Editor's Corner

I’m afraid there’s not a simple way to explain whether to use between or among when you are comparing things, but I’ll give it a try. The good news is that, for most of you, this is something you know inherently, and you don’t really need an explanation. But for English language learners, this can be a bugaboo.

The rule you may have heard is that you should use between when you are talking about two things, and you should use among when you are talking about three or more things. And that rule will serve you well—much of the time.

But consider this sentence: “I am choosing ________ my mom, my dad, and my best friend to share my lottery winnings with.” You’ve got three things there, but intuitively you probably know that you should use between. Why is that?

Well, it is true that we always use between when we are talking about only two things, but we also use between when we are talking about three or more things individually. Because I listed my mom, my dad, and my best friend separately, I need to use between.

If I had said, “The office workers decided to divide their lottery winnings evenly ________ themselves,” it would feel natural, and it would be correct, to use among. In that case, I am not listing the office workers individually. They are a whole group of lucky people who get to share the winnings.

(As a side note, the words among and amongst mean the same thing. Among is most commonly used in the United States while amongst is most commonly used in the United Kingdom.)

And now you have an explanation for a rule that you didn’t even know you needed an explanation for. You’re welcome!

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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Today’s offering is the second half of the list I shared with you yesterday from various church bulletins. The following quotes are from Funny Typos and Grammar Errors That Bug Real Church Bulletins. Enjoy!

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be “What Is Hell?” Come early and listen to our choir practice.

***

Attend and you will hear an excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch. The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

***

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM – prayer and medication to follow.

***

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals. The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

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Please place your donation in the envelope a long with the deceased person you want remembered.

***

The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.”

***

Don’t let worry kill you off—let the Church help.

***

For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

***

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack’s sermons.

***

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

***

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

***

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.

***

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning! I want to thank our coworker, Marvin Rau, for sending me an article that included some of these typos. I’ll spread them over two days so your laughter lasts twice as long! The following quotes are from Funny Typos and Grammar Errors That Bug Real Church Bulletins.

Thank goodness for dear old church ladies and gentlemen with word processors. These sentences that come from a collection in alphaDictonary.com actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services. For some inexplicable reason, typos and slips of language are funnier coming from church.

This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

***

Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands.

***

Miss Charlene Mason sang “I will not pass this way again,” giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

***

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

***

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say “Hell” to someone who doesn’t care much about you.

***

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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Whenever New Years Day rolls around, people love to make predictions about the coming year. For the past week or so, my newsfeed has been filled with forecasts about celebrities, politics, sports, technology, and the stock market.

Heres one prediction thats sure to come true: In 2018 (and for years to come), people will continue to be confused by the words prophecy and prophesy. But not you, dear reader.

The words prophet, prophecy, and prophesy all come from Greek pro (before) + phts (speaker). They can refer to divine inspiration, as in the following definitions (from Merriam-Webster):

prophet: (noun) one who utters divinely inspired revelations

prophecy: (noun) an inspired utterance of a prophet

prophesy: (verb) to speak as if divinely inspired

They can also refer more generally to predicting the future:

prophet: (noun) one who foretells future events

prophecy: (noun) a prediction of something to come

prophesy: (verb) to make a prediction

Most people correctly use the nouns prophet and prophecy (which rhymes with see). But many people get tripped up by the verb prophesy (which rhymes with sigh). Prophesy is correctly conjugated in the following examples:

Holy men were prophesying the coming of a new messiah.

The book claims that modern events were prophesied in ancient times.

There is no Z in prophesy, but so many people started saying prophesize that it is now listed in many dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster. The Chicago Manual of Style is not so permissive, tersely stating, Prophesize is an erroneous form.

This is the last Editors Corner post of 2017, but well be back next Tuesday. I wish you all health and happiness in the new year.

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

Symitar Documentation Services

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immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good morning!

I don’t know about you, but more than one of my English teachers told me that it is wrong to start a sentence with a conjunction (and, but, or, so, etc.). Well, they were incorrect. This rule turns out to be a myth.

The Chicago Manual of Style (5.203: “Beginning a sentence with a conjunction”) has this to say:

There is a widespread belief—one with no historical or grammatical foundation—that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as and, but or so. In fact, a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent) of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions. It has been so for centuries, and even the most conservative grammarians have followed this practice.

It turns out that we’ve been starting sentences with conjunctions since the 9th century, according to Merriam-Webster, who also say, “Everybody agrees that it’s all right to begin a sentence with and, and nearly everybody admits to having been taught at some past time that the practice was wrong."

So how did this myth of a rule start? A couple of articles I read say that it likely began with teachers trying to prevent children from stringing together numerous sentences that begin with coordinating conjunctions.

According to Dave Crystal in his book The Story of English in 100 Words:

During the 19th century, some schoolteachers took against the practice of beginning a sentence with a word like but or and, presumably because they noticed the way young children overused them in their writing. But instead of gently weaning the children away from overuse, they banned the usage altogether! Generations of children were taught they should “never” begin a sentence with a conjunction. Some still are.

Thanks 19th century kids. You ruined it for all of us!

In case you’d like to see an example of how you can write a correct sentence beginning with and or but, here are a couple of sentences from the 1959 edition of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style: But since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. And although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

So, there you go! In the 21st century, you are free to begin your sentences with coordinating conjunctions. Just be careful to use them sparingly or you know what’ll happen.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And moms and dads yelling
Till kids are in tears

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Okay, I’m pretty sure those aren’t the words, so I probably won’t be invited to go caroling with any of you. But I do like this time of year for all of the recaps and the stories about things that happened, plus what we have to look forward to in the new year. Today I have the Word of the Year for you, from Dictionary.com, which is based on the Random House Dictionary.

Drumroll please!

The Word of the Year is:

complicit (adjective)

1. choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act, especially with others; having complicity.

Here is some additional information from the website:

The word complicit sprung up in conversations in 2017 about those who spoke out against powerful figures and institutions and about those who stayed silent. It was a year of real awakening to complicity in various sectors of society, from politics to pop culture. From our 2017 Word of the Year announcement:

Our choice for Word of the Year is as much about what is visible as it is about what is not. It’s a word that reminds us that even inaction is a type of action. The silent acceptance of wrongdoing is how we’ve gotten to this point. We must not let this continue to be the norm. If we do, then we are all complicit.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Many of you mentioned that you enjoyed the mondegreens I provided a week or so ago, so I thought I’d try to dig up some more. Some of these may be repeats, but some are new. Several cracked me up and I hope they bring a smile to your face, too! These are from a collection of mondegreens here. [KC – There are some naughty ones there, so beware if you decide to visit
that page.]

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Dear Editrix,

Where does the idiom “from the bottom of my heart” come from? I’ve sent you a photo to help with your research.

Thanks!

Man in Monett

Hey, man!

I looked around at quite a few sites for information on this idiom. None of them seemed to have a single, definite answer that I could prove, but they all indicated that the phrase has existed for hundreds of years. One site said that it was part of a hymn book from the 1500s. Several sites traced it back to Greece and Rome. Here is some information from Owlcation that seems plausible:

FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART

Meaning: With sincere and deep thanks or love

Origin: The ancient Greek philosopher, Archimedes, believed that it was the brain that pumped blood and that the heart was responsible for thinking or feeling. Therefore, saying, "I love you" or "thank you", "from the bottom of my heart" would be the most meaningful because that was where most of your feelings would be.

Another theory held that the heart is like a container that fills up with feeling (again, eluding that the heart controls emotion). This would mean that the bottom of the heart is usually the fullest…kind of like a tank that continuously refills itself. The bottom is never really empty. Hence, the bottom of the heart contains the fullest of emotion.

As for the photo, it didn’t necessarily help my research, but the little buckaroo is adorable and his picture made me feel like going skiing (not hunting).

From the bottom of his hart and the heart on his bottom.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

It must be a busy day in editing world because I am relying completely on Grammar Girl to entertain and educate you today. As a big fan of British television, authors, and the English language, I thought I’d share this article with you, in hopes that you might fancy it like I did.

Have you ever asked someone for a favor and been told, “That’s not my bailiwick”?

If so, they turned you down. In short, they said, “That’s not my specialty. It’s not something I’m good at, so you should do it yourself.”

As you started to work, alone and rejected, you might have wondered, “What is a bailiwick, anyway?”

A “bailiwick” is an area that’s under the jurisdiction of a bailiff. In the US, we think of a bailiff as an official who helps to keep order in a courtroom. They’re the people who walk prisoners in and out of the room and escort the jury members to their seats. But in Britain, a bailiff is more like a sheriff. He or she can make arrests, serve court papers to a person, and seize the property of a debtor. (There’s also the term “sheriffwick,” but it seems to have fallen out of favor sometime in the 1800s.)

An example of a real-life bailiwick is the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a set of small islands in the English Channel. They’re part of England, but they have their own legislative assembly, which is presided over by — you guessed it — a bailiff.

So the “baili-” in “bailiwick” refers to a bailiff. (In fact, another form of the word “bailiff” was “bailie,” but that use is now obsolete.)

The “-wick” in “bailiwick” is also obsolete. This word used to mean a house or dwelling-place, as well as a town, village, or hamlet. It’s a very old word, derived from the Old English “wic.” We can trace it back to 900 CE and find it used in “Beowulf,” in the phrase “wica neosian,” meaning “to go home.”

Over time, the meaning of bailiwick as an administrative region was extended to mean one’s natural or proper sphere. For example, if a friend asked you to make pecan pie for Thanksgiving, you could decline, saying that baking isn’t your bailiwick.

So that’s your tidbit for today. When you say, “It’s not my bailiwick,” you mean it’s not my thing. It’s not something I’m good at or should be doing.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Today I have a gift from our coworker M. Shepard to share with you. He sent me an article about a word I’d never heard before: hemidemisemiquaver. But before we get to the word, let’s have a look at this article from Mental Floss, which starts from the very beginning.

English has a number of prefixes that come from the concept of “half.” Why do we have so many? And what’s the difference between them?

1. SEMI

Semi-, from the Latin for “half,” is the most common and the earliest to show up in English. It was first used, with the straight sense of “half,” in the word semicircular, but soon attached to concepts that were harder to quantify. It’s easy to see what a half circle looks like, but what amount of “abstract” is “semi-abstract”? How permanent is “semi-permanent”? Through these less concrete uses, which proliferated wildly in the 1800s, semi- came to mean “virtually” or “somewhat.”

2. HEMI

Hemi- is from the Greek for “half.” It is less common than semi-, and it is associated more strongly with technical language in fields like chemistry, biology, and anatomy. Its sense of “half,” more than semi-, implies a lengthwise axis of symmetry. This is not obvious for the most common hemi- word, hemisphere (since a sphere is symmetrical all the way around), but a hemicylinder, is not just half a cylinder, it’s the half cut lengthwise, and hemiplegic doesn’t just mean half the body is paralyzed, but the right or left half (paraplegic is the term for when only the lower half is paralyzed).

3. DEMI

Demi is from the French for “half.” It was first used in English in heraldry, where things like demi-angels, demi-lions, demi-horses show up. It also held sway in other specific domains, such as military (demi-brigade) and fashion (demi-cap, demi-lustre, demi-worsted). It also picked up the sense of “virtual” or even “lesser.” A demigod, after all, is not quite the real thing.

It might seem ridiculous that English had to borrow a “half” prefix from three different places, but if it didn’t we wouldn’t get to have a word like hemidemisemiquaver—that’s a 64th note, in other words, a half of a half of a half of an eighth note, which is so much less fun to say than hemidemisemiquaver.

It’s almost winter, but not quite yet. Here’s a great sign:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
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immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.