Editor's Corner

Toastmasters of the world, avert your eyes! I’m about to talk about something dreaded in your world: words that we use when we can’t think of the name for something, like stuff, or thingy, or doodad. Specifically, one of our readers was wondering about thingamajigs and thingamabobs.

Here’s what I found. First, I discovered that there are alternate spellings:

• thingamajig
• thingumajig
• thingamabob
• thingumabob
• thingumbob

The second thing I found was that they all have the same meaning: “something which is hard to classify or whose name is not known.” Merriam-Webster didn’t go much further than that. In fact, all it had as far as an etymology was “irregular, from thingum.” So I looked up thingum and it defined it as “thingumbob.” Thanks for nothing!

Moving on to my more reliable site for etymologies, I went to the Online Etymology Dictionary. Suddenly, I felt like someone was teasing me. Here is the thingamajig etymology:

also thingumajig, 1824, see thing. Compare in similar sense kickumbob (1620s), thingum (1670s), thingumbob (1751), thingummy (1796), jigamaree (1824).

And under thingamabob, the etymology dictionary has the following definitions, including some tasteless ones I’ve omitted:

dingbat (n.)

1838, American English, some kind of alcoholic drink, of unknown origin. One of that class of words (such as dingus, doohickey, gadget, gizmo, thingumabob) which are conjured up to supply names for items whose proper names are unknown or not recollected. Used at various periods for "money," "a muffin," "a woman who is neither your sister nor your mother," and "a foolish person in authority." Popularized in sense of "foolish person" by U.S. TV show "All in the Family" (1971-79), though this usage dates from 1905. In typography, by 1912 as a printer’s term for ornament used in headline or with illustrations.

I guess with all of those possible meanings, maybe Toastmasters should cast aspersions on us when we don’t use a precise, correct term!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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The Symitar editors receive a lot of comments and a few complaints about ever-changing English rules and about our own evolving JHA and Symitar standards. Some people get frustrated when the rules change. Some people think our editorial changes are too finicky. And on the other hand, many people think English rules are getting too lax. For example, few people use whom these days, and many people don’t know how to use apostrophes, or they think they’re completely unnecessary. Infinitives are being split willy-nilly. Untold sentences end in prepositions. Where will it end?

The answer is, it won’t. The English language, like all living languages around the world, is always evolving. We don’t speak like Shakespeare did in the 16th and 17th centuries. We don’t speak like Jane Austen did in the 19th century. In fact, we don’t even speak like our parents (you should be thankful I don’t speak like my dad, that cotton-pickin’, yellow-bellied sapsucker!).

I recently read some interesting articles on the changing English language (they are listed below, if you’re interested), and was intrigued by this statement: “…every time a child uses it, the language reproduces itself” (Erard). And every reproduction is a little different than the “original.” The article goes on to say that “…key factors in biological evolution—like natural selection and genetic drift—have parallels in how languages change over time.”

Words and phrases that are used more often by more people survive. Rules change according to how people actually use language. And sometimes rules and pronunciations change a little more randomly. “Every single speaker on Earth will have their own specific linguistic variants…This variation is sometimes driven by selection, but at other times, we like to choose our own options from the linguistic buffet available to us” (Erard).

Can we fight the changes? Absolutely. But we won’t always win. You may want to hear and see people using whom correctly, but if most people are not interested in correct usage, the actual usage will prevail and the rule will change. Remember Shakespeare, and consider again how much has changed since he was writing.

As editors, it is our job to know and enforce basic grammar rules and all of JHA’s standards and styles—even though they are always evolving. We also strive to produce documentation that is consistent no matter which employee wrote it. It’s a job we all love. We don’t always agree with changes that occur, but we’re busier than a one-legged cat in a sandbox trying to enforce them. And we do it all without pitchin’ a hissy fit (usually).

Articles:

https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/english-changing

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/how-english-language-has-evolved-living-creature

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Symitar Documentation Services

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Hello readers!

One of our dear clients sent this lesson about use to/used to to me some time ago. I have to admit, it’s a little tricky. The article assures you it is easy, but I think maybe this is one of those things (like lay and lie) that is easy for some and not for others. Maybe after reading it two more times, it will be burnt into my brain. Until then, this is from 5-Minute English. When you’re done reading the article, check out the quiz on the website! Thank you, Renée!

Use to/Used to

There is a little confusion on how to use the words use to and used to. One reason for the confusion is that it is sometimes used as a verb, and sometimes used as an adjective. The other reason is because it seems like the tense changes. It’s really quite simple when you look at it.

Used as an adjective. Use to be + used to. This means to be accustomed to. For example: I can study with the TV on. I am used to it. It means I am accustomed, adjusted, or don’t mind having the TV play while I’m studying.

Or another example: Tim had a hard time living in Tokyo. He wasn’t used to so many people. Tim didn’t have experience being with big crowds of people before.

Used as a verb. Use to + verb is a regular verb and means something that happened but doesn’t happen anymore. It uses -ed to show past tense. But since it always means something that happened in the past, it should always use past tense. For example: I used to go to school in Paris. (I went to school there before, but now I don’t.) Or, When Joshua was a child, he used to climb trees. (Now he doesn’t climb trees.)

Remember, we always use this word when talking about the past. So when do you use use to without the d at the end? When the base form of the verb is used. Look at these examples:

• She didn’t use to swim before noon. (Now she does swim before noon.)
• Did your father use to ride a horse?

In these cases, the past tense is shown with the did and didn’t.

Okay. Time to check your expertise! QUIZ

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning, folks! Today I have something brief but interesting that I found while perusing The Grammarist. The topics of discussion today are gimlet eyes and gimlet cocktails. Yes, it’s a bit early in the day for cocktails, but as they say, “It’s 5:00 p.m. somewhere!”

To have a gimlet eye or to cast a gimlet eye means to stare at someone or something in a piercing manner, or to stare in an extremely watchful manner. The term gimlet eye is derived from the gimlet, a small piercing or boring tool first used in the mid-1300s. The term gimlet eye came into use in the mid-1700s. The adjective form is gimlet-eyed. Note that the adjective is hyphenated, while the noun form, gimlet eye, is not hyphenated.

A gimlet cocktail is composed of gin and lime juice, with some variations. This concoction was invented in the latter 1800s by the British Naval Surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette, as a method to combat scurvy. [KC – I bet he traveled with a lot of happy sailors, though this might also be the reason behind early explorers finding their ways to the wrong continents.]

“Leave me in the car again and you get worse than a gimlet eye.”

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

The advantage of jargon is that it simplifies communication between people with a shared body of knowledge. For example, instead of telling another editor to “capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs,” I can say, “Use title case.”

The disadvantage of jargon is that it can be incomprehensible to people outside of your group. In the worst-case scenario, a jargon term means one thing to one group of people and something completely different to another group.

Different Definitions of Combo Box

In my post about combo boxes, I defined combo box as a user interface element that allows users to select a value from a list or enter another value that isn’t listed. My definition was similar to the definition in the Microsoft® Manual of Style: “a box in which the user can select an item from a list or type a value directly in the box.”

The Microsoft Manual of Style describes how to document the Windows® interface for users. But in a different context (documenting the .NET framework for programmers), Microsoft suggests that not all combo boxes allow the user to type a value directly in the box: “The DropDownStyle property specifies whether the text portion can be edited.”

Oracle® similarly refers to “uneditable combo boxes” in their Java™ documentation. I would not be surprised if various other groups of programmers had other definitions of combo box.

Avoid Jargon If You Can; Define It If You Can’t

To different people, knowledgeable in their respective fields, combo box has a different meaning. As I wrote in my original post, it is not worth using a potentially confusing term when it’s not necessary.

If you must use jargon (or any possibly unfamiliar term), define it the first time you mention it. That’s the only way you can be sure you and the reader are speaking the same language.

Ben Ritter | Technical Editor | Symitar®
8985 Balboa Avenue | San Diego, CA 92123
619-682-3391 | or ext. 763391 | www.Symitar.com

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It’s been a while since I’ve traveled anywhere (okay, about a month), but I already feel that itch to get back on the road. Since I don’t have any trips planned until later this year, I thought we could go for a voyage through language. The following terms for apparel materials are derived from place names. The list is from Daily Writing Tips.

1. angora: a type of wool from Angora rabbits, which originated near Ankara (previously Angora), Turkey
2. Bedford cord: a corduroy-like fabric, named after Bedford, England, or New Bedford, Massachusetts
3. calico: a type of cloth originally from Calicut, India
4. cambric: a type of cloth originally from Cambrai, France
5. cashmere: a type of wool and a woolen fabric from Kashmir goats, which come from the Kashmir region of India
6. chino cloth: a cloth originating in China (the name is Spanish for “Chinese”)
7. Cordovan leather: a type of shoe leather first produced in Cordoba, Spain
8. damask: a type of fabric named after Damascus, Syria
9. denim: a type of fabric originally called serge de Nîmes, or “serge of Nîmes,” after Nîmes, a town in France
10. dungaree: a type of denim cloth originating in Dongrī, India; pants or overalls made from this fabric are called dungarees
11. duffel: a cloth first made in Duffel, Belgium
12. Harris tweed: a type of handwoven tweed cloth originating on the island of Lewis and Harris and adjacent islands in Scotland (the name of the cloth type tweed is coincidental with the name of the river Tweed)
13. Holland (or Holland cloth): a type of linen originally made in various parts of Europe, including the province of Holland in the Netherlands
14. jaconet: a fabric originally from Puri, India (the word is derived from the name of the city’s Jagannath Temple)
15. jean: a type of fabric originating in Genoa, Italy
16. jersey: a type of knit fabric originating on the island of Jersey, next to France (but a dependency of the United Kingdom)
17. Mackinaw cloth: a woolen cloth used for thick, warm jackets (called Mackinaws or Macs) originally favored by lumberjacks and then hunters and fishermen in the Mackinac (or Mackinaw) region of Michigan
18. madras: a lightweight cloth originally from Madras, India (now called Chennai)
19. muslin: a lightweight fabric originally from Mosul, Iraq
20. Morocco leather: a type of leather originally from Moroccan goats
21. nankeen: a type of fabric originating in Nanjing, China (previously called Nanking or Nankin); also refers to pants made of this material, as well as the pale buff or yellow color of the fabric, a type of porcelain originating in the city, and a type of lace (often called nankins) and part of the name of numerous animals and plants featuring this color
22. osnaburg: a coarse cloth originally made in Osnabrück, Germany
23. suede: a type of leather made from the underside of animal skins, originally referenced in the French phrase gants de Suède (“gloves from Sweden”); similar-looking fabrics are referred to as “sueded silk” and so on
24. tulle: a type of fabric originating in Tulle, France
25. worsted: a type of wool whose name is derived from that of Worstead, one of the villages from which it originated; also, the name of a type of yarn and a category of yarn weight

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Last week I wrote about using the word gift as a verb, for example, “Anne was thrilled to be able to gift her daughter with a lovely pair of pearl earrings.”

Robert T. sent me some fascinating information about the word gift. He told me that the German translation for the English word poison is gift. That just doesn’t seem like it could be a coincidence, so I looked up the etymology of poison to find out how these words are related, and I found this:

In many Germanic languages “poison” is named by a word equivalent to English gift (such as Old High German gift, German Gift, Danish and Swedish gift; Dutch gift, vergift). This shift might have been partly euphemistic, partly by influence of Greek dosis “a portion prescribed,” literally “a giving,” used by Galen and other Greek physicians to mean an amount of medicine.

That’s fascinating, right? We say poison; they say gift. I love how languages intermingle.

Oh! Now I know what I’m getting for my husband for our anniversary this year. 😊

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Symitar Documentation Services

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Dear Editrix,

“I’m at your disposal.” What are you possibly gonna do to me? What the heck does that mean?

Marty in Monett

Dear Marty,

Thank you for making me laugh. What am I gonna do to you? “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” (Okay, no more Taxi Driver, it gets heavily censored from here.)

What a good question about this odd phrase. I found a little something on Daily Writing Tips about it. I personally don’t think “I am at your disposal” sounds very nice, even when is intended to be a polite thing to say. Here’s what Maeve Maddox has to say about it (click the link for the full article):

Some speakers, perhaps because of their familiarity with the word disposal in connection with trash, seem to have trouble with the polite idiom “at your disposal.”

For example, I saw this comment on a Yahoo forum: “If you are at their disposal, it is derogatory and demeaning.”

Disposal and its different forms descend from Latin disponere, “to set in different places, to arrange.” The verb has more than one meaning, including the following:

· to place or arrange things in a particular order

· to make fit or ready

· to make arrangements

· to get rid of

The noun disposal can mean the action of disposing of something. In the expression “at one’s disposal,” it means “the power or right to dispose of, make use of, or deal with as one pleases.” The notion that the person “at one’s disposal” is “under the command of another” is doubtless the reason for objections to the expression by literalists.

Language has its polite conventions, and most people can tell the difference between convention and sincerity.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Dear Editrix,

I read an article where they mentioned homing in on something. Isn’t the verb to hone in on something? I think it’s homing pigeons, not honing pigeons. Now I’m confused!

Sincerely,

Where should I send my pigeons to roost?

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

Dear friend of pigeons,

Let’s have a look at these frequently confused words and phrases. Here is some information from The Grammarist:

Home in means to direct on a target. The phrasal verb derives from the 19th-century use of homing pigeons, but it resurged in the 20th century to refer to missiles that home in on their targets. It’s also commonly used metaphorically, where to home in on something is to focus on and make progress toward it.

Hone inbegan as an alteration of home in, and many people regard it as an error. It is a very common, though, especially in the U.S. and Canada—so common that many dictionaries now list it—and there are arguments in its favor. Hone means to sharpen or to perfect, and we can think of homing in as a sharpening of focus or a perfecting of one’s trajectory toward a target. So while it might not make strict logical sense, extending hone this way is not a huge leap.

Outside North America, home in prevails by a huge margin. It also prevails in North America, but only by a ratio of about two to one. Hone in is common even in technical, scientific, and military contexts, where one might expect home in to prevail. A few American and Canadian publishers clearly favor home in as a matter of policy, but most apparently have no strictly enforced policy one way or the other.

Phone home:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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I read an interesting article from Daily Writing Tips and I want to share it with you. It is about using familiar words in an unfamiliar way in the workplace. We want to make sure that we use words as they’re defined in the dictionary so that the everyone in our audience will understand what we’re saying. Here’s the article for you to read:

Corporate-speak takes many forms, but especially mysterious is the practice of taking a familiar English word commonly understood to have one meaning and using it with a less familiar meaning. Here are five examples.

1. actionable
common meaning: “giving cause for legal action.”
Example: Disrespect in the workplace may constitute actionable behavior.

corporate usage: able to be acted upon or put into practice.
Example: From Apple to the Toastmasters, the world’s most successful organizations demand that attendees leave meetings with actionable tasks.

2. ecosystem
common meaning: A biological system composed of all the organisms found in a particular physical environment, interacting with it and with each other.
Example: Sockeye salmon vs. Pebble Mine: Protecting a fragile ecosystem in Alaska from destruction.

corporate usage: a complex system resembling a biological ecosystem.
Example: For me, a successful Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is a space run by people with very entrepreneurial minds. Ecosystems are self-supporting, energetic environments that attract, nurture, move on and reward different stakeholders.

3. granular
common meaning: Consisting of grains or granules; existing in the condition of grains or granules. (granule: A small grain; a small compact particle; a pellet.)
Example: “Sandpaper” is material upon which a granular layer of some abrasive has been fixed by means of an adhesive.

corporate usage: attending to or explaining the fine details of a topic.
Example: The CEO and CFO see the bottom line of the cost of your department more clearly than they see the success of individual projects. They’re not idiots. They can get granular if they have to, but what they really want to know is if the total cost of IT is worth the output.

4. socialize
common meaning: to civilize, to make suitable for society.
Example: Pet owners socialize their puppies by taking them into different situations.

corporate usage: to let people know about something.
Examples:
1. Employees will form beliefs based on what they experience before and after you widely socialize the new purpose and those beliefs will drive their actions.
2. When a good idea hits, find the fastest, cheapest way to get something that will demonstrate and socialize the idea to at least some segment of the target marked.

5. surface
common meaning: intransitive verb meaning to come to the surface, especially, to rise to the surface of water. Figuratively, “to surface” means to come to public attention after a period of obscurity or concealment.
Examples:
1. Sometimes we saw the whale and the dolphins surface at the same time.
2. Fear of the truths that might surface about ourselves…

corporate usage: transitive verb meaning “to raise.”
Example: Plan on meeting regularly so that team members stay informed and any issues you surface are resolved in a timely manner.

All occupations develop specialized terminology that serves a practical purpose. For example, terms like banner, head, and gutter provide useful shorthand in the context of running a newspaper. Used in an occupational context, the words’ other meanings do not impede communication.

Wrenching the meanings of words like socialize and surface however, has the effect of muddying communication. Speakers who wish to be understood by the largest number of listeners will do well to avoid such meaningless cant in their business meetings and correspondence.

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

Symitar Documentation Services

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