Bryan A. Garner

slew, n. "Slew" (= a large number), which most commonly appears in the phrase "whole slew," is sometimes miswritten "slough" (= a stagnant bogpronounced /sloo/) — e.g.: o "Watch for a whole slough [read 'slew'] of indictments to be issued today stemming from a major cargo theft ring involving baggage handlers at O’Hare Airport." Michael …

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slay / slew / slain (1). Today: Generally. "Slay" = (1) to kill; or (2) to overwhelm, often with delight. In sense 1, the verb has gradually been disappearing from common use except in poetry, headlines, and references to crime victims — e.g., "her son was slain by a stranger in 2002." Even that usage …

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Slang (3) Today: The Middle Road. So where does the truth lie? Perhaps somewhere in between the two views. If the focus is on speech, then slang undoubtedly has its place in every normal person's mouth. Some will use it more than others. It grows out of a desire for novelty (freshness), experience shared with …

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Slang (2). Today: More Reactions. Although prescriptive linguists are often depicted as stern opponents of slang, the most prescriptive of them all saw its place: "A little racy slang may well be used in the course of one's daily talk; it sometimes expresses that which otherwise would be difficult, if not impossible, of expression." Richard …

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Slang (1). Today: Generally. "Slang," a notoriously difficult term to define, has potentially four characteristics: (1) it is markedly lower in dignity than standard English; (2) it typically surfaces first in the language of people with low status or with a low level of responsibility; (3) it is more or less taboo in the discourse …

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*slanderize. *"Slanderize" is a needless variant of "slander," vb. It seems to occur mostly in speech — e.g.: o "'If you're a politician, you should give an awful lot of thought to what you're saying, particularly when you're going to slanderize [read 'slander'] your opponent.'" Sam Howe Verhovek, "Sticking with One of Their Men," N.Y. …

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Miscellaneous Entries. signal, vb., makes "signaled" and "signaling" in American English, "signalled" and "signalling" in British English. significance; signification. These should be distinguished. "Significance" = (1) a subtly or indirectly conveyed meaning; suggestiveness; the quality of implying; or (2) the quality of being important or significant. "Signification" = (1) the act of signifying, as by …

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Skunked Terms. When a word undergoes a marked change from one use to another — a phase that might take ten years or a hundred — it’s likely to be the subject of dispute. Some people (Group 1) insist on the traditional use; others (Group 2) embrace the new use, even if it originated purely …

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skew; skewer. To "skew" is to change direction; to "skew" statistics is to make them misleading, especially by including some factor that is irrelevant to the inquiry. To "skewer" is (1) to impale, or (2) figuratively, to satirize or criticize. As a noun, a "skewer" is (1) a stick or rod that food is impaled …

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site; sight. This is yet another example of homophonic confusion. A "site" is a place or location; a "sight" is (among other things) something seen or worth seeing. This example is an unusually close call: "The intern liked to ask the 42-year-old lawyer, who was working for the firm as an independent contractor, for advice …

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Miscellaneous Entries. sibylline (= prophetic; mysterious) is often misspelled *"sybilline" — e.g.: There were Joan's often sybilline [read ‘sibylline’] remarks — Of course, we always do Tibet from the north. Nicholas Haslam, Joan Lady Camrose: Family Fortunes, Guardian, 29 May 1997, at 17. The word is pronounced /SIB-uh-lIn/. sic, vb.; sick, vb. "Sic" means to …

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sink / sank / sunk. So inflected. Occasionally the past participle ousts the simple-past form from its rightful place — e.g.: o "When the Montreal Expos announced that they had selected outfielder Errick L. Williams in the annual Rule 5 draft, it caused barely a ripple of interest. Until it sunk [read ‘sank’] in exactly …

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single most. This grating redundancy (“single” adds nothing to the superlative it precedes) appears most often in quoted speech, but it’s also common in edited text — e.g.: o “To see or not to see? Stratford is a must for every big-bus tour in England, and probably the single most [read ‘most’] popular side-trip from …

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Part A: As Adjectives. “Single” = (1) only one in number; sole; individual {a single strand of hair at the crime scene}; or (2) unmarried {single white male seeks single female for conversation and possible romance}. “Singular” = (1) exceptional, remarkable, one-of-a-kind {a singular achievement}; or (2) odd, eccentric {singular behavior}. In the following example, …

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Language-Change Index. The third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage reflects several new practices. Invariably inferior forms, for example, are now marked with asterisks preceding the term or phrase, a marking common in linguistics. The most interesting new feature is the Language-Change Index. Its purpose is to measure how widely accepted various linguistic innovations have …

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sing / sang / sung. So inflected. The past-participial "sung" is often misused as a simple-past verb — e.g.: o "She sung [read ‘sang’] the title track." Timothy Finn, "Williams Rocks, Sways Through Raw, Earnest Concert," Kansas City Star, 13 Dec. 1998, at B8. o "But the poet’s more than 1,500 songs, including many soulful …

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