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Mark has written of the tendency in language to make “ness” words such as presumptiousness instead of presumption and vacuousness instead of vacuity. He wants the needless “nesses” dropped, and I am generally sympathetic. But with one word, I am having the opposite impulse. In the U.K. a few weeks ago, a speaker at a [...]
Archive for the ‘Language and usage’ Category
August 26th, 2010
Infinite loop, meet one-song shuffle.
June 29th, 2010
Category: 2010 Democratic Agenda, Democratic Party, Language and usage, Liberalism, The Dysfunctional Senate
What do you call a progressive who undermines his/her own party from the left, under circumstances where there is no chance his or her policy can be enacted?
April 11th, 2010
Category: Language and usage, Watching Conservatives
The accusation by a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee
March 15th, 2010
Carly Fiorina brings her message to the people: “she leaned the company.”
January 19th, 2010
Category: Language and usage
Maybe so many people misuse the word “deconstruction” because no one understands WHAT it means.
August 18th, 2009
Is it too much to ask that when commentators make confident statements about the reconciliation process and health care that they provide evidence for their position? Apparently. No one has yet shown why this cannot be done.
July 23rd, 2009
Category: Language and usage
Since very few of us ride horses these days, perhaps we ought to admit that “free rein” is a dead metaphor and give it a decent burial. But if it’s to be used, it could at least be used correctly.
July 21st, 2009
Evangelical Christian groups that claim to support Israel are misrepresenting themselves. They are not Zionists: they are anti-Zionists, and they should be called that.
