Bryan A. Garner

shape / shaped / shaped. The archaic past participle “shapen” exists only in the forms “misshapen,” “ill-shapen,” and “well-shapen.” The latter two, though much less common than “misshapen,” still occur — e.g.: o “At the back of the restaurant, the Pinup Lounge pays homage to Vargas Girls, those idealized images of well-shapen women painted by …

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shanghai, v.t. As a verb, “shanghai” means (1) to drug or otherwise make insensible and then abduct for service on a ship needing crew members; or (2) to influence by fraud or compulsion. The inflected forms are “shanghaied” and “shanghaiing.” “Shanghai” has its origin in the slang of 19th-century San Francisco. When gold was discovered …

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shall; will. Grammarians formerly relied on the following paradigm, which now has little utility: to express simple futurity, “I shall,” “you will,” “he will,” “we shall,” “you will,” “they will”; to express determination, promise, or command, “I will,” “you shall,” “he shall,” “we will,” “you shall,” “they shall.” But with only minor exceptions, “will” has …

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Miscellaneous Entries. service was once only a noun, but since the late 19th century it has been used as a transitive verb as well. It may mean “to provide service for” {the mechanic serviced the copying machine}, “to pay interest on” {to service a debt}, or generally “to perform services for.” Ordinarily, the verb “to …

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shake > shook > shaken (3). Today: When *"shaked" May Be Justified. The weak form (*"shaked") is perhaps justifiable in the facetious reduplicative phrase "shaked and baked" — e.g.: o “He had shaked and baked, turning the St. Ignatius gym into his personal oven.” E.L. Rogers, “Medina 62, St. Ignatius 61,” Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 12 …

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shake > shook > shaken (1). Today: “shook” for “shaken.” So inflected. Occasionally “shook” appears erroneously as the past-participial form — e.g.: o “Exercise rider Kelly Rycroft was shook [read ‘shaken’] up Wednesday morning when a horse he was pulling up was struck from behind by a bolting horse.” Dennis Feser, “Jan Alta, Astro Force …

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sextant; sexton. A “sextant” is an old-fashioned instrument used in navigation. A “sexton” is an officer who handles day-to-day affairs at a church or synagogue, with varying responsibilities depending on the religious institution. The two words are occasionally confounded, especially in obituaries — e.g.: o “He was a parishioner of Holy Ghost Church, where he …

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Miscellaneous Entries. sequential order is often a redundancy — e.g.: “These [Ernest Hemingway-Maxwell Perkins] letters contain long — emphasize long — discussions of money, of advances on work, royalties, serializations, advertising and the sequential order [read ‘sequence’ or ‘order’] in which stories should be published in collections.” John Balzar, “Fragments of Friendship,” L.A. Times, 19 …

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sexism (7). Today: Equivalences. Among the subtler problems of nonsexist usage is to refer to men and women in equivalent terms: not “man and wife,” but “husband and wife”; not “chairmen” and “chairs” (the latter being female), but “chairs” (for all); not “men” and “girls” (a word that diminishes the status of adult females), but …

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Sexism (5). Today: Words with “man-” and “-man.” Throughout the English-speaking world, writers’ awareness of sexism rose most markedly during the 1980s. American businesspeople and journalists have begun to write in more neutral language, sometimes obtrusively neutral — e.g.: o “The ice cream mixture is placed in the frozen canister and turned automatically, thus eliminating …

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Miscellaneous Entries. sensitize; *sensitivize. Although H.W. Fowler championed the latter, the former is now standard in American and British English alike. *"Sensitivize," a rare word, is now rightly seen as eccentric. Language-Change Index — “sensitize”: Stage 5. sensory; *sensatory; sensorial. “Sensory” = of or relating to sensation or the senses. *"Sensatory" is a needless variant. …

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Sexism (4). Today: The Singular “they.” Though the masculine singular personal pronoun may survive awhile longer as a generic term, it will probably be ultimately displaced by “they,” which is coming to be used alternatively as singular or plural. This usage is becoming common — e.g.: o “It is assumed that, if someone is put …

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Sexism (3). Today: Better Solutions. For the persuasive writer — for whom credibility is all — the writer’s point of view matters less than the reader’s. Thus, if one is writing for an unknown or a broad readership, the only course that does not risk damaging one’s credibility is to write around the problem. For …

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Sexism (2). Today: The Pronoun Problem. English has a number of common-sex general words, such as “person,” “anyone,” “everyone,” and “no one,” but no common-sex singular personal pronoun, just “he,” “she,” and “it.” The traditional approach has been to use the masculine “he” and “him” to cover all people. That this practice has come under …

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Sexism (1). Today: Generally. If you start with the pragmatic premise that you want to avoid misleading or distracting your readers, then you’ll almost certainly conclude that it’s best to avoid sexist language. Regardless of your political persuasion, that conclusion seems inevitable — if you’re a pragmatist. But does avoiding sexism mean resorting to awkward …

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sewn up. “Sewn up” (= [of an outcome] made certain) is sometimes mistakenly written *"sown up," as if the metaphor had to do with sowing (as opposed to sewing) — e.g.: o “It seems that the powerful had the game sown [read ‘sewn’] up from the start.” James Gill, “Justice for Those Who Can Pay,” …

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seven seas. This figurative term has been used since antiquity, but its meaning has varied among cultures. To the ancient Romans, the “seven seas” were a group of saltwater lagoons near what is now Venice. At about the same time, the Persians called the streams that flowed into the Oxus River the “seven seas.” Much …

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Miscellaneous Entries. *self-confessed is a common redundancy — e.g.: “A court that frees a self-confessed [read ‘confessed’] murderer on a technicality would seem to bear responsibility for any harm that criminal may do in the future.” Mario Pei, Words in Sheep’s Clothing 86 (1969). Language-Change Index — *"Self-confessed" for “confessed”: Stage 3. selvage (= a …

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Miscellaneous Entries. secretive; secretory. The first is the adjective (“inclined to secrecy, uncommunicative”) corresponding to one sense “secrete” (“to hide”; the second is the adjective (“having the function of secreting”) corresponding another sense of “secrete” (“to exude from glands”). “Secretive” is best pronounced /SEE-kruh-tiv/ for sense 1 and /si-KREE-tiv/ for sense 2. “Secretory” is pronounced …

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