We all have pet peeves. If you're a journalist, perhaps we share a few. Poor grammar is at the top of the list. I have collected some common mistakes—mostly from people I drove insane. I love learning these, and I love sharing. But people take that obsession as self-righteous or annoying. So, I would rather share these blunders with those of like mind, and more importantly, I want to know what you've found so I can annoy even more. Together we can fix the world . . . one comma splice at a time.
Once upon a time, there were no dictionaries. Then a guy came up with the brilliant idea to write our language down, sort of like every other race in history had done. But English speakers didn’t figure it out until 1755. However, that guy was actually British. It wasn’t until 1806 that Mr. Webster, an actual American, took on the daunting task of recording 70,000 words he felt the official English language included. I think that’s fabulous. But it is fascinating to me that one guy got to make all of those decisions. I don’t blame him—no one else was doing it.
Webster eventually hooked up with the Merriam brothers, owners of a printing and bookselling operation. After Webster passed on, the brothers inherited more than a dictionary—it came to be arguably the most trusted source of the English language to our day. If it’s in their dictionary, it’s law. They get to decide what’s word-worthy or not, and the rest of us trust them to tell us exactly how to form the elements of our thoughts. Every year, more words are added and changed as our culture is shaped by other institutions.
I don’t know what life would be like without Merriam-Webster, but I spend a great deal of my time with them. I even pay them an extra 30 bucks a year to receive my world unabridged online—worth every penny, by the way.
For more information about Noah Webster and America's First Dictionary visit http://m-w.com/info/noah.htm.
1 comment:
Once upon a time, there were no dictionaries. Then a guy came up with the brilliant idea to write our language down, sort of like every other race in history had done. But English speakers didn’t figure it out until 1755. However, that guy was actually British. It wasn’t until 1806 that Mr. Webster, an actual American, took on the daunting task of recording 70,000 words he felt the official English language included. I think that’s fabulous. But it is fascinating to me that one guy got to make all of those decisions. I don’t blame him—no one else was doing it.
Webster eventually hooked up with the Merriam brothers, owners of a printing and bookselling operation. After Webster passed on, the brothers inherited more than a dictionary—it came to be arguably the most trusted source of the English language to our day. If it’s in their dictionary, it’s law. They get to decide what’s word-worthy or not, and the rest of us trust them to tell us exactly how to form the elements of our thoughts. Every year, more words are added and changed as our culture is shaped by other institutions.
I don’t know what life would be like without Merriam-Webster, but I spend a great deal of my time with them. I even pay them an extra 30 bucks a year to receive my world unabridged online—worth every penny, by the way.
For more information about Noah Webster and America's First Dictionary visit http://m-w.com/info/noah.htm.
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