæg, niht, morwen). As a sense of their use as single notions developed, so the two elements were brought together in writing, but with considerable variation in usage, seen from the earliest records (tonight, to night, to-night).

The view that they should be written as separate words was reinforced when Johnson listed them under to as to day, to morrow, and to night (with no hyphen). Nineteenth-century dictionaries opted for the hyphen in all three words….

The OED shows hyphenated examples throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th. Latest examples are of to-day (1912), to-night (1908), and to-morrow (1927, with a possible further example as late as 1959). I have personal experience of all three words continuing to be hyphenated as late as the 1970s, as for some years now I’ve been editing the poetry of John Bradburne, who died in 1979, and in all his writing he consistently hyphenates. But he is a poet very much aware of the past, and regularly uses archaisms.

The article continues to say the by the 1990s, most popular dictionaries removed the hyphenated option as an acceptable spelling. Today’s Merriam-Webster does not list any of the three hyphenated versions as correct.

As an editor, I have to say that hyphens are already tricky, so I appreciate the latest move to get rid of them from the words.

Enjoy your day!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Hello fellow word lovers! I could not resist this collection of words from Daily Writing Tips. The article is called “Necromancy and Words for Divining the Future.” No, I’m not a witch or Tarot card reader, but I do find these things interesting. The article is a bit on the long side, but I think you’ll find it interesting. I cut a few things out, including the last word, but I’ll give you a hint: it has to do with following an animal around and “reading” the future by what the critter leaves behind, and it isn’t usually a fortune cookie. J

In times of uncertainty, people wish for some magical means of foretelling the future.

Considering that uncertainty is one of life’s certainties, it’s not surprising that human beings have come up with numerous ways to “look into the seeds of time/And say which grain will grow and which will not.”

The English vocabulary is rich in words that name different ways of divining the future. Most of them end with the suffix –mancy. The suffix derives from mantis (mάντης), a Greek noun for a prophet, diviner, or fortune-teller.

English compounds with –mancy include some that have been around since ancient Greek was still spoken….

necromancy
In current usage, necromancy has a general sense of sorcery, witchcraft, or black magic, but its literal meaning is formed from the Greek word for a corpse, nekros.

A medieval spelling of the word as nigromancie resulted in a misconception that the word was related to Latin niger, “black.” For that reason, necromancy was often defined as the “black arts.” The spelling was “restored” to necromancy in the sixteenth century. Practitioners of the art believed that the dead knew where treasure was buried and attempted to summon ghosts to reveal the information. They also robbed graves for body parts to use in divining rituals.

Here are some—but by no means all— English words that name different types of divination.

astromancy
divination by the stars.
Astromancy is another word for astrology.

bibliomancy
foretelling the future by placing a finger on the page of a randomly opened book and finding meaning in the words so found.
Any book can be used (biblios=book), but the Bible is commonly used for the purpose.

cartomancy
divination with playing cards.
Playing cards are thought to have originated in China during the Tang dynasty (618—906 CE), whence they spread to Egypt and Europe. Decks with four suits existed in southern Europe in 1365. Tarot cards began as playing cards in the mid-fifteenth century. Later, in the eighteenth century, they became popular for divination and special decks were developed for the purpose.

chiromancy
divination by studying the lines in the hands.
Chiro is Greek for hand. Chiromancy is another word for palmistry.

hieromancy
divination from the observation of objects used in sacrifice or other religious rites.
Hiero– is from the Greek word for holy.

oneiromancy
divination by interpretation of dreams.
Oneiro– is from a Greek word for dream.

pyromancy
divination by fire or by signs derived from fire

ornithomancy
divination by observing the behavior of birds.
Ornitho is from a Greek word for bird. Augury is another term for reading meaning in the behavior of birds.

rhabdomancy
divination by means of a rod or wand, specifically discovering ores, springs in the earth by means of a divining rod. Rhabdo is from the Greek word for rod. The practice of rhabdomancy remains very much alive. People who use rods, usually made of copper, are called dowsers. What they do is also called witching. The American Society of Dowsers, founded 1961, has a web page and hundreds of members who presumably make a good living plying their craft.

fancypantsymancy
divination by dress clothes. [KC – Sorry. I couldn’t resist.]

Unfortunate Fortune Cookies

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services