Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day

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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shine. As a transitive verb, it’s inflected “shine / shined / shined” {he shined his shoes}. As an intransitive verb, it’s inflected “shine / shone / shone” {the sun shone}. Writers occasionally use “shined” where “shone” is the word they want — e.g.: “And neither shined [read ‘shone’] like the oft-dormant Texas running game that …

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sheath, n.; sheathe, vb. It’s an error to use “sheathe” (rhymes with “teethe”) as a noun or “sheath” (rhymes with “teeth”) as a verb — e.g.: o “The device features a mechanism that secures the needle, point and all, inside a plastic sheathe [read ‘sheath’] at the same time that the user withdraws it from …

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Miscellaneous Entries. sex, adj.; sexual. Both “sex discrimination” and “sexual discrimination” are widely used. The former is perhaps better, since “sexual” has come to refer more to sexual intercourse and things pertaining to it. Thus “sexual” is becoming rare in contexts not involving intercourse or the drive to engage in it. Today, “sexual education” seems …

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share. This word appears in various redundant phrases, such as *"share in common," *"share together," and *"both share" — e.g.: o “Elway and Dan Marino have been playing contract leapfrog with Elway always getting the last leap. They both share [read ‘have’] the same agent, Marvin Demoff of Los Angeles, and that’s the way he’s …

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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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