Comments | mordantcarnival: PSA: Stuff that you do WRONG.

mordantcarnival

PSA: Stuff that you do WRONG.

Jun 11, 2031 18:46

It's not a "mute point." It's a moot point. MOOT ( Read more... )

Comments 16

janinazew June 11 2009, 18:05:43 UTC

Finally someone explains affect/effect to me! I've been wondering about that for ages!

mordantcarnival June 11 2009, 18:24:32 UTC

More on affect/effect here: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/affect.html

And here: http://xkcd.com/326/

janinazew June 11 2009, 18:34:48 UTC

Your explanation was better, the 1st link doesn't explain the difference between the common use of affect/effect with proper clarity. No wonder I get so confused when people try to define these things.

gane5h June 11 2009, 18:10:44 UTC

God yes. I also get annoyed by brooch/broach and horde/hoard confusion, and the use of "breath" as a verb.

BDSM one here: "dominate" is not an adjective. The word you're searching for is "dominant".

mordantcarnival June 11 2009, 21:10:06 UTC

Xref pronouncing Domme as "Domm-ay."

Memes cusm June 11 2009, 18:26:35 UTC

Yes. A meme is a living idea that reproduces and survives in a manner suggesting the organic yet exists only as a contagious idea amongst a group of carriers which may influence said carriers in a manner suggestible of possession. Think religion, politics, subculture. It is not a quiz. Though the way those are used they are a bit the equivalent of viri. Short lived protomemes. Certainly not the real thing.

as_alas_i_was June 12 2009, 03:14:00 UTC

This is my life, actually. By the end of the year I feel like I'll explode if I see the word "defiantly" for "definitely" one more time. That's one that the spell checker seems to have created.

danalcapone June 12 2009, 19:15:07 UTC

Oh yeah. See also "heroin" for "heroine" - I did not know about decapitation though.

The concept of memes annoys me as I found people who employ it are often a bit RICHIE DAWKINS SAID IT SO ITS TRUE AND OKAY and it kind of isn't.

mordantcarnival June 12 2009, 22:16:24 UTC

I find the concept of memes kind of useful though, it accurately describes certain aspects of the way that information "behaves." Until it doesn't. But there you go.

I saw "decapitated head" in the Torygraph a while back, which probably means it's a lost cause (along with "decimate" which properly signifies wiping out one-tenth of something rather than the wholesale destruction it's commonly used to convey). Technically though, a body is decapitated and a head is severed. Some would argue for "detorso'ed" or "detorsicated," but I'm less sure of those.

lwood June 13 2009, 17:22:02 UTC

Re: Decapitated head:

Yes, unless your head is like Avalokitesvara's:

( ... )

hopefoot June 13 2009, 00:18:34 UTC

Thank you.