Griping about Words

I confess, somewhat sheepishly, to being a regular reader of various men’s clothing blogs. About a decade ago, when the world began to go casual all the time instead of just on Friday, I started going in the opposite direction: I picked up expensive Italian suits in thrift shops, found Charvet shirts for a couple of bucks apiece at a Goodwill, bought dozens of ties and pocket squares, even acquired vintage American-made wool sports jackets in my Ohio hometown. It was fun. It still is, though I now have enough suits to outfit an office of corporate lawyers and more Harris Tweed than you might have found at Williams College in the 1950s.

But when I read the posts at these various clothing sites, every few days I have to grit my teeth. Why? Because a certain kind of tie “compliments” a certain kind of suit. The misuse of “compliments” for “complements” is rabid among fashion bloggers. I can understand how the confusion arose, but you wouldn’t think it would be hard to learn the proper word, especially since occasions for its use occur so regularly.

Now, I’m not inherently a prescriptive dictator, passing draconian judgment on misusage in grammar, syntax or diction. I’ve pretty much given up on “hopefully,” for instance. I recognize that the language evolves, words come and go, English is what the people speak, etc. etc. But it still grates on me that people who otherwise write with wit and grace just keep making such an easily fixable mistake.

I once had a boss who regularly used the word “feisty,” but pronounced it “feesty.” I couldn’t say anything to her—one can’t ever, really-- but I shuddered inside every time she said it. There are some words I use in print that I don’t dare use in speech, because even now I’m not confident on how to pronounce them. Take the sexy word “dishabille,” i.e. what Robert Herrick would call “a sweet disorder in the dress.” I know how to say the French “deshabille” [add acute accents to those two e’s, by the way] but I’m not really sure what you do with the English. I gather from the dictionary that it’s something like “diss ah beel.” But I’m still not going to say it aloud. No one will know what I’m talking about.

Or take “err.” People solemnly intone, “To ‘air” is human, to forgive divine.” But “err” is properly pronounced as it looks, as “err,” not “air.” Yes, I can understand that this is a back pronuncation from “error,” but still. Anyway I do say “err” since people can readily figure out what I mean, even if they sometimes think I’m mispronouncing the word.

And that’s the issue, of course: The proper word or pronunciation now often looks or sounds wrong, leading to a temporary loss of confidence or confusion in one’s audience. And writers and speakers really can’t risk this. It’s at least an occasional vexation, especially since one would like to write with as much exactness and color as possible.

Anyway, do other members of the Reading Room grit their teeth when they hear certain misused words or phrases? Are there particular styles that rub you wrong? Did you admire or abhor William Buckley’s precise and rather supercilious diction? Do you shudder when the latest millionaire hip-hop artist starts talking “gangsta” or do you detect, as I sometimes do, a real street poetry? Have you stopped hearing the word “like” in virtually every other sentence spoken by any young person? We probably shouldn’t even get started on computer-lingo, from acronyms like IMHO and LOL to emoticons to fragmented grammar to the desire to make every word as concise as possible, as in the transformation of “you” into “u.” Sigh. Please share your thoughts and gripes, or even your occasional delight, in the words you run across in your daily lives and work.

- Michael Dirda