Today we’ll home in on three examples of the English language’s capriciousness.<\/p>\n
Self-deprecating<\/strong>\u00a0 Few contemporary writers would hesitate to use\u00a0self-deprecating<\/em>\u00a0to describe someone who is refreshingly humble. But the term’s wide acceptance is yet another triumph of the slobs over the snobs.<\/p>\n Technically, the correct term is\u00a0self-depreciating<\/em>. Although\u00a0deprecate\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0depreciate<\/em>\u00a0appear almost identical, these words have different roots, and different meanings as well. Traditionally, to\u00a0deprecate<\/em> is to disapprove of or denounce. To\u00a0depreciate<\/em>\u00a0is to devalue or downgrade. Because the two words are easily confused, most dictionaries caved forty or fifty years ago and started listing them as synonymous.<\/p>\n Why did\u00a0self-deprecating\u00a0<\/em>prevail when\u00a0self-depreciating<\/em>\u00a0is the right choice? Possibly because deprecating\u00a0<\/em>sounds mysterious and swanky.<\/p>\n It’s not as much fun to use\u00a0depreciating<\/em>, with its unwieldy extra syllable. It’s a dreary word that evokes decline and obsolescence.<\/p>\n Momentarily<\/strong>\u00a0 Since the mid-seventeenth century, momentarily<\/em>\u00a0has meant “for a moment.” But in the twentieth century, casual speakers and writers started using it to mean “in a moment.” This johnny-come-lately meaning of\u00a0momentarily<\/em>\u00a0has caught up with and maybe overtaken the traditional meaning.<\/p>\n There is quite a difference between\u00a0for a moment<\/em>\u00a0and in a moment<\/em>\u00a0when you think about it. Most travelers are heartened when they hear “Passengers’ baggage will arrive momentarily.” But this announcement could be stressful news to traveling language sticklers\u2014they might take it to mean that their arriving luggage will disappear after only a few seconds.<\/p>\n So why say something like\u00a0Let’s speak momentarily<\/em> and risk being misinterpreted? The solution is to drop momentarily<\/em>\u00a0and instead say either\u00a0Let’s speak soon\u00a0<\/em>or Let’s have a short talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n Presently<\/strong>\u00a0 This word has changed meanings more than once since its arrival in the fourteenth century. At first it meant\u00a0now<\/em>. But today careful speakers and writers use it to mean “in the near future.” Others use it in its original sense. The 2014 edition of\u00a0Webster’s New World<\/em>\u00a0lists both “in a little while; soon” and “at present; now: a usage still objected to by some.”<\/p>\n We recommend that you avoid this fussy word. If you tell a houseful of ravenous guests, “We are serving dinner presently,” many will think you mean\u00a0right now<\/em> and start elbowing their way to the front of the line.<\/p>\n Good alternative: “We are serving dinner soon.” Today we’ll home in on three examples of the English language’s capriciousness. Self-deprecating\u00a0 Few contemporary writers would hesitate to use\u00a0self-deprecating\u00a0to describe someone who is refreshingly humble. But the term’s wide acceptance is yet another triumph of the slobs over the snobs. Technically, the correct term is\u00a0self-depreciating. Although\u00a0deprecate\u00a0and\u00a0depreciate\u00a0appear almost identical, these words have different roots, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives-adverbs","category-definitions","category-effective-writing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNot so good alternative: “We are serving dinner momentarily.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"