Rogue Words from A to Z: The Merits of Morale

April 15, 2015April 12, 2015Sue Archer 35 Comments

Man down! In today’s rogue words story, I will help you to master two pairs of easily mixed-up words: morale / moral and meretricious / meritorious.

Morale vs. Moral

Although these two words are spelled almost the same way, their meanings are very different.

Morale (pronounced moh-RAL) describes the amount of confidence or enthusiasm an individual or group has at a particular moment in time. This word often comes up in military settings to describe the feelings of the troops.

Marissa was obviously feeling maudlin as she recounted the tale of their team’s struggle to make their way through the maze of alien streets.

“There we were, with Master Sergeant Melanie in the lead, surrounded on all sides by those alien maggots. We knew it would be a desperate fight, and that we might not make it out alive. But we had confidence in Sarge.

“Our morale was high, because we felt that she would get us through it.”

Moral (pronounced MOH-rul) describes the goodness or badness of human behaviour, and the distinction between right and wrong. This is where we get the saying, “the moral of the story.”

“But then that good-for-nothing Magnus decided that it was his turn to be leader, and he shot Sarge in the back. I never thought of him as a moral person, but to do that right in the middle of combat? We were all shocked.”

Meretricious vs. Meritorious

These words are mouthfuls, aren’t they?

Meretricious describes something that is showily attractive, but valueless. Interesting fact: It is derived from the Latin word for prostitute (meretrix).

“Magnus was one of those types who could afford all the best armor and the rare and powerful guns. He sure looked the part of a leader. But he was meretricious. No substance to him at all.”

Meritorious describes a person or act that has merit and deserves praise or awards.

“Sarge deserved a medal for everything she did for us. Her actions were meritorious. But now she was dead. And we knew we were all doomed.”

Mark leaned forward from his perch on the basement couch. His mouth full of potato chips, he asked, “So what did you guys do?”

“Oh, we killed the game,” said Marissa. “And we kicked Marcus off the server. There was no way we were playing with that loser again. Luckily it wasn’t that far back to the last save point, so we didn’t lose a lot of progress. And then we kicked alien butt! You should have seen us!”

Bonus Word: Maudlin

The word maudlin has a fascinating history. It means being foolishly sentimental or self-pitying, and is often associated with crying drunkards. It comes from the Old French Madeleine from the Latin Magdalena, and refers to pictures of Mary Magdalen weeping.

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Have you read or used the word meretricious? I have yet to use it in my own writing. (Other than in this post, of course. There’s a first time for everything!)

Definitions are from the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

This post is dedicated to Shelley Sackier and Shawn. Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will nab that nuisance of a letter N…

Rogue Words from A to Z: Led to Lie Down Loosely

April 14, 2015April 12, 2015Sue Archer 49 Comments

It seems there are many rogue words beginning with the letter L that lull us into danger.

I’ve had requests from my readers to talk about the differences between lie/lay, lead/led, AND lose/loose. I didn’t want to leave anyone out. So today I’m going to be ambitious and write a bedtime story about all three topics, which hopefully won’t put you to sleep!

Lie vs. Lay

Once upon a time, there was a young boy named Lee who hated bedtime. It felt like every time he went to sleep he had nightmares.

He didn’t want to lay down his bedtime book on his bedside table.

He didn’t want to lie down in his bed.

He thought the rhyme “Now I lay me down to sleep…” was scary.

The difference between lie and lay is that lie is an intransitive verb while lay is a transitive verb.

An intransitive verb (like lie) is a type of verb that does not act on the direct object of a sentence. When you “lie down” you are not doing something to another object, you are simply lying down somewhere.

A transitive verb (like lay) is a type of verb that acts on a direct object. When you lay down a book, you are doing something to the book (putting it down). This is why you use lay and not lie.

Knowing this difference, you would think that “Now I lay me down to sleep” is incorrect, but it’s not. The object of lay in this case is me. You are saying “lay me down” (with me as the object) instead of “lie down,” which does not have an object. Both of these constructions are correct.

As if this weren’t challenging enough, the past tense of the verb lie is lay. (The past tense of lay is laid.) Ouch! You can see why this verb causes so many problems. Here’s how this verb works in the past tense.

Lee laid down his bedtime book.

Lee lay down in his bed.

Lee tried not to think about bedtime rhymes, and closed his eyes tightly in fierce concentration. His fingers were clenched around the bedsheet.

Lead vs. Led

With his eyes squinched shut, Lee thought about what could help him sleep. How could he avoid the nightmares?

Image from Rise of the Guardians by DreamWorks SKG

In the darkness behind his eyelids, a fuzzy warm glowing dot appeared. It grew and grew, until all at once Lee could see that the warm light was shining from the Sandman.

The Sandman couldn’t speak, but he beckoned Lee forward. Lee knew that the Sandman was going to lead him to a happy dream with no nightmares in it. Lee started to go towards the Sandman. The Sandman turned and led him down a shiny pathway covered in jewel-bright flowers.

The past tense of the verb lead is led. People often use lead for both the present and the past tense, probably because the verb read is spelled as read in both of these tenses. But for lead, you need to use led when speaking in the past tense.

Lose vs. Loose

As Lee began to lose consciousness and slide into sleep, his clenched hands loosened and relaxed. He knew he would never lose his way and wander into a nightmare ever again.

To remember when to spell lose vs. loose, think about how you need to loosen up and lose your fears.

Sandy watched Lee sleeping and smiled. He was just another Guardian doing his job. But he would never get tired of it.

***

Have you seen Rise of the Guardians? What did you think of it? I must confess I like Sandy the best, although the Easter Bunny comes close!

This post is dedicated to Celine Jeanjean, Nicole Roder, and Margie Brizzolari. Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will manhandle the malicious letter M…

Rogue Words from A to Z: Kinder in the Garden

April 13, 2015April 12, 2015Sue Archer 36 Comments

Today’s kid-friendly post is brought to you by the letter K.

Do you have fond memories of kindergarten? I’m sure many of us do.

(For those who are not familiar with the term, kindergarten is a class that helps prepare young children for their first grade in school.)

I don’t have fond memories of learning how to spell kindergarten, though. Writing Grade 1 was so much easier than writing kindergarten. Maybe that’s why my Kindergarten class kept getting referred to as K!

The word kindergarten comes from the German, meaning “children’s garden.” According to this dictionary, the term was first coined in 1840 by Friedrich Fröbel, an educator of young children. He used gardening as a symbol for his teaching methods. Educators in England and America took up the term, and now it is standard across many school systems.

Kindergarten is often misspelled as kindergarden. Although this spelling is not acceptable to dictionaries, it has clearly made its way into our minds. Based on a cursory internet search alone, I found references to kindergarden on children’s CD covers, phone cases, school websites, newspaper headlines, and even on Goodreads, which at the time of this writing has many books on its “kindergarden shelf.”

Many preschools have also taken advantage of this confusion by calling themselves The Kinder Garden.

I say this new spelling is fine with me. It will make it easier for the kindergartners to spell it — they have enough trouble learning their ABCs as it is. And anything that reinforces the comparison between teaching young children and helping plants grow (like this wonderful picture) can only be a good thing.

I’ll leave you with a magical observation about children and gardens from one of my favourite early reads, The Secret Garden:

Sometimes since I’ve been in the garden I’ve looked up through the trees at the sky and have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something were pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden — in all the places.

– Frances Hodgson Burnett

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What is your favourite memory from kindergarten? I liked story time the best (not a surprise to any of you, I’m sure).

Image from Wikimedia Commons

This post is dedicated to Jaso. Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will lasso the lily-livered letter L…

Rogue Words from A to Z: Jealous of Jewelry?

April 11, 2015April 13, 2015Sue Archer 52 Comments

Should I be jealous of your fabulously expensive collection of antique jewelry? Or should I be envious?

When I look up envy in my dictionary, it says it is “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by another’s better fortune.” Okay, then, I must be envious.

But then I look up jealous and it says “envious or resentful of a person or a person’s advantages.” You know you’re in trouble when the word envious is used to define jealous. Should I be jealous instead, then?

What exactly is the difference here?

In practice, people use the word jealousy in a way that overlaps with envy. But there is a distinction between the two terms. After seeing what Grammar Girl had to say and investigating the psychological distinction between the two states, I decided that Common Errors in English Usage has the most useful definition:

You can be envious of what others have that you lack (like a rare and beautiful piece of jewelry).

Jealousy, on the other hand, involves wanting to hold on to what you do have. This is why this term comes up a lot in romantic relationships that are threatened by another person.

So…

I am envious of of your fabulously expensive collection of antique jewelry. As your friend, I don’t understand why you won’t let me borrow that sinuously appealing snake amulet to impress my boyfriend. Just once? Pleeeease?

Fine. Clearly you are jealous of your jewelry collection and you don’t want any of it to get lost through carelessness. I guess I can understand that. What I can’t understand is your constant flaunting of your wealth and beauty in front of my boyfriend. I can’t help but be jealous, you know. It’s early days in our relationship. And when you’re around I feel like I’m second best.

Oh, so now you’ve decided to wear that sexy snake amulet when you know we are going out with my boyfriend? For the love of…I thought you were my friend! Hey, you don’t look so good. You look weird. You’re…changing? What the —

Okay, now she’s gone and turned in to a garter snake. Wow, I’m so glad I didn’t wear that amulet. I guess I don’t have to be envious of her good looks any more!

Bonus Word: Jewelry

How do you spell jewelry? The British spelling is jewellery, and the American spelling is jewelry. (As a Canadian, I end up dealing with both of them.) Which version do you prefer?

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This post is dedicated to Jaso and Brenna Layne.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Unless otherwise noted, definitions are from the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

Stay tuned for Monday’s post, when I will kidnap the know-it-all letter K…

Rogue Words from A to Z: I Before E, Except After Idiots Drink Too Much Coffee

April 10, 2015April 6, 2015Sue Archer 63 Comments

How many of you had this rule taught to you in school?

I Before E

Except After C

Or When Sounded as A

As in Neighbour and Weigh.

There’s another version of this too, which goes

I Before E

Except After C

When the Sound is EE.

This rhyme would be helpful if it weren’t for those words that are exceptions to the rule. Words like their, weird, and caffeine are some of the more common ones. In fact, there are so many words that are exceptions to the I before E “rule” that some believe it is useless and should be abandoned.

Many of us have had this rhyme drilled into us in childhood and struggle daily with remembering how to spell the exceptions properly. Even drinking several cups of coffee, with all its caffeine, doesn’t keep our brains sharp enough to deal with these weird words.

So for today, I’d like to share a very short parable about coffee to help you recall some of the most critical words that break the I before E spelling rule.

After drinking a surfeit of caffeine, a kaleidoscope of weird images seized their attention like either a scientifically precise heist or a nonpareil sleight of hand. They saw foreign sovereigns leisurely riding feisty heifers of fantastical height. The resulting counterfeit seismic disturbance made them forfeit lunch.

The moral of this story: Don’t drink too much coffee…and be sure to take all spelling “rules” with a grain of salt!

Do you have an ie or ei word that you struggle with? And do you prefer coffee or tea?

***

This post is dedicated to Carrie Rubin.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will take a jab at that jittery letter J…

Rogue Words from A to Z: A History of Homely Hauntings

April 9, 2015April 3, 2015Sue Archer 45 Comments

Is that decrepit old haunted house historical or historic? Or neither?

The word historical means “of or relating to or occurring in history.” Historical refers to something that happened in the past.

Josephine looked around in interest as she followed the tour guide through the creepy old manor. She stopped in front of a painted portrait of a young, dark-haired woman with a protruding nose and sharp black eyes.

“Who is this?” she asked the guide. “She looks rather homely.”

“Historical evidence indicates that this is the daughter of the original owner,” said the guide. “She tragically went missing one night, and no one ever saw her again.”

The word historic, on the other hand, means “historically significant” — a momentous happening or development. An event can be historical without being historic. Only important events are historic.

“I’m surprised I never heard about her,” said Josephine.

The guide raised her eyebrows. “Her disappearance was quite a historic event in these parts.”

“Well, it can’t have been that historic if no one talks about it any more,” pointed out Josephine.

The guide sniffed her disdain at this pronouncement.

(Side note: An event is a historic event, not an historic event. The h in historic should be treated like any other consonant.)

So is this old building historic, or historical? It’s neither. A house that still exists is in the present, not the past. But the house could be of historical interest to those who study history.

“Well, really,” said Josephine, annoyed, “if this house is of such historical interest, they should do a better job of advertising it. And make it more homey for visitors,” she said, eyeing the cobwebs in the corners.

“Some people say that the house is haunted by the spirit of the missing woman,” said the guide, glaring, “and that bad luck will come to those who bring negative energy with them.”

“Well, that was subtle,” said Josephine. “I have better ways to spend my time than being insulted. I’m leaving.” She stalked off down the hall. The guide shut the light off and trailed behind her, thankful that this was her last tour of the day.

In the gloom, the eyes of the portrait followed them.

Bonus Word: Homely

The word homey means “homelike.” Homely originally shared this meaning, but this has changed over time. In British English, homely means simple or unpretentious. But in American English, it means unattractive or plain. I’ll leave you to decide whether the woman in the portrait was insulted!

Do you have any good haunted house stories that you’d like to share? 🙂

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This post is dedicated to Jaso.

Image of Haunted House by Harald Hoyer, from Wikimedia Commons

Definitions and usage information were sourced from Garner’s Modern American Usage. Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will immobilize the intractable letter I…

Rogue Words from A to Z: You May Be Good, But I’m the Goodest

April 8, 2015April 5, 2015Sue Archer 49 Comments

Good seems like a nice, simple word at first glance. Most of the time our use of good is good enough. But if we want to use it perfectly well, we need to know how good is different from the word well.

Well can be used as either an adjective (describing a noun/pronoun) or an adverb (describing a verb/adjective). When we say “I feel well,” well is describing the pronoun I. When we say “She did well,” well is describing the verb did. So far, so good. 🙂

Good, on the other hand, is only supposed to be used as an adjective. You can say, “I feel good,” (nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!) but not “She did good.”

To complicate matters, we’ve developed some “acceptable” sayings in English that do use good as an adverb. An example of this is “a good many more.” Why these exceptions? I have no idea.

At least we can agree that there is no such word as goodest. (Even though that would actually make sense. Who decided best was the way to go?)

To show some of the many ways good is used, here is a short story. I’ve put an ✕ next to any incorrect usages, so you can spot them in your own writing.

You May Be Good, But I’m The Goodest X

Gareth was dining alone at his usual table in the Gargoyle Monster Hunters Club when that blasted braggart Stuffington came in.

“Good day, old chap,” said Stuffington. “You don’t mind if I sit here, do you?” He casually slid into the chair across from Gareth.

Gareth ignored him and sipped his Earl Grey tea while studiously reading the paper. Hmm. More rumours of ghost sightings in the slums.

Undeterred, Stuffington announced, “I suppose you’ve heard about my good deed for the day. I’m feeling quite good about it, naturally. Always happy to do my part.”

“I’m sure you are,” muttered Gareth behind the pages.

“It’s not every day you get to take on a gaggle of galumphing golems. There were a good many more of them than I was expecting, but I did them but good. The good people of our city won’t be bothered by them again. They are gone for good.”

“And yet, you’re still here,” said Gareth darkly. He gave up and folded down his paper, glaring at Stuffington.

“Oh, don’t be jealous, old boy. You did good ✕ taking down those ghouls in that gallery, even if one of them did get away. It’s not your fault you’re not as good as I am. You’ll get there when you’re good and ready. You should really read my monster-hunting manual, it would do you good. Pick up some tips.”

“You know, I’m really not feeling well,” said Gareth, getting up from the table. “I’ll see you another time, Stuffington.”

“Oh, let me drive you home. I insist.” Stuffington trailed after him, talking about how the engine of his new motorcar ran so good ✕ that he always made it everywhere in good time.

Gareth felt a prickling at the back of his neck as they left the club. He instinctively ducked sideways as a giant flapping noise came from behind him. He could feel the whoosh of air going over him as a man shrieked.

He looked up and saw Stuffington being carried away by an enormous grey gargoyle.

“Goodbye,” said Gareth, not without some satisfaction.

I love these gargoyles from Paisley Abbey!

Bonus Word: Galumph

To galumph means either to move noisily and clumsily or to go prancing in triumph. The second meaning was coined by Lewis Carroll in his fabulously fun poem Jabberwocky.

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Definitions were supplied by the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

This post is dedicated to Lori MacLaughlin and Shawn. Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will hilariously hunt down the horrible letter H…