Words…

Published on by Grace

Say the word ‘sleep’ and my brain automatically responds “Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,” MacBeth, Act 2, Scene 2 – Wm. Shakespeare.

But I’m not writing about sleep, I’m exploring the world of words, particularly words that are misused but which misuse is accepted as correct because it has been a part of the language for so long (such as irregardless. Using the prefix ir does not change the meaning of the word regardless.)

Speakers of the English language seem to think that if you attach the prefix ‘un’ to a word it creates an opposite. But that’s not always true.  There are actually words whose ‘opposite’ means the same.

The other day I happened across a writing that used the words “ravel” and “unravel” in the same sentence. I’m sure the author experienced those two words as opposites in meaning. They are wrong, strictly speaking, but in common usage no one would take them to task.

Except me. And why I would even know that – too much Shakespeare? Too much reading of dictionaries including the OED?

And why, while writing this, could I not remember the word prefix? I did eventually but only minutes later I can’t remember whether the remembering was spontaneous or resulted from research.

On to another inconsequential subject –

When I first took up blogging one of the first little tricks of the trade I learned was to have clickable links open in a new tab.  I do believe you had to add the code yourself but that was easy enough to do. By making clickable links open in a new tab you make it easy for your readers to access the linked site WITHOUT leaving your site.

I don’t know about you but if I am reading anything and a link takes me off the original site and then to go back to the original article I have to use the back arrow and wait for the page to load again – well, hell no. I’m just moving on.

The thing is, nowadays, you don’t have to insert the code yourself, the ‘link’ tool does it for you –

See that box under “Link Text”?  Just click it!

Any clickable link you see in anything I post on-line will always open in a new tab. You’re welcome.

13 thoughts on “Words…”

  1. What do you think about the incorrect term “judgey”? As in, he’s being all judgey about this. This came info fairly common usage in the last decade and I have to confess I say it a lot. It’s a millenial creation, I believe.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. It’s slang, it’s vernacular (https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/judgy-adjective-meaning-judgmental) It’s perfectly fine. And quite frankly I don’t care LOL Slang is wonderful but separate in my mind from formal language and writing. Formal writing wouldn’t use judgey or irregardless or use ravel and unravel in the same sentence.

      You want to know what really drives me around the bend and makes my head explode? “ON accident” WTF??? It’s “BY accident” How the holy hell can you do something “ON accident”. That’s millenial and it needs to stop.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I think judgey is interesting. Sort of a cute version of the actual word, judgmental, with the same meaning, but with a slightly different flavor. (I think, sort of passive-aggressively whiny.) Otherwise, I concede that language is dynamic and fluid and all that–that’s never changed–but with the Internet, the changes are occurring too fast, maybe, and actual communication can sometimes suffer. I feel very strongly that that’s the problem with these gender-neutral pronouns that confuse singular and plural.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I have no opinion about ‘judgy’ I’m not sure I would ever use it but I do think there must be a line drawn between spoken language and written language…talk is cheap, the written word is priceless!

        As for gender-neutral pronouns – I’m of two minds – people should be whoever they want to be, or whatever they want to be but singular plurals just sounds awkward – everybody needs to be something – pick one and stick with it and seriously do I really need to know any of this?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. It’s definitely got a cutesy thing going. The real question for me is who decided to make this a cute concept? It’s very Californian. I hear they’ve got passive aggressive mastered.

        Liked by 2 people

  4. Sometimes I say “for all intensive purposes” just to annoy people. There are numerous ways to make your clicked links go to a new tab regardless of the code. Best to google it for instructions specific to your browser, OS, etc.
    What about “turns up missing?” arg

    Liked by 2 people

      1. LOL. Thanks. I’m sort of sorry to say I dropped Facebook and Instagram, so I may at some point post some photographs on my blog. I guess. Most people don’t react to them all that much. Also, I think I meant, “goes missing.”

        Liked by 2 people

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