I was reminded the other day of two things about prescriptive usage rules: (a) the power that comes with feeling like you know rules of usage that other people don’t (or have forgotten); and (b) the sometimes fine line between a usage rule that promotes standard usage...
This past weekend I was preparing for a talk I’ll be giving next month in Washington, D.C. At some moment I decided to check the description of the seminar online to make sure that I would be talking about what I said I would be talking about several months ago. (I...
When my 9-year old nephew asked his parents what a kerfuffle was, they said, “It’s like a brouhaha.” My nephew followed up, “What’s a brouhaha?” And his parents, in a move no lexicographer would endorse, responded, “It’s a kerfuffle.” Had my nephew looked...
In last Sunday’s “Social Q’s” column in The New York Times, Jennifer from Waccabuc, N.Y., described a man correcting her son for not saying “you’re welcome” after the man had thanked him for holding a door. Her question: Is it rude not to say...
