Errata is the plural form of erratum. Both refer to errors in printed material. A sort of, “Sorry, we messed-up - what we meant to print was…”. It’s usually expressed as a slip of paper tucked into an otherwise flawless book. That’s the idea anyway. In practice, errata can only cover the errors that are discovered - much like life.
I’m borrowing the word to include errors in general. These are my opinions. It ought not be necessary to state that these are my opinions. Whose else might they be? But sometimes it’s useful to point out the obvious.
Hopefully: Hopefully means, full of hope. It does not mean, I hope. If you say, ”Hopefully it will all work out”. You will really be saying, “Full of hope, it will all work out; which makes no sense. What should be said is, “I hope it all works out”. Simpler, and grammatically correct. If you check this on google, google will misinform you.
Podium: A podium is the flat thing speakers stand upon. A lectern is the tall thing speakers stand behind. Both lectern and speaker stand upon the podium. The prefix, pod refers to feet, as in podiatry. You can mount a podium to proclaim what you will. You cannot stand before a podium - only on it.
Free: Nothing is free. When someone tells you something is free, you should ask yourself, “How will I end up paying for this”? Free is a term loosely used to deceitfully imply that there will be no cost to something or other - at least not now – not in any direct way, blah, blah, blah, etc. etc.… Nevertheless you will pay. That is a certainty.
Psychology: Psychology is the, “Scientific”, study
of the mind and behavior. Unfortunately, there is little science in psychology. Science is about measuring – precise measuring.
Psychology is about pretend measuring. It’s replete with charts, diagrams, statistics and theories, all of which are based on, “measurements”, of behaviour intrinsically unmeasurable: thoughts; feelings; impulses.
Conclusions drawn from this sort of gooey data can produce an aura of science, but not the fact. It can, and does, produce precise, ever-expanding nomenclature for the abundant mysteries of aberrant human behavior - none of which it can fix.
It is attractive to those who have no faith in God; but somehow do have faith in psychology. I can’t muster that much faith. The dreariest function of psychology is its diminution of eccentricity, bacchanal excess, and real evil - all proclaimed as diagnoses. Evil and oddness alike are reduced to dry clinical pathologies.
Assault Rifle: There is no such thing. It is an invention of leftist media. The military does not call the rifles used to assault enemy forces Assault Rifles. They call them by specific names, according to specific characteristics. They are all capable of fully automatic fire.
The AR-15, is cosmetically simalar to a military weapon. It looks scary. It looks like a military weapon. It’s not. It’s only semi-automatic. It can only fire one round per trigger pull. It’s totally incapable of, “spraying bullets”. Semi-automatic firearms have been around since the late 1800’s. Fully automatic weapons have been illegal in the USA since Machine Gun Kelley went out of business.
Free Coupons: See Free, above.
Freedom: ditto.
Decimate/Devastate: These are not two words for the same thing. Decimate comes from the Roman army practice of punishing troops who have lost a battle by executing one out of every ten of them. It’s quite precise. Decem is the Latin word for ten. It’s also the prefix for decade, decimal and other words that denote anything about ten-ness. Google will mislead you on this distinction by bowing to current widespread misuse of the word. Devastate is the correct word for general large destruction.
Socialist Democracy: This is an oxymoron.
It combines two words that are rationally incompatible. Socialism describes a system where government controls the people. Democracy describes a system where the people control the government. Those who believe that some combination of both is possible are deceiving themselves - or more likely, they are trying to deceive you.
Multi-Tasking: No such thing. When you interrupt one job in order to work on another, you are not multi-tasking - you are serial-tasking. It may seem you’re getting more done but you’re not. It’s never efficient. The time spent stopping and starting adds wasted time to each project you are serial-tasking.
Sometimes serial-tasking is unavoidable, as in the case of moms and soldiers at war. In almost every other case it should be rejected as wastefully stupid.
Gather Together: This is redundant redundancy. Why not just gather, or come together.
Sahara Desert: The Arabic word, sahara, means, desert. When you say Sahara Desert you are saying, Desert Desert - in two languages. An Arabic speaker might describe the American desert of Sonora as the Sonoran Sahara. That would be alright, because Sonora does not mean desert. When speaking of the Sahara of North Africa you need not add – Desert.
Progressive: An odd name for a political movement that marches so resolutely backward. Somewhere in Hell Karl Marx and Frederick Engels must be smiling through their pain at the delicious irony.
Settled Science: If something is settled, you can be sure it’s not science. Science is dedicated to unceasing challenge. Every new fact alters every old theory.
Unique: A description that permits no modifiers.
It means, one-of-a-kind. To say something is very unique makes no more sense than saying someone is very dead. They either are, or they are not. Just so, unique. Either
a thing is unique, or it is not. It cannot be more, or, less so.
Quality: This is a word that means nothing without a modifier. Something can be of high quality, or low quality, or anything in between. To describe something as a quality product is to say nothing about the quality of the product, at all.
Peruse: Many use this word to describe a casual scan of some piece of writing. The correct meaning (for all the centuries since Shakespeare) is to read thoroughly. Google will tell you it is ok to use the word for either meaning. That sort of nonsense makes useless a word that once had a real job.
Politically Correct: A term that is neither political nor correct. Such terms are euphemisms for actualities that are unpleasant when nakedly confronted. They are a form of cultural bullying used to enforce Big Brother’s “improved” realities. Politics are about policy. The purpose of Politically Correct language is cultural pettifogging.
Terrorist: This is not a word that describes a member of any cultural or political group. It is word that describes a military tactic. It is a tactic typically used by any group incapable of mounting a traditional military attack.
About 99% of attacks labeled, “terrorist”, by the current news media are attacks that should have been labeled, Islamic Jihad.
“Extremist terrorism”, describes nothing beyond
a tactic vigorously employed by parties unidentified.
The inappropriate use of these words is intended
to confound understanding. It sounds like you have said something informative, when you have not.
Racial Slur: Slur is not a noun. It is a verb. You may slur someone (an action), but the word you use to do the slurring must be a noun, not a verb. Any unpleasant name (noun) used to slur (verb) any person, place or thing, is properly called an epithet. The grammatically correct term is: racial epithet.
Extremist: There is nothing wrong with being extreme; unless you’re extremely bad. If you’re extremely good, no one will object; you can be extremely good all day long. The word extreme carries no meaning other than vigorous conviction. When used without a clarifying modifier it’s only a phantom epithet used to slur unpopular convictions.
Bad/Badly: If you feel badly about something, you’re not doing it right. If you feel bad about it, you are. Badly is an adverb. You can do badly at almost anything - except feeling. People with ice-locked hearts are an exception; they do feel badly. Everyone else may feel bad, but they don’t do it badly. They do it very well.
I’d like to say: Don’t just like to say. Go ahead and say it - without preface.
Let me say this: See above.
Sex/Gender: Sex and gender are not interchangeable terms. Sex is about biology; gender is about linguistics. Many languages divide words into masculine and feminine cases. In French, (la chaise) the chair), is feminine. In English a chair is just a chair. When English speakers want to talk about biological opposites, they should refer to differences of sex, not differences of gender.
Misnomer/Mistake; Some people seem to think that misnomer is an alternate word for any sort of mistake. It is not. Misnomer is a particular kind of mistake; a mistake of naming. If you call a cat, a dog, you will have made both a misnomer - and a mistake.
(HR) Human Resources: What Fiend from Hell whispered this term into being? Gainfully employed humans used to be known as employees - now, like wheat, corn, and oil, they’re just resources – faceless components of a workforce, to be impersonally moved or removed without regard for human dignity. Words matter.
Problem/Issue: There was a time, not so long ago, when the expected response to, “Thank you”, would have been, “You’re welcome”. Now, inexplicitly, the response is usually, “No problem”. If there was no problem, why am I thanking you? Equally inexplicable, no one seems to have problems; only issues. Are there problems issuing from these issues? If so, why not just say, “I have a problem with that”. Maybe that’s only an issue with stogy pterosaurs
like me.
To be continued – someday - maybe.