Bryan A. Garner

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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since. This subordinating conjunction may bear a sense either of time or of logical connection. Despite the canard that the word properly relates only to time, the causal meaning has existed continuously in the English language for more than a thousand years. In modern print sources, the causal sense is almost as common as the …

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simulcast / simulcast / simulcast. So inflected — e.g.: o “TNT . . . actually produced the game broadcast that Channel 56 simulcasted [read ‘simulcast’].” Howard Manly, “Ratings Points, Few for Style,” Boston Globe, 16 Sept. 1997, at C7. o “‘Kickoff’ will be simulcasted [read ‘simulcast’] on Channel 13 and Home Team Sports.” Milton Kent, …

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Miscellaneous Entries. should; would. “Should” appears with the first, second, or third person to express a sense of duty {I really should go with you}; a condition {if Bess should call, tell her I’ll be back at 4 o’clock}; or an expectation {they should be here in five minutes}. “Would” appears with any of the …

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simplistic. “Simplistic,” a pejorative adjective meaning “oversimple, facile,” became a vogue word during the 1980s and 1990s: “With adults, a word catches on and it becomes a hobbyhorse that we ride to death. Remember when early critics of President Reagan’s economic plans called them ‘simplistic’? It was a word seldom used until then, but once …

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simpatico. Like “sympathy,” the adjective “sympatico” derives from the Greek word “sympatheia” (= sympathy). But “simpatico” (= mutually fond or understanding) came to English in the 19th century as a loanword from either Italian or Spanish — probably the former. In good English the word has always had the “sim-” spelling. Stumbling on the pattern …

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signee. “Signee” = a high-profile recruit, often an athlete, who is signed up by a school, employer, etc. Although the signee is the one who signs (active voice), the passive “-ee” makes sense in most contexts because the signee “is signed” by an organization. E.g.: o “Prairie has Husky signee Dan Dickau and is expected …

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signatory, n.; signatary; *signator. H.W. Fowler and George P. Krapp both recommended in the 1920s that “signatary” be adopted as the preferred noun (Modern English Usage 534 [1st ed. 1926]; A Comprehensive Guide to Good English 540 [1927]). Today, however, “signatary” is virtually never used. Most dictionaries record only “signatory,” and that form is 1,000 …

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Miscellaneous Entries. shelf. The plural is "shelves." shellac, n. & vb., is the standard spelling. *"Shellack" is a variant. But the proper inflections for the verb are "shellacked" and "shellacking." sherbet /SHUHR-buht/ is commonly mispronounced with an intrusive “-r-“: /SHUHR-buhrt/. Because of this mispronunciation, the word is sometimes wrongly spelled *”sherbert.” Language-Change Index — (1) …

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sight unseen. From a strictly logical point of view, the phrase makes little sense. In practice, however, it has an accepted and useful meaning: “(of an item) bought without an inspection before the purchase.” Sometimes the phrase is erroneously written *"site unseen" — e.g.: “Experts say the Web could be even more dangerous than the …

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sic. Part A: Generally. “Sic” (= thus, so), invariably bracketed and preferably set in italics, indicates that a preceding word or phrase in a quoted passage is reproduced as it appeared in the original document. “Sic” at its best is intended to aid readers, who might be confused about whether the quoter or the quoted …

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Miscellaneous Entries. shareholder; stockholder; *shareowner. All three terms refer to one who owns stock in a corporation. The first is the most common, the second a fairly common equivalent, and the third so much less frequent that it has become a needless variant. shavable. So spelled — not “shaveable.” shave / shaved / shaved. “Shaven” …

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shoo-in. “Shoo-in” (= a candidate or competitor who is sure to win), a casualism deriving from the idea of “shooing” something (as a pet), is so spelled. Yet *”shoe-in” is a frequent error — e.g.: o “Besides being a shoe-in [read ‘shoo-in’] for the Hall of Fame, Woodson has been a model player and member …

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shirk. In the modern idiom, this word is almost exclusively a transitive verb, as in the cliché that someone has “shirked” his or her duties. But the misformed phrase *”shirk from” has recently emerged, probably out of confusion with “shrink from” — e.g.: o “[Children] must have teachers who never shirk [read ‘shrink’] from challenging …

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