For the 30 days following this blog’s five-year anniversary, I am reposting some favorite, popular, or unique posts. Feel free to contact me to suggest some of your favorites. If you’d like to comment, click through to the original post.
From the Department of Corrections (and Rants) comes this gentle reminder of the true, correct spelling of a brand-new word.
I will re-post this and re-post this as many times as it takes for my preferred spelling to be recognized.
*****
Dear Miriam-Webster:
You may be among the leaders in dictionaries, however, I feel that you have allowed your metaphorical crown to become besmirched.
Yes, yes, you feel the hot breath of user-generated content and Web 2.0 on your editor’s collective necks, and so, out of fear, you rush to adopt words in a way that resembles the crazed actions of a parent trying to connect with their teenagers. “Hey,” you say, “look at us, adding these new words, words like RPG and smackdown and crunk to the dictionary! Aren’t we ‘fly’ for adding these words?”
Um… guys… those words are old words, words that have been around for decades. Look, don’t use words that were cool when you were kids to impress the kids, mmmKay? Doesn’t work.
But… the worst offense is when you add a word and you add it incorrectly.
It’s not ginormous. It’s gianormous.
Like giant + enormous. Gianormous. Get it?
Please feel free to correct this soon.
To be sure, there’s some dispute over my preferred spelling, but two out of three entries at Urban Dictionary (ah, there’s that user-generated content that’s got the old-school companies runnin’ scared) agree with me. I win.
Sincerely,
Brian