Words, July 29
by Doug SmithArticle Tools
Next time, try the fish. They're brain food:
"[T]his combo features seared tuna and lamb chops. ... Each bite is so stultifying you lean your faces closer together as if sharing some coterminous whirling rapture."
Here's a tip for those seeking stultification — martinis are even more effective than lamb chops. To stultify is "to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical." Stultify is sort of like stupefy. Oldsters will remember a character in "Li'l Abner" called Stupefyin' Jones, a young woman so voluptuously beautiful that sightings of her rendered men insensible.
Like Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," newspaper funnies used to be big. And like Norma, the funnies might respond that they're still big, it's the pages that got small. In any case, there are no comic strips around today with the cultural wallop of "Li'l Abner" or "Dick Tracy," or, more recently, "Peanuts." The Word Detective has written about wimwams, meaning "the willies, the jitters," as in "Her nose ring gave me the wimwams." He said he'd learned the word from his mother. I learned it from "Pogo," another classic comic.
Wimwams is synonymous with heebie-jeebies. When I looked up heebie-jeebies, I found that it was coined by Billy De Beck (1890-1942), in his comic strip "Barney Google."
"Our biggest worry is that amongst those rounded up are genuine refugees."
Lee Hunter of Lead Hill has been seeing more of "amongst" than agrees with him. "Is 'among' no longer good enough?" he writes. "Is 'amongst' becoming the new 'tarmac'?"
It may have made advances, but amongst is still uncommon in American English, according to the Cambridge Guide to English Usage. And if that's not enough guidance for you, the more opinionated Gardner's Modern American Usage says that amongst is an archaism in American English, pretentious at best.
If we hang together, maybe we can stop amongst from running amok the way tarmac did. In Journalistic English, every runway is now referred to as "the tarmac," whether it's made of tarmacadam or not.
Author Archives
-
Words, July 1
Boozman, bullisome and OK versus okay.
- Jul 1, 2010
-
Petition asks to unseat board
Pulaski County School District teachers, patrons and students are circulating a petition calling for the immediate resignation of four members of the Pulaski County School Board.
- Jul 13, 2010
- More »
Latest in Words
-
Words, Sept. 2, 2010
"The long-running Hardy Boys Mystery Stories series ended in 2005 and was replaced with a reboot series." As a former fan of the Hardy Boys, I didn't like the sound of this even while I wasn't sure what it meant.
- Sep 2, 2010
-
Words, Aug. 26
"In the Words column Aug. 12, Ray White asks 'Don't linguists have a name for a phrase that is misunderstood and then the misunderstanding overtakes the original?' I think perhaps the term Mr. White is searching for is 'eggcorn.' "
- Aug 26, 2010
-
Words, Aug. 19
A reader asks the origin of not all its cracked up to be, meaning "It's disappointing, it doesn't live up to its reputation," as in "Reality is not all it's cracked up to be."
- Aug 19, 2010
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: NLR's strong mayor
Hi,Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, ( http://www.vipstores.net ) Here are the most
…- on September 5, 2010
-
Re: Sounding out for the WM3
Hi,Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, ( http://www.vipstores.net ) Here are the most
…- on September 5, 2010
-
Re: Boozman's unfair tax
Hi,Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, ( http://www.vipstores.net ) Here are the most
…- on September 5, 2010
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / John Brummett / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / A Boy Named Sooie / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (0)