Working Words Well: How To Work A Foreign Word Or Phrase
I first encountered Wiley Miller’s comic strip Non Sequitur before I learned French. The title intrigued me–and tied up my un-tutored tongue–enough to force me to find out what it meant. And thus, a scrawny 11-year-old could now wrinkle her nose and reply to any argument, “Well, that was a non sequitur” with the certainty that all in ear-shot had been mystified into silence. Even though I couldn’t pronounce it yet. If you’ve ever been...
Read MoreWorking Words Well: Greatly Underappreciated
I wrote a guest post for my fellow editor Toni Rakestraw nearly a year ago, concerning a few words whose meanings have been hijacked. Go give ‘em a skim, I’ll wait. Well, okay, I gave them a look-over recently, and I find the word at the top of that list is the one I avoid using almost entirely–especially in the business and professional sphere: great. Trust me, I don’t make that decision lightly. As I said in the guest post: Something great used to be treated with...
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