This Week: Book Sale Continues! Plus, Thanksgiving Leftovers on the Podcast + dolly/handcart

dolly/handcart
A dolly is a flat platform with wheels on it, often used to make heavy objects mobile or by an auto mechanic lying on one under a car body. Many people mistakenly use this word to designate the vertically oriented, two-wheeled device with upright handles and horizontal lip. This latter device is more properly called a “handcart” or “hand truck.”



____________ 



On the podcast this week, we pick up from last week and serve some Thanksgiving leftovers, including “dolly/handcart,” “duck tape/duct tape,” “between you and me,” and many more entries and cartoons from the book.

This Week: Book Sale! Plus, Giving Thanks for the Book on the Podcast + bare/bear

bare/bear
There are actually three words here. The simple one is the big growly creature (unless you prefer the Winnie-the-Pooh type). Hardly anyone past the age of 10 gets that one wrong. The problem is the other two. Stevedores bear burdens on their backs and mothers bear children. Both mean “carry” (in the case of mothers, the meaning has been extended from carrying the child during pregnancy to actually giving birth). But strippers bare their bodies—sometimes bare-naked. The confusion between this latter verb and “bear” creates many unintentionally amusing sentences; so if you want to entertain your readers while convincing them that you are a dolt, by all means mix them up. “Bear with me,” the standard expression, is a request for forbearance or patience. “Bare with me” would be an invitation to undress. “Bare” has an adjectival form: “The pioneers stripped the forest bare.”


____________ 



On the podcast this week, we celebrate Thanksgiving by giving lots of thanks for the book.

This Week: Book Sale! Plus, More on the Language of Politics on the Podcast + reactionary/reactive

reactionary/reactive
Many people incorrectly use “reactionary” to mean “acting in response to some outside stimulus.” That’s “reactive.” “Reactionary” actually has a very narrow meaning; it is a noun or adjective describing a form of looking backward that goes beyond conservatism (wanting to prevent change and maintain present conditions) to reaction—wanting to recreate a lost past. The advocates of restoring Czarist rule in Russia are reactionaries. While we’re on the subject, the term “proactive” formed by analogy with “reactive” seems superfluous to many of us. Use “active,” “assertive,” or “positive” whenever you can instead.


____________ 

On the podcast this week, we continue our discussion of words related to government and politics, including “red/blue,” “liberal,” “libertarian,” “conservative,” and “reactionary.”

Book sale! Through the end of the year, buy the Common Errors in English Usage book now for $15 with free shipping in the US.

This Week: Book Sale! Plus, More on the Language of Politics on the Podcast + socialize

socialize
People socialize at a party or on Facebook. Socialist governments socialize their economies. Sociologists speak of people being socialized into particular customs or groups. Animals can also be socialized. These are the main standard uses of “socialize.”

But people in the business world have developed a new meaning for “socialize”: to get people to agree with. Examples: “have them socialize the material with their work groups,” “we need to socialize the idea.” To nonspeakers of business jargon this sounds pretentious and silly.

____________ 

On the podcast this week, we continue our discussion of words related to government and politics, including “left/right,” “socialist,” and “communist.”

Book sale! Through the end of the year, buy the Common Errors in English Usage book now for $15 with free shipping in the US.

This Week: Book Sale! Plus, More on the Language of Politics on the Podcast + beaurocracy/bureaucracy

beaurocracy/bureaucracy
The French bureaucrats from whom we get this word worked at their bureaus (desks, spelled bureaux in French) in what came to be known as bureaucracies.


____________ 

On the podcast this week, we continue our discussion of words related to government and politics, including “bureaucracy,” “red tape,” “bulls and ballots,” “elections,” “voting (and votive candles!),” and “constitution.”

Book sale! Through the end of the year, buy the Common Errors in English Usage book now for $15 with free shipping in the US.