Saturday, October 3, 2015

undermind/undermined: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Saturday, October 3, 2015

undermind/undermined
Some people believe in a mystical overmind, but not even they believe in an “undermind.” The word is “undermined.” If you dig under a castle wall to prepare to breach its defenses, you are undermining it, digging a mine under it. The metaphor applies to all sorts of weakening of opposing positions, most often in arguments.


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Read Paul Brians' latest blog post, "On Dating Sites, Good Writing Matters," here.

Did yesterday's video of Groucho Marx not work for you? Watch it here.

This week we introduce the Common Errors in English Usage podcast with Paul Brians. In the first episode we talk about the passing of Yogi Berra and the phenomenon of Yogi-isms.

This is the tenth year 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.

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