John Noble (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jackofallgeeks) wrote2004-07-23 08:54 am
jackofallgeeks) wrote2004-07-23 08:54 am
Today's Lesson
I'm such an english nazi. Which is funny, because I didn't used to be. (Now i'm concerned if "didn't used to be" is proper english...") When I was a kid, all the way up through highschool, I was always the Math/Sci sort. I liked reading a lot and such, but... I was horrible at spelling, you can ask anyone who knew me before, say, Junior Year in highschool. I'm still not grand, but I'm infinitely better. I was always pretty good with grammar, too, and when we did sentence diagramming in 7th grade I was the only one who had even done it before.
Or something. Anyways, a couple friends of mine have, uhm, misused a couple common sayings recently, and it seems to have bothered me. I didn't want to correct them then and there, making them look foolish and me look pedantic, but...
Firstly, it's "the whole sordid story," not 'sorted'. While 'sorted' may make a kind of sense, 'sordid' mean dirty, filthy, or vile, and it falls along the same lines as "all the gory details."
Secondly, contrary to common misconception, you "nip something in the bud," not the butt. As a contemporary colloquialism, 'butt' makes sense (though one might figure that that would imply sexual harassment, or at least flirtation), the phrase comes from gardening, where you would nip a bud of a plant before it had time to mature and flower.
I almost went into College for an English Major, and semantics and etymology were always what I was most interested in.
I'll shut up, now.
Or something. Anyways, a couple friends of mine have, uhm, misused a couple common sayings recently, and it seems to have bothered me. I didn't want to correct them then and there, making them look foolish and me look pedantic, but...
Firstly, it's "the whole sordid story," not 'sorted'. While 'sorted' may make a kind of sense, 'sordid' mean dirty, filthy, or vile, and it falls along the same lines as "all the gory details."
Secondly, contrary to common misconception, you "nip something in the bud," not the butt. As a contemporary colloquialism, 'butt' makes sense (though one might figure that that would imply sexual harassment, or at least flirtation), the phrase comes from gardening, where you would nip a bud of a plant before it had time to mature and flower.
I almost went into College for an English Major, and semantics and etymology were always what I was most interested in.
I'll shut up, now.
no subject
But actually, insure (http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=insure) and ensure (http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=ensure) are actually synonyms, though I agree that 'insure' is more commonly used with things like 'car insurance', whereas 'ensure' is more naturally used to "make certain," but...