Étiquette : tautology

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

mai 27, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 4 commentaires sur Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

To create a great language simply plunder other tongues of their attractive words, assimilate them and profess longstanding ownership. English proves this. Oxford has half a million distinct words. Add technical and slang and you’ve topped one million, says the Global Language Monitor. Most are swag. Unfortunately, piracy can be thoughtless. We are all accomplices, […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

Décembre 10, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 3 commentaires sur Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

  “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, third as more repetition.” I know Marx would have added that last part had he been on the ball. In the event, he was so fixated on dialectical something or other that he didn’t get around to it. And then there was the business about workers […]

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Wilf Popoff

WASTED WORDS: Squandering Words on Money

octobre 9, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 3 commentaires sur WASTED WORDS: Squandering Words on Money

The love of money is not only the root of all evil; it is also the root of ghastly copy. I find it particularly ironic that word economy has only a fleeting acquaintance with commerce. Consider the grating and ubiquitous tautology, expensive price, as in, “The house with a river view comes at a more […]

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Wilf Popoff

WASTED WORDS: The editor as analyst

novembre 24, 2012 by Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. I find it hard to edit without playing amateur psychologist. Why did the writer do this? Carelessness? Ignorance? Of course it can be either. Compared to editors writers are not as alert, which is why they need us. But […]

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