A Way with Words

Cute as a Button

Posted by Grant Barrett on August 2, 2014 · Add Comment

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Capitalizing I

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 2, 2013 · Add Comment

Does capitalizing the pronoun I feel like aggrandizing your own self-importance? Timna, an English Composition professor at an Illinois community college, reports that a student refused to capitalize this first person pronoun, arguing that to do so was egotistical. But it’s a standard convention of written English going back to the 13th century, and to [...]
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“But” at the Beginning of Sentences

Posted by Grant Barrett on October 27, 2012 · Add Comment

Every elementary school student is taught never to start a sentence with but. But why? Teachers of young students often warn against beginning with but or and simply as a way of avoiding a verbal crutch. All mature writers develop an instinct for what tone they’re going for, who their audience is, and what kind [...]
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munch

Posted by Grant Barrett on March 3, 2009 · Add Comment

munch n.— «They directed me to a monthly BDSM get-together known as a Munch. You might be expecting people in leather harnesses and nipple clamps, but not tonight. It was all plain clothes, plainer food and surprisingly plain people.» —“Thud or Sting?” by Scott Fabricant in Washington University Student Life (St. Louis, Missouri) Feb. 13, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
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mobbing

Posted by Grant Barrett on December 11, 2008 · Add Comment

mobbing n.— «The students, all boys and football players, allegedly surrounded another student in a school hallway during lunch Nov. 20 and punched the student’s arms, chest and back as part of a practice some call “mobbing.”…Jones said police do not regard the incident as a mobbing—a term police consider to be gang-related.» —“East High students cited [...]
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instant ancestor

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 12, 2008 · Add Comment

instant ancestor n.— «For those who buy her art, they are purchasing what interior designers like to call “instant ancestors”—the look of familiar family portraits.For those who buy her art, they are purchasing what interior designers like to call “instant ancestors”—the look of familiar family portraits.» —“Gallery features promising OCU student’s art” by M.J. Van Deventer NewsOK.com (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) Feb. [...]
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