I'm so Goth, I accidentally said "sarcophagus" when I meant "esophagus."🤭

#gothic #goth #wordusage

On a couple of recent occasions, I noticed a couple of phrases in which contractions seem cumbersome:

used bookstore
summer homeowners

Is the bookstore used to sell new books?

Are the homes owned by someone else when summer is over?

I think the contractions imply both (and of course both are silly) so the would read easier with the contractions broken, making them:

used book store
summer home owners

What do you think?

#language
#contractions
#EnglishLanguage
#WordUsage

"Yeah, no..."

Give me time to think...

joining the popular "ya know"

and, of course, "um".

#WordUsage
#Language
#English

In truth, I shall lie in my bed to sleep at night.

I am not lying about it.

Others may decide to lay in bed; and that is okay. Laying on a sofa is also common

They are also telling the truth.

They, and I, know what they mean.

Older folks, like me, may continue to lay out a case for lying in bed at night. We are not wrong, just a bit out of date.

Younger people often drive changes in language. We older folks don't do well to expect our words to carry much sway.

#Grammar
#WordUsage

Any linguists out there? I'm interested in usage patterns for "scaredy cat" vs "fraidy cat". Surprisingly little information online (that I could find, anyways).

#linguists #WordUsage

#GUMmyStuff #WordUsage

Any event that has happened can be called "historical." It happened in history,

An event that is especially notable for some reason is "historic." The first moon landing is historic.

All historic events are historical, but not all historical events are historic.

This applies as well to buildings. My house is old, but it's not historic. Only historical.

Maverick, /ˈmav(ə)rik/

Noun. A person who says the opposite of what everyone else says, and therefore must be right in any given situation. Example: "That Marjorie Taylor Greene is a maverick when it comes to space lasers."

Adj. Synonym for "eminent," in the sense of trying to win an argument. Example: "The maverick scientist says that viruses don't really exist, so COVID is more of a mental condition."

#conspiracytheories #bullshit #conspiracy #conservatives #wordusage #pragmatics #expertise