Bryan A. Garner

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: visit, n.; visitation.

visit, n.; visitation. Dictionaries have long labeled these nouns synonyms, and for the most part their senses overlap. “Visitation,” for example, may denote simply the act or an instance of visiting — e.g.: “Visitation is seasonal; few guests come in winter.” Jay Clarke, “Up Close with Six Florida Islands,” Chicago Trib., 21 Jan. 2007, Travel …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: visible; visual.

visible; visual. “Visible” means “capable of being seen; perceptible to the eye.” “Visual” means “of or relating to vision or sight.” Thus, the phrase for a blind or nearly blind person is “visually impaired,” not *”visibly impaired,” which is something of a malapropism — e.g.: o “Lyons also hopes to exhibit a sensory garden in …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: vis-à-vis.

vis-à-vis. “Vis-à-vis” (lit., “face to face”) is a multihued preposition and adverb in place of which a more precise term is often better. The traditional sense is adverbial, “in a position facing each other.” But the word is most often figurative. And as a preposition, “vis-à-vis” has been extended to the senses “opposite to; in …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Uranus. The traditional pronunciation of the planet and the mythical god is /YOOR-uh-nuhs/. The dominant pronunciation in American English is /uu-RAY-nuhs/, even though that variant is a relative newcomer. As Charles Harrington Elster notes, “Until the middle of [the 20th] century nearly two hundred years after the planet’s discovery in 1781, the only recognized pronunciation …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: violoncello.

violoncello. “Violoncello,” not *”violincello,” is the correct spelling for the bass member of the violin family. Not surprisingly, the word is often misspelled — e.g.: o “He used a violincello [read ‘violoncello’] for the body of the female figure.” Robert L. Pincus, “Surrealist Max Ernst Just Having Fun with Sculpture,” San Diego Union-Trib., 19 July …

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LawProse Lesson #155: Is it properly “brinkmanship” or “brinksmanship”?

Is it properly brinkmanship or brinksmanship? Brinkmanship. There’s no s after the brink, though many people mistakenly add it on the analogy of gamesmanship (which applies to all types of games and competitions). The forthcoming 10th edition of Black’s Law Dictionary will contain this entry: brinkmanship. (1956) A method of gaining a negotiating advantage by …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: vicious circle; vicious cycle.

vicious circle; vicious cycle. Both mean “a situation in which the solution to one problem gives rise to a second problem, but the solution to the second problem brings back the first problem.” “Vicious circle” is about 40% more common than “vicious cycle” in modern print sources. And “vicious circle” is the phrase with stronger …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: vicious; viscous.

vicious; viscous. “Vicious” (= brutal) is sometimes confounded with “viscous” (= gummy) — e.g.: o “Crouching just behind the service line, Agassi ran around his backhand to take a viscous [read ‘vicious’] rip at a return off Ferrero’s timid serve.” Selena Roberts, “Agassi Out as Ferrero Capitalizes on a Break,” N.Y. Times, 7 June 2002, …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Miscellaneous Entries. uprighteous is a portmanteau word, a combination of “upright” and “righteous” — e.g.: “You may recall the uproar over Atlanta pitcher John Rocker and his lowly opinions of New York City and its inhabitants. It was hardly an original view, but he said it to a magazine reporter, and the uprighteous sky fell …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: vice versa.

vice versa. “Vice versa” (= the other way around; just the opposite) should be the fulcrum for reciprocal referents. That is, “Mike likes Ellen and vice versa” says that Ellen also likes Mike. The subject and the object could be switched around, leaving the verb intact — e.g.: “You can adjust the slide to allocate …

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LawProse Lesson #154: Compound words: Is it “healthcare,” “health-care,” or “health care”?

Compound words: Is it healthcare, health-care, or health care? The better practice is to write it as a solid, unhyphenated word: healthcare. You’ll save yourself grief and, to the extent your writing endures, you’ll look better in the long run. Although the two-word form health care is more common today, the trend is clearly toward …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: veteran.

veteran. Once a veteran, always a veteran. Hence *”former veteran” is redundant — e.g.: o “Many former veterans [read ‘veterans’] now work in the private sector and would have good reason to fear any disclosure of their possible exposure to Agent Orange.” Shira A. Scheindlin, “Discovering the Discoverable: A Bird’s Eye View of Discovery in …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Miscellaneous Entries. unsupportable; insupportable. Both forms are standard and have been since they were first recorded in English in the 16th century. “Unsupportable is about twice as common as “insupportable” in American print sources — e.g.: “Adding $212 a month for health insurance to food, transportation, and housing costs in this high-cost state might well …

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LawProse Lesson #153: Phrasal verbs and their corresponding nouns.

Phrasal verbs and their corresponding nouns. A phrasal verb is a verb teamed up with a preposition or adverb (such as up in this sentence). The word after the verb is traditionally called a particle, and it often gives the verb a meaning different from what it would have on its own. (Compare: pass up, …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: verses; versus.

verses; versus. “Verses” (/VUHR-siz/) are lines of a poem or song, sections of a song separated by the chorus, or subsections of chapters in books of the Bible. “Versus” (/VUHR-suhs/) is a preposition from the Latin, meaning “facing,” especially in law and sports. Writers sometimes misspell it “verses” — e.g.: o “‘Many rooms are semi-private …

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