Editor's Corner

Dear Editrix,

Where do these two phrases come from?

• Pipe dream
• Barn burner

Ms. B

Hello, Ms. B. and thank you for the question! I was surprised at the answers. I think you will find them interesting!

From the Phrase Finder website, here is information on pipe dreams:

A “pipe dream" is an unrealistic hope or fantasy.

The phrase “pipe dream" is an allusion to the dreams experienced by smokers of opium pipes.

Opiates were widely used by the English literati in the 18th and 19th centuries. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the best-known users, and it would be difficult to claim that the imagery in surreal works like Kubla Khan owed nothing to opium. [KC – “In Xanadu did
Kubla Khan/a stately pleasure-dome decree…”] Lewis Carroll, although not known to be an opium user himself, makes clear allusions to drug use in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has his hero Sherlock Holmes visit an opium den—although that was for research rather than consumption.

It’s strange then that “pipe dream” comes from none of these sources but has an American origin. The early references to the phrase all originate from in or around Chicago. The earliest I have found is from The Chicago Daily Tribune, December 1890:

"It [aerial navigation] has been regarded as a pipe-dream for a good many years."

And from the Grammarist, we have this history of the phrase barn burner:

A barn burner is an event that is extremely exciting, or a person who is extremely exciting. Typically, barn burner is a term that is applied to intense sporting events. An American phrase, barn burner was first coined as one word, barnburner, to describe a certain type of politician in the mid-1800s. This early use of barnburner described someone who, when faced with a barn infested with rats, was willing to burn down the barn in order to get rid of the rats. American wildcat oilmen were the next to use the word barnburner, to describe a gusher oil well. Today, barn burner is almost always rendered as two words, hyphenated when used as an adjective, and is often augmented with the word real, as in a real barn burner.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Hello, dear readers! I was just catching up on the monthly Q&A from the Chicago Manual of Style, and one of the questions touched on something I can get a bit peeved about: the use of and/or in writing. Here is the question and answer from CMOS:

Q. I am editing a brief in which the author has used “and/or” multiple times. I know that this term should be avoided, but I’m not exactly sure why. Is it because it’s confusing and ambiguous? What is The Chicago Manual of Style’s stance?

A. CMOS, in chapter 5, says to “avoid this Janus-faced term”. Janus-faced means duplicitous—in other words, appearing to say two contradictory things simultaneously. The problem is the slash, which is potentially ambiguous; for example, readers might choose to interpret “x and/or y” as meaning either x and y or just y—but not x alone. In fact, “x and/or y” is usually intended to mean “x or y, or both,” and where that is the case, section 5.250 recommends writing exactly that (take a sleeping pill or a warm drink, or both). In many cases, however, “or” alone would make the meaning perfectly clear. For example, “no cats or dogs allowed” means that no combination of cats or dogs—or cats and dogs—is allowed. In formal prose, including legal writing, such considerations of the precisely intended meaning are important. In casual prose, “and/or” can occasionally serve as a useful shorthand: bring your own beer and/or wine. No one will fail to understand the meaning of that.

Okay, so first: we are not generally writing casual material here for inviting people over for a booze-fest. If you want to be ambiguous and unclear about your party, be my guest. But when you are writing technical documentation or addressing clients, it is best to be as clear as possible. Don’t get lazy—a slash (/) may save you a few keystrokes, but it can also muddy the waters of your documentation.

If you write “Click the Koala icon and/or use the menu to navigate” I’m not sure if you want me to click the icon and then use the menu to navigate to something, or if you are offering me a choice—to navigate using the Koala icon or navigate using the menu. When a reader is looking at our instructions, we don’t want them to get confused or ask, “Huh?” while they’re reading. If you aren’t sure about the topic, find the answers first and then get more specific. Should it be and, or, or as they mention above, both? Be specific, stay away from slashes, and keep those koalas safe!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning to you! Today’s topic is a subtle but important one. While editing, I often find myself re-reading sentences due to a lack of clarity that stems from the misuse of the words as, because, and since.

While these words are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings and the following post from GrammarBook.com (one of my favorite online grammar resources) makes the distinctions clear. Read on, and enjoy the rest of your day!

American English is a rich, expressive language. At the same time, it includes words that sometimes appear to be alike but have slight distinctions. Without recognizing those subtleties, we might use one word when we mean another.

As, because, and since are three conjunctions that introduce subordinate clauses (those that cannot stand alone in sentences) connecting a result and a reason. A closer understanding of these words helps us write with greater clarity and emphasis in achieving this.

We use because when we want to focus more on the reason. We use as and since when we wish to center on the result.

Most commonly, the because clause emphasizing the reason ends the sentence; the as or since clause stressing the result starts the sentence.

Examples

Result: She got the promotion over four other candidates.
Reason: She knew the system best.

Sentence emphasizing the reason with because clause: She got the promotion over four other candidates because she knew the system best.

Sentence emphasizing the result with as clause: As she knew the system best, she got the promotion over four other candidates.

Sentence emphasizing the result with since clause: Since she knew the system best, she got the promotion over four other candidates.

The placement of the because, as, or since clause can be changed in the sentences above. Some writers might contend that only the shifted because clause maintains effective fluency while the repositioned as and since clauses sound more stilted. Moving the clauses will also change the emphasis by switching the order of the result and the reason.

Because she knew the system best, she got the promotion over four other candidates.

She got the promotion over four other candidates, as she knew the system best.

She got the promotion over four other candidates, since she knew the system best.

Because is more common than as or since in both writing and speaking, suggesting we typically emphasize reasons more than results. As and since also are considered more formal in usage.

Looking at the details of these conjunctions polishes another tool in our quest to be writers of precision and eloquence.

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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Hello, everyone!

I hope you all had a nice set of holidays and that you are ready to tackle 2020! Today I have a topic that several of you have written to me about: the words use and utilize.

Some of you have written saying that you hate it when people overuse the word utilize. Others have written me asking why people (like editors) often change the word utilize to use. Let’s have a look at these two words, from portions of an article on the Elite Editing website.

When should you use “use,” and when should you pull out that big vocabulary and use “utilize”?

Aside from sounding pretentious when using the latter, at first glance these words seem almost identical. The definition of use is “to put into action, employ, utilize.” Likewise, the definition of utilize is “to make use of, employ.” But utilize also carries with it an assumed strategy of employment.

What does that mean?

Utilize can be used when indicating that the application is beyond its original intended use. For instance, “I use my frying pan to cook with, but I have utilized it as a weapon.” The intended use of a frying pan is for cooking, so the proper word here is use. When employing a creative or unintended application, like using a frying pan as a weapon, utilize is the right word.

Here are some more examples of the two words head-to-head, in sentences that use them correctly:

• I used bricks to build a new fireplace.
• I utilized bricks to fight off swarms of termites trying to eat my house.

• Jerry likes to use five-gallon buckets of white paint to mix in his own subtle colors.
• Jerry likes to utilize five-gallon buckets of white paint as steps from his unfinished front deck to his driveway.

• Shayna uses her laptop to work on spreadsheets.
• Shayna utilizes her laptop as a doorstop.

I hope that helps. When you think about most of the time people say or write utilize, they are really talking about using something in its intended manner; save utilize for those rare occasions of “creative or unintended applications.”

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Now that we’re all settled in to 2020, we can sit back, take a little break from the revelry, and have a quiet chat about the rules of pluralization. Yep. We’re starting the year off with a slow grammar roll.

When you want to pluralize a word, the basic rule is to add an s. Sometimes, however, you have to add es, as my friend Jan. W. pointed out, which prompted me to look into the rules a little more closely. My research led me to a short list of rules for pluralizing many English words. I thought it would be a helpful reminder for you. I am not including the exceptions like child/children, person/people, etc. I’m afraid you’re on your own memorizing those.

So, which words are pluralized with es instead of s? The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) explains that we add es to words that end in ch, j, s, sh, x, or z. Who knew? Here are some examples:

• torch/torches
• raj/rajes (not many English words end in j)
• lass/lasses
• crash/crashes
• tax/taxes
• fizz/fizzes

Pluralizing names works the same way—you add s for most names, but you add es for names that end in ch, j, s, sh, x, or z:

• Burcher/Burchers
• Church/Churches
• Jones/Joneses
• Walsh/Walshes
• Martinez/Martinezes (that’s a mouthful)

CMOS also provides this rule for pluralizing a compound word (with or without a hyphen)—you usually add s to the first word:

• fathers-in-law
• masters of arts
• attorneys general

And finally, CMOS provided this list of words and phrases that sometimes create problems. Note that we do not use apostrophes for these plurals—that’s a common mistake that people make:

• ifs ands or buts

• dos and don’ts (there’s an apostrophe for the contraction don’t, but not for the plural of do)
• threes and fours
• maybes
• yeses and nos (again, no apostrophe for nos)

CMOS didn’t mention the phrase to-dos, but Kearn L. and I would like to add it to the list above. Merriam-Webster spells it with a hyphen.

Happy New Year everyone!

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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Good morning, everyone. Happy (almost) New Year!

Usually we have a little breathing room at the end of the year, so I was hoping to have time to write about different “words of the year” and to do a little review of 2019. But this year our editing cups runneth over and I haven’t had time. Today’s Editor’s Corner is dedicated to the last article I had a chance to look into and write. I guess I will get to “words of the year” in 2020.

Happy New Year!

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

Dear Editrix,

What does it mean when someone replies, “everything is honky dory”?

Sincerely,

Ms. B

Dear Ms. B,

Where do I start? Okay, according to Merriam-Webster, the actual spelling is “hunky-dory.” It is an adjective that means “quite satisfactory” or “fine.” When someone tells you that everything is “hunky-dory,” it means everything is good.” Now, let’s look a little closer at this term.

I think, from your original spelling, you might’ve thought it meant something completely different. “Honky” is a derogatory term for white people, so I imagine that this could have been a bit startling if you thought that was part of the response someone was giving you. And a “dory” is a small, flat-bottomed boat. But really, the term hunky-dory has nothing in particular to do with insulting white people or small boats. No wonder idiomatic phrases are so difficult to understand!

Here is the etymology for the term hunky-dory, from the Online Etymology Dictionary. I apologize in advance to sailors, including my uncle:

1866, American English (popularized c. 1870 by a Christy Minstrel song), perhaps an elaboration of hunkey "all right, satisfactory" (1861), from hunk "in a safe position" (1847) New York City slang used in street games, from Dutch honk "post, station, home," in children’s play, "base, goal," from Middle Dutch honc "place of refuge, hiding place." A theory from 1876, however, traces it to Honcho dori, said to be a street in Yokohama, Japan, where sailors went for diversions of the sort sailors enjoy. [KC – Maybe they mean singing sea chanties?]

And finally, Hunky Dory is the name of a studio album by David Bowie.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Happy Boxing Day!

December 26 is not a significant day in the United States, but it is in the United Kingdom. Over there, and in the Commonwealth nations, they are celebrating Boxing Day today.

But what is Boxing Day all about? Well, I can tell you that traditionally, it had nothing to do with boxing matches or any other kind of fighting. It actually goes back to the Middle Ages, and it historically involves giving gifts to employees and people in need.

No one is sure how the day got its name, but it could be from the “Christmas box,” which was a clay box or container that was often placed in artisan shops in England. People put donations for the shop workers inside the box, and the day after Christmas, the box was broken, and the workers shared the contents.

Or, the term could come from the tradition churches had of collecting money in a designated box and distributing the money to people in need.

I have also heard that wealthy families and aristocrats who had house staff typically gave the staff at least part of the day after Christmas off, and they boxed up leftovers from the Christmas meal for them to take home to their families.

These days, Boxing Day is often associated with sporting events, especially soccer. In some African Commonwealth nations, prize-fighting contests are now held on Boxing Day. And I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that the day has also come to be associated with sales, similar to Black Friday.

At my house, we celebrate Boxing Day by opening the package my in-laws send to us from England. It usually includes PG Tips tea bags, huge creamy Cadbury chocolate bars, and other assorted favorite candies. Just a little taste of heaven.

I hope your Boxing Day is peaceful and delicious.

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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In years past, I’ve done the 12 Day of Grammar and the 12 Days of English, but I’m not going to go there this year. Today, I’m going to take a moment to sip some sugar-free spiced cider, I’m going to inhale the scent of pine needles, and I’m going to admire the amazing Wonder Woman figurine that somebody left on my desk. (Best Christmas present ever! Thank you, Eric!)

Oh yes, I’m also going to shamelessly guide you to an article about words and the upcoming holiday, written by Meghan Jones—not by me or my sweet little elves. We’re taking a break!

Enjoy!

Why Do We Say “Merry Christmas” but “Happy” Everything Else? by Meghan Jones

The word "merry" isn’t one we use very often during the months of January through November. But as soon as Thanksgiving passes, you’re bound to start hearing and seeing it everywhere—on billboards, on decorations, in songs, and, of course, straight from the mouths of well-wishers. And after it, you’re almost certain to hear the word "Christmas." (Or the words "little Christmas," in the event of a certain holiday standard.) But if you wished someone a "Merry Birthday," or a "Merry Halloween," you’d probably get some weird looks! Likewise, if you wished someone a "Happy Christmas" (unless you live in England, where many people do say "Happy Christmas"). Why is Christmas the only holiday we hope will be "merry"?

Today, we use " merry" for Christmas the way we use "happy" for any other holiday, but the words themselves technically don’t have the exact same meaning. While "happy" suggests a more general emotional state of joy, "merry" can imply that there’s a bit of raucous revelry afoot. And before the 18th century, you could hear both "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Christmas." The most likely reason for this is the fact that, well, "merry" was just a far more popular word back then than it is today. The first written record of someone using "Merry Christmas" comes from a 1534 letter from a bishop to royal minister Thomas Cromwell.

But then, in the 18th century, "merry" started to tip the scales, largely thanks to one man: Charles Dickens. "Merry Christmas" was the phrase of choice in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a work that would have a major influence on the modern English-speaking world’s perception of Christmas. It was gaining popularity in carols as well. In addition, the language was changing and "merry" was falling out of fashion as a word on its own. It stuck around, though, in phrases like "the more the merrier" and—you guessed it—the now increasingly popular "Merry Christmas."

But, because of the potentially rabble-rousing connotations of "Merry Christmas," high-class Brits—including the royal family themselves—chose "Happy Christmas" as their default greeting. That’s why you’ll still hear it today in the U.K. This likely also helped cement the popularity of "Merry Christmas" in America—newly independent Americans were determined to specifically not do and say things the British way.

Now, of course, because of the popularity of "Merry Christmas"—and how little we say "merry" in other situations—"merry" now calls to mind a celebration that’s cozy, festive, and filled with gift-giving rather than one that’s overly revelrous and rowdy. And this is the most likely reason it would just sound…odd to use the word for any other holiday.

Happy Holidays!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning, folks!

Today’s question is from one of our credit union clients. He asked if I could review the phrase “I feel like chopped liver” or “What am I? Chopped liver?” A coworker said it, and he thought that it meant they were going to go eat chopped liver.

Well, Michael, of course we can review it! According to Know Your Phrase, “What am I? Chopped liver?” is a “rhetorical question used by a person who feels they are being given less attention or consideration than someone else.”

Here are the author’s theories on where the phrase might be from:

The first theory says that liver is not always viewed on the same level as other foods. For example, if a person is cooking a chicken, they’ll oftentimes throw away the giblets, you know, like the liver or gizzard. Or instead of throwing the giblets away, the person will cook them, not for themselves, but for their pets to eat. Hence, since liver is not usually as desirable to eat as other foods, the expression might spring from such an idea.

Another explanation, as Wikipedia explains, is that “chopped liver was traditionally served as a side dish rather than a main course.” So, the idea would be that sometimes, a person might feel like their thoughts or feelings are not being considered as fully as they should, so they feel like they are being treated as if they were a side dish.

I’m not sure what your coworker was getting at, but this is the most common use and meaning of the phrase.

I am definitely NOT chopped liver! Ew.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Very recently, the phrase “OK Boomer” has become popular among younger people to “dismiss or mock attitudes stereotypically attributed to the Baby Boomer generation. It is considered by some to be ageist,” according to an article on Wikipedia. The phrase is traced back to 2009, but it didn’t become popular until January of this year, when people started reacting to a video of an older man who said "millennials and Generation Z have the Peter Pan syndrome, they don’t ever want to grow up; they think that the Utopian ideals that they have in their youth are somehow going to translate into adulthood.” The response to the video (“OK Boomer”) became even more popular this past November because of several news stories on the phrase.

Rather than insult each other, let’s look into where some of these generational names came from. The following excerpt is from an article called How Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials Got Their Names, from Mental Floss:

…Who decides what…generations are named, if they get a name at all? Surprisingly, there isn’t one single clearinghouse where these names are chosen. Instead, generations frequently receive multiple names that then battle it out until only one remains—a process that is currently being fought between the likes of iGen, Generation Z, and Post-Millennials….

BABY BOOMERS (1946-1964)

(KC – The children who would come to be known as Baby Boomers were born a few years after the soldiers returned home from World War II and the economy “boomed.”)

Although the children born from 1946 to 1964 get the name Baby Boomers, that phrase wouldn’t appear until near the end of the generation. In January 1963 the Newport News Daily Press warned of a tidal wave of college enrollment coming as the “Baby Boomers” were growing up….

Oddly, an alternate name for people born during this time was Generation X; as London’s The Observer noted in 1964, “Like most generations, ‘Generation X’—as the editors tag today’s under 25s—show a notable lack of faith in the Old Ones.”

GENERATION X (1965-1980)

That comment in The Observer was in reference to a then-recently published book called Generation X by Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett. A few years later, Joan Broad bought a copy at a garage sale, her son found it, and he fell in love with the name.

That son was Billy Idol, and according to his memoir, Dancing with Myself,“We immediately thought it could be a great name for this new band, since we both felt part of a youth movement bereft of a future, that we were completely misunderstood by and detached from the present social and cultural spectrum.” The band Generation X would begin Billy Idol’s career. [KC – And the song “Your Generation” is one of my all-time favorites!]

But the name Generation X wouldn’t become associated with a wide group of people until 1991. That’s the year Douglas Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture was released….

MILLENNIALS (1981-1996)

What comes after Generation X? Generation Y, obviously. That was the logic behind several newspaper columns that proclaimed the coming of Generation Y in the early ’90s. But as psychologist Jean Twenge explained…the failure of “baby busters” as a term to describe Generation X, “Labels that derive from the previous generation don’t tend to stick.”

Instead, in 1991 authors Neil Howe and William Strauss wrote Generations, which included a discussion about the Millennials. According to Forbes, they felt that as the oldest members of this generation were graduating high school in 2000—and everyone was focusing on the coming date—Millennials seemed a natural fit.

It seems there has always been a generation gap. Like Millennials today, Boomers probably felt that previous generations were out of touch.

No matter which generation you are part of, try to appreciate the differences of those younger or older than you—instead of using their generation’s name as an insult.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services