Idle Analytics» Linguistic Pet Peeves

LPP 28

Jessica — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:59:36 +0000

According to a recent press release: UC Riverside now has more than 17,000 students, 2,000 staff members and nearly more than 800 faculty members. Um. Nearly more than? So, exactly 800, then? Proofread, people--always proofread.

LPP 27

Jessica — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:11:33 +0000

Infinitesimal It doesn't mean a lot. It means tiny. Almost infinitely tiny. Seriously wee.

LPP 25

Jessica — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:10:25 +0000

Pitchy Ok, so this isn't really something most people say, but it is something those idiot American Idol judges say all the time. The thing is, pitchy is a word, it just doesn't mean anything close to what they're using it for. According to Dictionary.com, pitchy means Full of or covered with pitch. Resembling pitch …

LPP 24

Jessica — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 20:54:58 +0000

Anymore It really sounds weird and wrong when someone uses the word "anymore" with a positive, e.g. "I always go to the Albertson's on Ironwood anymore." This is because that is simply not what that word is supposed to do--"anymore" means something used to be the case, but now isn't. Anymore is meant to be …

LPP 23

Jessica — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 17:25:13 +0000

"" Quotation marks are not to be used to emphasize something. Because they don't do that. If a sign says "Saturday: 'HUGE SALE'" it makes me think, so what, it's not really a huge sale? Maybe it's not a sale at all? It's just a "sale"? Because quotation marks can indicate insincerity, as a stand …

LPP 22

Jessica — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 07:07:48 +0000

"Mute" points More nonsense. The word is moot. Not mute. Think about it---what could a mute point possibly be? How many leaps of logic does it take to rationalize a mute point? Answer: lots. And that's never a good thing. Plus moot is more fun to say. Moot moot moot.

LPP 21

Jessica — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 05:20:27 +0000

Criteria The word criteria is plural. One of the members of a set of criteria is a criterion. Yeah, that's about it for that one.

LPP 20

Jessica — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 20:52:06 +0000

No really, I'm serious about that I/me thing It is fortunate that the whole English-speaking world doesn't read our blog, because then Verizon would find out that we're running a server and be unhappy with us. It is unfortunate, however, because seemingly 90% of people don't know what to use I and when me. If …

LPP 19

Jessica — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 01:44:06 +0000

Vagaries/Vagueness, suggested by Jason I have not encountered this myself, but find it damn funny. Evidently someone said something about the vagaries of email--which just doesn't make any sense at all. A vagary is an eccentric notion or behavior: email itself has neither. An email conversation, I suppose, could contain vagaries. Vagueness, obviously, is a …

LPP 18

Jessica — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 05:54:31 +0000

Affect/Effect Affect is (always) a verb. Effect is (usually) a noun. Something that affects you has an effect on you. You can effect change, although you probably can't affect change--change is inevitable. Well, you may be able to slow it down sometimes. Anyway. The idea is, in general, you will only see the effects of …