This was originally published on the website of ACES: The society for editing
Editors need to think more like Machiavelli.
You know who Niccolò Machiavelli was, right? He’s famous for having said “The ends justify the means.”
Except he never said that. Or wrote it. Continue reading
Posted in editing
Tagged editing, good grammar, grammar, language rules, Machiavelli, pragmatism, rules
There’s a certain type of person I’ve always been fascinnoyed with (you know, simultaneously fascinated and annoyed): a person who makes a point of letting you know that they don’t know about something. A kind of one-downer. A stronteur. Continue reading
It does kinda look like a bar…
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This place has way more liquor bottles than the average coffice space. Continue reading
And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Those are the first words – the very first – of the well-known hymn named “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” written in 1738 by Charles Wesley, who is among the most revered hymn-writers in Protestant Christendom (the fact that he wrote some 6000 hymns might have something to do with that, I suppose).
It puts me in mind of the second chapter of the Gospel According to Luke in the King James Version. It starts “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” It goes on to tell the story of the birth of Jesus: “And she brought forth her firstborn son… And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field… And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them…” It continues for 41 sentences in 52 verses. Of those 41 sentences, 37 start with “And,” two start with “But,” one starts with “For,” and one starts with “Now” (that’s the discourse particle Now, not the temporal adverb Now: “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover”). Continue reading
Posted in editing
Tagged and, because, but, conjunctions, English syntax, grammar, sentences, syntax
I took over a friend’s kitchen for a moment to give a tip on how to say al dente, which surprisingly many people get wrong, generally under the influence of French. Take 56 seconds to watch and find out for yourself.
I’ve dipped into the Dictionary of Archaic Words again, sorted through its starchy heaps of lexical refuse, all those old words the language has left behind like so much dried paste. Some of them are quite quaint and charming. Some of them have a kind of…
Well, look at this one: fulculency. The definition given isn’t even a definition, it’s just a citation: “Dreggie refuse and fulculencie,” a quote that it cites to page 41 of Topsell’s Serpents, a reference I easily followed to Topsell’s History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents, a classic work from 1658 that is, for your enjoyment, available online. Continue reading
Posted in word tasting notes
Tagged faex, fax, feces, feculency, fulculency, word tasting notes
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