Grammar, etymology, usage, and more, brought to you by Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman
Q: I have noticed the absence of the subjunctive in lines from recent shows and movies. Have you? A: The English subjunctive has been gradually disappearing since Anglo-Saxon days, with ups and downs along the way, but it hasn’t disappeared yet. In fact, it’s quite easy to find recent examples from Broadway to Hollywood. Here [ ] The post The iffiness of the subjunctive first appeared on…
Q: It seems as if journalists are now calling the initials of every organization an acronym. But I always understood it to be an acronym only when the initials can be pronounced as a word. A: It’s not just journalists. Many English speakers use the term “acronym” to mean an abbreviation with individual letters pronounced. [ ] The post The acronym, initially speaking first appeared on Grammarphobia…
Q: I would love to see a story on “performative gratitude,” a term for expressing gratefulness when you don’t really mean it. The usage seems to be flooding society. A: As far as we can tell, “performative gratitude” first appeared about a dozen years ago on social media as a term for a formulaic or [ ] The post Performative gratitude first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: Why is the present tense, not the past, used in this sentence: “I hear you re leaving the country”? And why are “see” and “hear” now dynamic, not stative, on TV news? Grammar books say you can’t use progressive tenses with stative verbs, but I often hear reporters say things like We are seeing a [ ] The post On ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I was discussing well-being this morning and wondered about its antonym. AI says “the opposite of wellbeing is often considered to be illbeing, which refers to a state of poor health or unhappiness.” Do you have any thoughts about this? A: You can find ill-being in several standard dictionaries. Merriam-Webster, for example, defines it as [ ] The post The sense of ‘ill-being’ first appeared on…
Q: Where or when did the phrase “cutting corners” show up? A: When the usage first appeared in writing in the early 19th century, it had to do with riders and drivers who made their horses take corners and bends in the road too sharply. And as far as we know, it was first used [ ] The post ‘Cutting corners’: A horsey tale first appeared on Grammarphobia .
‘Q: I am used to reading older texts that use “my” before consonants (“my love”) and “mine” before vowels (“mine eyes”). But once in a while I see them used the same way. In the King James Version, Psalm 119 has “my affliction” (verse 50) and “mine affliction” (verses 92 and 153). Were “my” and [ ] The post ‘My’ and ‘mine’ shadow first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: News articles often say an issue is “on the table,” meaning being considered. But “tabling” the issue means putting it off. Can you shed light on these opposite meanings? A: Both meanings of “table” ultimately come from tabula, classical Latin for a board used to write on, play on, hold sacred offerings, and so on. [ ] The post Table talk first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I recently encountered a sentence about the need for “state and local leadership on immigration.” This use of “on” strikes me as lazy and inconsiderate of syntax. It’s probably permissible in conversation, but not in edited writing. Or am I wrong? A: The preposition “on” has been used by respected writers since Anglo-Saxon days [ ] The post Is this use of “on” really off? first appeared on…
Q: Why a “meteoric rise”? Meteors crash down on Earth. A: The use of “meteoric” for something that rises may seem counterintuitive, but the adjective has been used that way for more than a century and a half, and the usage is standard English. In fact, the usage ultimately comes from ancient Greek, where μετέωρος [ ] The post Why a ‘rise’ can be ‘meteoric’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: Making the cut is said to originate from golf, but it might equally be said to have its roots in early moviemaking. Which came first? A: The expression “make the cut” didn’t originate in either golf or filmmaking. When it first appeared in print, the expression referred to people who didn’t “make the cut” [ ] The post Making the cut first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: Over the last decade I ve been seeing an uptick in the use of “drop” to mean something new being released, like a podcast episode or music album. Where does this come from? A: Something must be in the air. Two people have asked us this same question within a week. The use of “drop” [ ] The post ‘New albums drop like leaves in the fall’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: How can we get everyone to quit using “loose” when they mean “lose”? It s driving me insane! A: The word “lose” is usually a verb with the sense of failing to win or hold on to something, while “loose” is usually an adjective meaning not securely attached, or less commonly a verb meaning to [ ] The post ‘Thou shalt not loose by it’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: How was the definite article that we now see in the faux-archaic names of ye olde shoppes actually pronounced in Old English and Middle English when it was written with a thorn? A: The article “the” was originally spelled se in Old English and pronounced like a clipped version of “say” without the glide [ ] The post A thorny question? first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: In a NY Times obituary, a historian refers to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “arrogant, literate, obdurate, revengeful,” etc. Is it not odd to describe an Islamic scholar as “literate,” i.e., merely able to read and write? A: The word “literate” meant educated or learned when it first appeared in English in the 14th century. [ ] The post ‘A hundred literate children’ first appeared on Grammarphobia…
Q: Robert Herrick uses “ye” during most of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” but switches to “you” at the end. Are both ”ye” and “you” in the subjective case in the poem? A: Yes, both “ye” and “you” are subjects in “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” a 17th-century poem [ ] The post When ‘ye’ became ‘you’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: In Jen Beagin’s 2023 novel Big Swiss, Flavia asks Om, her sex therapist, whether “adult” and “adultery” are related. He says they aren’t. Huh? Could that be right? A: Yes. Both English words ultimately come from different classical Latin sources: “adult” from adultus (full-grown, mature), and “adultery” from adulterare (to commit adultery, debase, counterfeit, or corrupt). [ ] The post On…
Q: Having been sucked down many a “rabbit hole” in my reading, I’m wondering how this figurative sense of the phrase developed. Did it appear before Alice in Wonderland was published? A: The phrase “rabbit hole” has been used both literally and figuratively for hundreds of years, well before Alice fell down one. Although you [ ] The post Let’s go down the ‘rabbit hole’ first appeared on…
Q: I am wondering how chimera has come to mean both “an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts” and “an unrealizable dream.” A: When “chimera” originally appeared in ancient Greece as χίμαιρα (khimaira), it also had two meanings—a female goat as well as a monster. In its farming sense, χίμαιρα was simply the female version of a male goat, [ ] The post A chimerical journey first appeared…
Q: I was reading an op-ed that had this quote from Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address: “That is cool.” At first I thought it was satire, but he did indeed say this. What did he mean by “cool”? A: Lincoln used “cool” in his 1860 Cooper Union speech to mean impudent or shameless, senses that [ ] The post How cool was Abe Lincoln? first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: Here’s the title of a post on a blog I follow: “More osculation of religion by the NYT and Free Press.” I’m not aware of this figurative use of “osculation,” but it could be ignorance on my part. A: “Osculation” is being used here to mean “kissing,” the original sense of the English noun [ ] The post Osculation: A kiss is still a kiss first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: Can euphemisms turn into dysphemisms and vice versa? If yes, why does it happen? A: Yes, euphemisms can turn into dysphemisms, and vice versa. The change from a euphemism to its opposite is referred to as pejoration (worsening), while the change from a dysphemism to a euphemism is called amelioration (bettering). The linguist Stephen [ ] The post On the euphemism treadmill first appeared on…
Q: Was it ever normal to rhyme “misery” and “high”? I’m thinking of a couplet (“Make safe the way that leads on high, / And close the path to misery”) in the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” A: The noun “misery” has been pronounced various ways since it first appeared in the Middle English [ ] The post When ‘misery’ rhymes with ‘high’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I saw this headline over an NPR article: “VP Vance tries to progress Gaza ceasefire.” Is that a permissible use of progress ? I m pretty sure I ve never seen it used like that, but I m slow to pick up on the evolution of English. A: That usage is somewhat controversial. The verb progress, used in [ ] The post Has the verb ‘progress’ progressed? first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I say “fetch” when I want my Lab, Gracie, to retrieve something, but “fetching” may refer to her good looks as well as her retrieving. Am I right to assume the two senses are related? A: Yes, both the retrieving and the attractive senses of “fetching” are derived from the verb “fetch,” according to [ ] The post What a fetching Labrador retriever! first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I’ve been hearing the word “hopium” used for an imaginary opiate taken to achieve unrealistic optimism, and “copium” used for one taken to endure hard times. I don’t see them in my dictionary. Are they legit? A: Well, one standard dictionary, Collins, recognizes both “hopium” and “copium” while another, Merriam-Webster, recognizes only “copium.” Both dictionaries label [ ] The post Are ‘hopium’…
Q: After reading your recent article about Hank Stram’s coining a football sense of “matriculate,” I remembered reading a long way back that Stram also coined “Super Bowl.” A: No, Hank Stram didn’t coin the term “Super Bowl.” The first person to use it for the football championship game was Lamar Hunt, owner of the [ ] The post How ‘super’ and ‘bowl’ touched down first appeared on Grammarphobia .
[Note: In observation of Christmas week, we’re republishing a post that originally appeared on Dec. 23, 2022.] Q: Which is the more traditional version of this Christmas carol: “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” or “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”? I see it both ways, but the one with you looks better to me. A: You’re [ ] The post Gentlemen, God rest you merry! first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I thought I might further muddy the waters of the wonderful word featured in your post about “dasn’t.” I once saw it defined as a contraction of “darest not,” but frustratingly I can’t recall the source. I first saw “dasn’t” as a youngster reading the Huck Finn novel you mention. A: In “I dasn’t [ ] The post We dasn’t commit ourselves first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I was catching up with The Wire, the TV crime series. In episode one of season five, originally aired in 2008, editors at The Baltimore Sun tell a reporter that a building is evacuated, not a person, except when given an enema. I looked in a number of dictionaries and they disagree. Where did [ ] The post Evacuation roots first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: I’ve been noticing lately the strange use of “went to go” to form the past tense, as in “went to go see a movie,” “went to go swim,” and “went to go download a video.” I see this as an example of a lack of awareness of how English works. A: We’d describe the [ ] The post ‘Went to go see a movie’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: Why did grammatical gender ever develop in the first place, and to what purpose? English lost it centuries ago, apparently to no ill effect. A: Grammatical gender, a system for categorizing nouns into classes, is believed to have first appeared in speech in ancient times, before the existence of written language. So there’s no record [ ] The post Gender issues (no, not those) first appeared on…
Q: Do you think “you and I” should be “you and me” in the first part of Genesis 31:44 (English Standard Version): “Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me”? The verse is similar in the King James Version. A: Many English translations [ ] The post Genesis: ‘you and I’ v. ‘you and me’ first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: In the class-conscious Sussex, England, of the 1950s, my mother would label certain people at the village Women’s Institute “not quite quite.” What is the history of this usage? And does “not quite quite” suggest even less gentility than “not quite”? A: As far as we can tell, the use of “not quite” to [ ] The post He’s not ‘quite quite,’ you know first appeared on Grammarphobia .
Q: When I hear football sportscasters state that Team 1 has “matriculated” the football down the field, I (perhaps smugly) question whether the sportscasters have ever matriculated themselves. A: Standard dictionaries define “matriculate” as to enroll or be enrolled at a college or university, but at least one of the dictionaries, Merriam-Webster, has the American football sense [ ] The post…