When you courageously resist opposing forces, you take—or make—a stand. The metaphor is a military one, with the defending forces refusing to flee from the attacker. Your stance, on the other hand, is just your position—literal or figurative—which may not be particularly militant. A golfer wanting to improve her drives may adopt a different stance, or your stance on cojack may be that it doesn’t belong on a gourmet cheese platter; but if you organize a group to force the neighbors to get rid of the hippo they’ve tethered in their front yard, you’re taking a stand.
___________
Paul Brians' latest blog post takes the bindlestick and runs away with it.
This is the ten-year anniversary of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.
Enjoy the calendar? Buy the book!
No comments:
Post a Comment