Ann Coulter goes off the deep end: 'Better Putin than Nikki Haley'

Washington Examiner ^

[firebrand]

Well, that’s news to the book publishing world, but thanks for the additional information. Webster’s continues to mislead the people.

They still spell good-bye with a hyphen, like some kind of stubborn old professor.

[Terry L Smith]

dear firebrand,

re: “Webster’s continues to mislead the people.”

I use a 4th Collegiate Edition, published before “the magic Negro” even thought about being president.

Now, the question ... “Other than the Oxford Dictionary or Webster’s editions, what mystical book of letters do you use for word definitions?”

“good-bye” is grammatically correct, and has been since I learned that term in the 1950’s.

[firebrand]

The Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Abridged is the one that almost all copyeditors and proofreaders in book publishing are expected to use. This is so that the freelancers and everyone else concerned do not have to learn a new style sheet for every book.

The last book I handed in had several closed-up spellings for words that the 11th still has as two words. I let these ride except for one, which looked bizarre to me as one word. The whole things starts to look Joycean if you’re not careful.

“Goodbye” is standard in all magazines and newspapers. It’s only book people who are stuck in the past. Newspapers also use cellphone, not cell phone, and a few others that look right to me.

Glad you are interested in dictionaries. If you want a recommendation, I would say the 11th. It’s also online.

[firebrand]

You asked about definitions.

The first one listed is the oldest, sometimes marked “archaic.” There’s one dictionary that does it in reverse, just for fun.

I always look at the derivation when I need help. There you learn things like “rack” comes from a word meaning “torture,” and “wrack” comes from a word meaning “destroy.” So by rights it should be “nerve-racking,” not “nerve-wracking.”

Of course the language keeps changing. Gone are the days when you could correct “dumbfounded” to “dumfounded,” “attempted assassination” to “assassination,” and “transpire” to “happen” (it used to mean “be revealed” or “come to be known”). But we still have our fun in other ways.

The OED is the ultimate source for derivations, although the definitions are slanted toward British usage. We used to have the entire 20-volume set in our library. Now you can get an app.

[firebrand]

Oh you said other than Webster's or Oxford.

Nothing. Or my own ear and eye from many years of listening to people talk and reading books and periodicals. Often there is only a slight difference between one word and another. It's just common sense and experience and judgment after a certain point.

[Terry L Smith]

dear firebrand,

I accept your sectional response.

I am not sure if you were aware that a lot of the elder generation writers I have known, to include Mr. Harlan Ellison, have refused to use any edition of Webster’s after the 3rd edition, for reasons of dilution of the language.

I interject, that the federal government, in hiring a lot of WW2 veterans, actually held classes in inter-office communications, which included terms such as, and i quote: “aintcha”, “dontcha”, “gotcha”.
(This was told to me by a fellow office worker, who was a WW2 veteran that served in the 7th Cavalry, during my time as a Dept. of Defense Q.A. Specialist.)