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Words and all that

Word power

Interesting words encountered in my readings.

Word power

Interesting words encountered while wandering through the blogosphere.

disambiguate (dis-am-BIG-you-ate), v. -- to  make unambiguous; remove the uncertainty from (an ambiguous sentence, phrase or other linguistic unit), as in: "Disambiguate that sentence!" the editor shouted at the fledgling writer.

My common sense can whup your dogma

Today's lesson in "preaching to the choir" editorializing comes from The Journal Gazette's disissal of a proposal to drop the licensing requirement for engineers. The editorial slams all licensing rollbacks as dogma driven, an example of "political ideology" threatening to "trump common sense."

 

States regulate professions – doctors, attorneys, teachers, engineers and more – to protect the public good.

Word power

Interesting words encountered while wandering through the blogosphere.

turpitude (TUR-puh-tood), n. -- vile, shameful or base character; depravity; a vile or depraved act, as in: "When the state tries to stop gambling that is in fact less problematic that the gambling it sponsosrs itself, we can begin to see the depths of its turpitude."

Google this

Google has released some fascinating aggregate data showing which searches surge in popularity at which hours of the day. We search for doctors at 8:20 a.m., for example, and recipes at 4:52 p.m. I found these two especially interesting:

Word power

Interesting words encountered while wandering through the blogosphere. Actually, today we have a word pair, and while they're not uncommon in usuage, they are frequently misued: flout and flaunt. Following is a comment made to a blog post on the Oregon baker who ran afoul of the law for refusing to cater a gay wedding:

Word power

Interesting words encounterd while wandering through the blogosphere.

anodyne (AN-uh-dahyn), n. -- a medicine that relieves or allays pain; anything that relieves distress or pain; and, adj. -- relieving pain; soothing to the mind or feelings, as in: "Some viewe the Confederate flag as an ugly reminder of slavery, while others see it as an anodyne symbol of Southern heritage and military valor."

Listen up, guys

Oh, brother. Or perhaps that should be oh, person. "You guys" is now on the "stop saying it, it's creeping sexism and offensive" list:

Word power

Interesting words encountered while wandering through the blogosphere.

interlocutor (in-ter-LOCK-yuh-ter), n. -- a person who takes part in a conversation or dialogue; a persons who questions; interrogator, as in: When reading the responses to my blog posts, I am disappointed to discover insults from trolls, but heartened when I encounter interlocutors who advance the coversation even when they disagrre with me.

Pharoah

I've admitted a time or two to being nitpicky, but this is too much even for me:

Zayat Stables picked American Pharoah’s incorrectly spelled name from a fan submission contest on their website.

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