With my chosen profession, I think a lot about words.
I try to be mindful of my word choices, wanting to inform and educate readers and get my point across without sending people to a thesaurus (or to Google) to figure out what I’m saying.
At the same time, I enjoy when people change a word to pretty something up.
Isn’t that house cozy? It’s small.
It’s a vintage bicycle; or it’s used and old. A used, old T-shirt sells for 50 cents at a yard sale. A vintage T-shirt sells for $20 at a specialty shop.
Retro clothing is another one. Look at the ’70s bell bottoms available for $30 at (whatever trendy store). Look at the trendy bell bottoms at the thrift store for $4.99.
With the popularity of the show “Stranger Things,” people are rushing to stores for ’80s merchandise. Instead, ask anyone my age. We probably still have a box or two we might be willing to part with.
“But Mooooommmm, it’s not the same,” we hear. Really? But this clothing is vintage and retro, and lived in the ’80s!
Buzzwords are another interesting phenomenon. Words like “staycation” and “bromance” weren’t in the lexicon when I was growing up. People just stayed home, or were hanging out with the guys.
Since Pete Sirianni left The Era, I have no one to fill me in on what these weird words are that appear on social media today. I’d give a few examples, but I’m afraid a “snack” no longer means an apple or a bag of chips. If you want to know for sure, Pete’s in New Castle. He probably wouldn’t mind a phone call.
Speaking of social media, I shared a post the other day with a coffee cup printed with a grammarist’s joke (so, I’m a nerd, I’m OK with that). It said, “The coffee he had had had had no effect.”
Here’s another one. Why is it that do and so don’t rhyme, and neither do dew and sew? Dough rhymes with sew. But dough doesn’t rhyme with tough.
And thought, through, tough and thorough are fun words, too.
One I see frequently abused, especially online, is there, their and they’re.
This might be a local thing, but lots of people say “I seen” when the correct phase is “I saw.” In fact, the torment is so thorough for me, I seek comfort from fellow grammarists who console me with pats on the back, murmuring “there, their, they’re.”
One of my daughter’s high school teachers had a T-shirt that read, “Silently correcting your grammar.” My daughter told the teacher it would be a good shirt for me, but it would have to say “not so silently correcting your grammar.”
Smart aleck. Speaking of my smart aleck daughter, I have a story to share. She tends to be a chip off the old block. We were having lunch recently, sitting at the kitchen table and talking.
I was explaining to her how much I love when people contact me about my columns, and how I love the comments about the stories I share resonating with others. “I have a following,” I told her, sharing my excitement.
Without missing a beat, she replies, “So did Charles Manson. It didn’t work out so well.”
Sigh.
(Schellhammer is the Era’s associate editor, and not a serial killer. She can be reached at
marcie@bradfordera.com)
