The Scribble Pad

True, but a ‘kid’ is also a juvenile human creature—quite often annoying, but let’s not go there. I know it’s standard use in America, but here in the Caribbean, you’d be surprised how many people will fight you down to the ground if you use the word ‘kid’ to mean child. I have had people send back my work with the word ‘kid’ circled in red with the witty, original, and utterly-never-heard-before comment, “You mean a baby goat?”

Oh, grow up. As an editor I get paid to be nit-picky about language, but as a person in possession of a working brain and a functional concept of how languages work, I also reside on this planet, and I have two points to make.

1. Language is alive. Just like you and me: It is born, it grows, it matures, it changes, and it will eventually die. A few years ago the word ‘selfie’ didn’t exist. Or ‘blog’ or ‘vlog’ or ‘twerk’ . . . or dozens more.  They were created to fill a need. Also, words we consider “proper” English had different meanings in earlier times. We use the word ‘slut’ today to mean a woman with low sexual values, but it originally meant a dirty and unkempt woman. The word ‘nice’ originally meant foolish or stupid; now it has morphed into the wishy-washy non-word we all know and love. The meaning of words changes.
2. I first heard the word ‘kid’ back in the 60’s, on Sesame Street. When I was a kid myself. It dates back more than 100 years. And as far as I’m concerned, if a word has been around so long, it’s earned its stripes.

So, if you feel strongly about it,  you can type ‘children’ until your hands hurt, but if I choose to do otherwise, there’s no need to get all up on my back about it, ‘kay?

Comments and questions, guys. Let’s talk it through!

Oh . . . wait . . . sorry. I meant to compliment them. ‘Complement’ and ‘compliment’ are often confused, but easy to tell apart, if you look hard enough.

‘Complement’ with an E means to be a harmonious addition to something. For example, white wine is a great complement to a fish dinner. Colours and angles can also be complementary, in that they complete or enhance each other.

On the other hand, ‘compliment’ with an I means to give positive feedback, as in a lot of people have paid me some very nice compliments about my Scribble Pad posts.

‘Complimentary’ also means an extension of courtesy or good manners . . . and it implies that something is free of charge.  So when you’re invited to a fete where the drinks are ‘complimentary’ it means you don’t have to pay for them . . . your rum and Coke will not tell you how well your dress goes with your shoes.

Wait! You aren’t leaving without leaving a comment, are you?

He’s continually pissing on my boundary wall. But it’s a good thing he doesn’t piss continuously, or he’d be dead.

Let me explain. A continuous action is one that doesn’t cease, like the waves on the ocean, rolling and rolling. Big Ben has been ticking continuously since 1859 (except maybe when they change batteries, but you know what I mean.)

Continually refers to an action that has a start and a finish, which happens over and over, but doesn’t go on uninterrupted. So this guy next door, he peed on my wall last night, zipped up and walked away. Tonight, he’ll probably do the same thing. Continual, right?

And I continuously hate his guts.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let’s talk.

Furthermore, I’m not running more than once a week.

Like hell.  Anything less than 5K is for wusses, and I’d die if I could only run once a week. But let’s talk about FARther vs FURther. It’s really easy.

FARther refers to physical distance, a space you can literally travel across. As in, “How much farther do we have to go?”

FURther refers to theoretical ground, usually applied to concepts, conversations, arguments, etc. For example, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Since the truth is not a physical entity, and can’t exist in literal space, you can’t actually measure how far anything is from it.

Need I take this any further?

That’s my two cents. What’s yours? Leave a comment.

Funny enough, one of the most common errors I come across when I’m editing is one of the simplest, and one that we all learn very early in primary school. It has to do with the capitalisation of proper nouns vs common nouns.

There are a lot of instances in which people make mistakes, but the one I want to deal with today has to do with family relationships, and how we refer to our parents, aunties, uncles, etc.

There’s a tendency to capitalise the word Mom, for example, regardless of the context. But remember that if we’re using the word generically, there’s no need to capitalise. If it’s a form of address, we do. Meaning you say: “Is that your mom over there?” (No capital M as you are referring to the person, not addressing them, and there are a dozen moms in the room.)

But we say, “You make the best shepherd’s pie in the world, Mom!” (Because you’re talking to the person. And yes, I do make the best shepherd’s pie in the world.)

You can also be talking about the person but using their title, as in, “Did you ask Mummy if you can sleep over this weekend?”

The same goes for other relationships. You say, “Your auntie is on the phone,” but you also say, “Auntie Aggie is on the phone”.

We cool now? Good.

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