The Engine Room A blog about language use, misuse and abuse, brought to you by two sub-editors (copy editors) on a weekly magazine. If you have questions about words, grammar, spelling etc, why not ask us? Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 46 4512

Articles from The Engine Room

New word? 2007-11-12 11:45:00 It's nice to be in at the birth of a new word. A chum recently mentioned that he's sick and tired of slow-moving pedestrians who suddenly change direction and cause chaos in crowded streets – he refers to them as 'meanderthals'.Spot the meanderthal ...

In which JD is denied escort services 2007-11-12 06:14:00 As subs, Apus and I sometimes need access to websites that are blocked by our employer's "internet use policy".This morning I was subbing a feature on companies that offer vehicle escort services for abnormal or heavy loads – you might have seen these on the motorway yourself. The feature made reference to the sector's internet forum, but access to this was denied to me on the grounds that "the category 'sex' is filtered".Thinking about it, I can understand why our internet use policy considers www.abnormalescortforum to be inappropriate... and while I'm not sure what the other type of, ahem, 'abnormal escort', would be, I'm sure there's a market out there somewhere. ...

More sentence illogic: if and that 2007-11-09 10:12:00 Here's a sentence taken from some copy submitted by one of our writers. What's wrong with it?One of three UK ports will find out this month if it has been chosen to run a freight ferry service to NorwayAssuming for a moment that a port can find out anything, one port will find out that it has been chosen, not if. All three, presumably, will find out if they have been chosen – I doubt that two of them will be left in ignorance.However writing 'three UK ports will find out this month whether they have been chosen' does not convey the fact that only one will be chosen, so I simply changed the sentence to:One of three UK ports will this month be chosen(And yes, this is all just another excuse to show off the blog's new pullquote/blockquote icon...) ...

Headline: energy needs to grow 2007-11-08 07:18:00 Recently I was thrown by a headline used on a BBC News Science/Nature story:Energy needs 'to grow inexorably'Missing the single quote marks, I took this to mean 'energy has to grow inexorably', leaving me wondering how energy can grow. What the headline actually meant was 'energy needs are set to grow inexorably'.For once, this bit of verb/noun confusion wasn't even caused by a lack of headline space... ...

200 x (2 to the power of 5) 2007-11-07 07:27:00 A little bit of dodgy maths in some copy submitted to us by one of our freelance writers today:At fewer than 200 units a year, the UK market is small but set to double every year to reach 300 to 500 units a year within five yearsUm, doubling 200 each year gives you 400 after one year, 800 after two years, 1,600 after three, 3,200 after four and 6,400 after five...I was talking to Apus and we agreed that this sort of mistake is one of the hardest to spot when you are subbing. Typos, grammatical errors and inconsistencies jump out at you, but dubious figures and illogical arguments can be read through much more easily – especially when you are focusing on the language rather than the meaning.But I caught this one, so that's OK. ...

Pedants rule: important milestone 2007-11-06 10:02:00 Just in from one of our charges is news that an event will be an "important milestone". The OED confirms that a milestone is "an event marking a significant new development", so the writer was reporting on an important significant event – as distinct from...Subbing. If you aren't a pedant when you start you'll soon become one!PS, yes I know that the phrase "pedants rule" lacks an object. It's been another long day, OK? ...

Journalists eat pan-fried cat 2007-11-06 08:07:00 A permanent feature of our workplace intranet is a 'restaurant menu' page outlining the dishes available that week in our office canteen. One of today's dishes made me laugh:Pan fried catfish finishedwith crushedpotatoes withfine herb &garlicQuite apart from the haiku-like quality of the description, that first line break is rather unfortunate. It's a hard life being a journalist, but surely it hasn't come to this.Oh, and I was pleased to see the return of my old friend fine herb(s). ...

Prison and prepositions 2007-11-05 09:47:00 Slightly amused by a BBC News story on a prison break. Here's the headline and first sentence:Convicts escape jail with ladderTwo convicted thieves have escaped from prison by scaling a fence with a homemade ladder.Is it just me, or does the headline suggest that the thieves stole the ladder from the prison during their escape rather than actually using the ladder in the escape? Surely 'convicts escape jail by ladder' would be more accurate...Not the actual ladder used ...

Etymologic: etymology quiz 2007-11-04 12:18:00 One of the Engine Room regulars emailed in a while back to suggest that we should start featuring occasional quiz questions on the blog, for example giving an obscure word and a choice of four possible definitions for that word. Readers of the blog - that's you - would have to pick the correct definition.Not a bad idea, I thought, and I filed it under 'stuff I'd like to do on the blog when I get round to it'. But then I came across Etymologic, which is a great online multiple-choice word game. As you can imagine, the focus is on the etymology (origins) of words as much as their meanings, but I recommend you give it a go.In my last attempt, I managed a paltry six out of 10 - the etymology of 'jerky' (as in beef jerky) and the meaning of 'pilgarlic' were two of the questions that threw me... Let me know how you get on.Etymologic: the toughest etymology game on the web ...

At death's door... potentially 2007-10-31 12:46:00 Last night while listening to BBC Radio 4, which is normally the home of good English, I heard a doctor say: "To resuscitate or not is a potentially life and death situation."Potentially? Nope, I reckon once you're heart's stopped there's nothing potential about it. ...

Worldwide wondrous words 2007-10-31 12:27:00 JD and I take delight in the idiosyncrasies of English, but a recently published book serves as a reminder that weird and wonderful words are uttered wherever people speak.The book in question is Toujours Tingo: More Extraordinary Words To Change The Way We See the World, by Adam Jacot de Boinod (published by Penguin).How long is pisan zapra?Here are some examples:Pisan Zapra (Malay) – the time it takes to eat a bananaTartle (Scottish) – to hesitate when about to introduce someone whose name you can't recallJayus (Indonesian) – someone who tells a joke that's so awful you have to laughKaellig (Danish) – a woman who stands on her doorstep screaming obscenities at her progeny*Rombhoru (Bengali) – a woman with thighs as shapely as banana trees*Baffona (Italian) – an attractive moustachioed womanAnd from Cameroon, a phrase that's almost too nice to be believable: Wo-mba... the smile of a sleeping child. Aaaaaah...*PS Baffona Rombhoru makes an interesting name which would be ...

Triple mixed metaphor strikes back 2007-10-31 08:56:00 I blogged a while back about a triple mixed metaphor from one of our senior writers.The same writer has done it again!Operators will be buried under a mountain of data, glued to their PCs trying to unravel the mysteries of their operationIt would be difficult to unravel anything while buried under a mountain and glued to a PC... And I wouldn't mind all these metaphors so much if they weren't such cliches. ...

Bloody coincidental 2007-10-30 09:12:00 Giving blood the other day I was amused to note that the air-conditioning unit in the blood van (sorry: mobile unit) was called a 'Fujitsu Plasma Clean'. Perhaps it's not just the air that it conditions?Yes, I know it's a strange thing to spot but then there wasn't a lot else to look at...And on the subject of giving blood, I am always a little concerned when the nurse tells me to 'make a fist to get the blood pumping'. I thought that's what my heart was for. Still, good to know I have a couple of back-ups... ...

Typo of the week: tea-hee 2007-10-29 11:00:00 A small but amusing typo in a Times Online article about afternoon tea in London. Here's the relevant paragraph: Afternoon tea is served daily at 2pm and 4pm (plus a noon sitting at weekends) and costs £31.50pp, or £38.50pp with a glass of bubby: book on 020 7420 2669. You've got until December 15, when the Savoy closes for a 16-moth, £100 million refurbishment.It seems that 16 moths can do a surprising amount of damage... ...

Obscure but satisfying: quota and quotient 2007-10-26 12:38:00 An obscure solecism helped me finish the working week on a high note.One of our techies remarked in a feature that a number of otherwise similar vehicles "varied in their poshness quota". A rather clever phrase, I thought approvingly, and moved on. But something wasn't right. I looked again, reached for the OED and confirmed that he meant quotient, rather than quota.Which is the first time I recall that word dropping into the engine room. Small victories... but as subs and copy editors out there know, in the engine room that's all you can expect.Here's to the weekend! ...