Can you spot anything amiss in the following sentences? “The right way to look at illegal immigration is with a pragmatic eye.” “Should nurses take a pragmatic approach to hand hygiene?” “The system integrates ideas from logic programming, imperative programming, and rule-based systems in a pragmatic way.” The writers of these sentences use the word pragmatic as if it [...]
By Early To Rise | Wed, Sep 1, 2010
Liminal (LIM-uh-nl) — from the Latin for “threshold” — refers to the point beyond which a sensation becomes too faint to be experienced. Example (as used by Stacey D’Erasmo in a New York Times review of I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson): “[Petterson's] tale lives in the liminal, nauseating space where you don’t [...]
By Early To Rise | Tue, Aug 31, 2010
Ethos (EE-thos) — from the Greek for “habit” — is the distinctive character spirit, and attitudes of a community, group, person, etc. Example (as used by Liaquat Ahamed in a New York Times review of High Financier: The Lives and Times of Siegmund Warburg by Niall Ferguson): “Bankers like Warburg thought of themselves as rather like [...]
By Michael Davis | Mon, Aug 30, 2010
Solvency (SOL-vuhn-see) — from the Latin for “to release” — is the ability to meet financial obligations. Example (as used by Tom Dyson today): “The primary driver of a bond’s value is the solvency of the issuer.”
By Don Hauptman | Thu, Aug 26, 2010
Consider the following sentences: “This is a vast collection of everything ranging from African musical instruments to 20th century art, and the Egyptian Temple of Dendur thrown in for good measure.” “You guys have had a lot of questions lately — about everything from unfinished high-rises and legislative votes to the Citrus Bowl [...]
By Early To Rise | Wed, Aug 25, 2010
A persona (per-SOH-nuh) — from the Latin for “mask” — is a person’s perceived or evident public personality. Example (as used by Peter Fogel today): “[Peter] Sellers was always transforming himself. The man slipped into a persona as easily as you or I would slip into a pair of gloves.”
By Early To Rise | Tue, Aug 24, 2010
To undulate (UN-juh-late) — from the Latin for “wave” — is to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion. Example (as used by Terrence Rafferty in a New York Times review of Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr): “[Doerr's] tales, long or short, all seem somehow to undulate, to surge and recede [...]
By Early To Rise | Mon, Aug 23, 2010
A poseur (poh-ZUR) — from the French for “to pose” — is someone who attempts to impress others by assuming or affecting an attitude or manner. Example (as used by Alex Green today): “I remember how, as a child, when some poseur or busybody in my hometown would pass away, I would [...]
By Don Hauptman | Thu, Aug 19, 2010
Once again, it’s time for a selective roundup and analysis of mistakes in the news: “It is ironical that the author of the book that accurately depicted the lives of China’s rural poor… was rejected by the revolutionaries themselves.” The standard form of the word is ironic, not ironical. In a previous column, [...]
By Early To Rise | Wed, Aug 18, 2010
Detritus (dih-TRY-tus) — from the Latin for “rubbing away” — is debris, the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up (e.g., small stone fragments formed by the process of erosion). Example (as used by Angus MacLachlan in The New York Times): “The year I helped move my parents out of [...]
Can you spot anything amiss in the following sentences?
“The right way to look at illegal immigration is with a pragmatic eye.”
“Should nurses take a pragmatic approach to hand hygiene?”
“The system integrates ideas from logic programming, imperative programming, and rule-based systems in a pragmatic way.”
The writers of these sentences use the word pragmatic as if it [...]
By Don Hauptman | Thu, Sep 2, 2010
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