Idioms and Horse Racing Idiomatic expressions are a part of everyday life. You hear and see them almost everywhere, but how many of them do you know where and how they originated? How about “beat a dead horse” or “wins by a nose”? Quite a few sayings —popular ones—originated in the world of horse racing….
Writing a Good Novel Writing is an individual endeavor. I don’t mean it can’t be done jointly, but it is usually done alone; therefore, the ways people choose to write tend to be individualistic as well. One person may insist on writing every day in complete solitude. Another may only sit at the keyboard on…
Meaning of Cognizant and Meaning of Prophylactic In my continuing quest to make note of words that have jumped to the forefront during this pandemic, I’ve identified two more offenders—cognizant and prophylactic. Don’t get me wrong; the words aren’t at fault, they’re fine words. I blame the people using them. The reporters, doctors, and analysts…
Is “Safe Haven” Redundant? A lot has been written regarding “safe haven.” Some of it even by me in my grammar books. What draws the ire is the phrase’s built-in redundancy. But is safe haven redundant, and does it matter? Let’s look further. Is “Safe Haven” Redundant? The problem with words is that they’re subject…
Plethora—It’s Not What You May Think If you listen to people speak, you’re bound to hear the word plethora used sooner or later. And when you do, it will probably be used erroneously. Last year, I decided to do an informal self-conducted poll, and, in a thirty-day span, I heard the word used eleven times….
How to Use Incredible Credible and Incredible are closely related words, and each of them used to mean something specific. The meaning of each was easy to decipher because of the root word: crediblis and because of their close association. Credible believable, worthy of belief, capable of being believed Incredible Incredible means (at least for…
When to Use Mitigate You might recall I mentioned that during any time of crisis, the not-so-often-heard words come out of the woodwork. We discussed the prevalence of proximity or should I say the misuse of close proximity earlier, but it’s long past time to delve into when to use mitigate and mitigation. Nowadays it…
Close Proximity During the past month, I have heard this phrase, or seen in writing, many times. It is often used to refer to the social distancing orders or protests of such orders. And I have heard it from TV analysts as well as seen it written hundreds of times in social media (Facebook, Twitter,…
Many people say your sentences shouldn’t contain a split infinitive. In my early years of school, teachers drummed this rule into students’ heads—usually right after ensuring they wouldn’t end sentences with prepositions. Let’s first look at the issue of spit infinitives, and then we’ll show why it isn’t an issue. I realize I said I…
Grammar Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult Grammar is difficult for a lot of people, but it doesn’t need to be. The biggest hurdle to learning grammar is the terminology. Most books, and most teachers, use grammatical terms when they’re not necessary. While researching my book, I ran across the following terms on more than a…