Evolution or …?
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Evolution or …?
Today we’ll home in on three examples of the English language’s capriciousness.
Self-deprecating Few contemporary writers would hesitate to use self-deprecating to describe someone who is refreshingly humble. But the term’s wide acceptance is yet another triumph of the slobs over the snobs.
Technically, the correct term is self-depreciating. Although deprecate and depreciate appear almost identical, these words have different roots, and different meanings as well. Traditionally, to deprecate is to disapprove of or denounce. To depreciate is to devalue or downgrade. Because the two words are easily confused, most dictionaries caved forty or fifty years ago and started listing them as synonymous.
Why did self-deprecating prevail when self-depreciating is the right choice? Possibly because deprecating sounds mysterious and swanky.
It’s not as much fun to use depreciating, with its unwieldy extra syllable. It’s a dreary word that evokes decline and obsolescence.
Momentarily Since the mid-seventeenth century, momentarily has meant “for a moment.” But in the twentieth century, casual speakers and writers started using it to mean “in a moment.” This johnny-come-lately meaning of momentarily has caught up with and maybe overtaken the traditional meaning.
There is quite a difference between for a moment and in a moment when you think about it. Most travelers are heartened when they hear “Passengers’ baggage will arrive momentarily.” But this announcement could be stressful news to traveling language sticklers—they might take it to mean that their arriving luggage will disappear after only a few seconds.
So why say something like Let’s speak momentarily and risk being misinterpreted? The solution is to drop momentarily and instead say either Let’s speak soon or Let’s have a short talk.
Presently This word has changed meanings more than once since its arrival in the fourteenth century. At first it meant now. But today careful speakers and writers use it to mean “in the near future.” Others use it in its original sense. The 2014 edition of Webster’s New World lists both “in a little while; soon” and “at present; now: a usage still objected to by some.”
We recommend that you avoid this fussy word. If you tell a houseful of ravenous guests, “We are serving dinner presently,” many will think you mean right now and start elbowing their way to the front of the line.
Good alternative: “We are serving dinner soon.”
Not so good alternative: “We are serving dinner momentarily.”
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
Did you mean to use hone instead of home in the first sentence of this?
I really enjoy your newsletters!
You must have missed our newsletter and blog A House Is Not a Hone.
Thank you for yet another great article.
It was really funny yet informative.
I find the word ‘momentarily’ quite interesting, especially when people misunderstand it.
I’ve been in such situations where different people got different meanings of it.
I, along with many others, were waiting for the doctor to come, when a nurse appeared and said, “The doctor will be here momentarily”.
Suddenly, there was a huge rush. I burst into laughter watching everyone getting up and forming a line, each trying to get to the front.
( There was no appointment system there. You could visit the doctor at any time during the visiting hours. )
I still laugh at the thought.
Maybe because it’s a dreary, about-to-rain kind of day … perhaps just ’cause you hit three-for-three / hat trick / trifecta of words with ambiguous meanings…. For whatever reason, I rate this epistle the bestest you’ve written or published.
Others in this arena: continuous / continually which you may already have addressed. My personal fave — no hope of ever reclaiming original meanings — are iterate /reiterate. Heard a guest on Bloomberg radio (financial news station; 1130 on AM dial) a month or three ago use iterate correctly; or as close to correctly as we can hope to hear in this lifetime. Host(s) and other guests attempted to correct him but he wouldn’t change his wording or usage. Yes, it sounded awkward but it was heartening to hear the gent speaking stick to his guns. Especially since he wouldn’t explain why he was using iterate rather than reiterate.
The topic of discussion had to do with XYZ, Inc. issuing “guidance” about next Q’s earnings or revenue projections. The guest said something like, “XYZ’s CFO iterated gross sales projections for Q3 on the conference call yesterday.”
Even this example isn’t really spot-on since the guest was using “iterate” instead of “reiterate” as a synonym for confirmed. I thought iterate meant “to say or state something” while reiterate meant “to repeat again and again; to repeat a word or phrase/utterance incessantly … to the point of insanity.” Not what Dictionary.com says now. Guess I really am a dinosaur.
I shall shut up now. My logorrhea is mega-flare mode today. Yikes.
It’s never a dreary, about-to-rain kind of day for us when we receive emails like yours.
Regarding continual and continuous, please see our Commonly Confused Words section in The Blue Book or on our website.
As for iterate, it has meant “repeat” since the 1530s, which makes reiterate sort of a one-word pleonasm.
Thank you for the nice words, good suggestions, and astute observations.
Your book and e-mails should be required study for all grammar and high-schools. By college, it’s too late. The ignorance has become systemic. Thank you for your work and your passion.
We hope that it’s never too late for people to improve their grammar skills.
I really like this site and used it often in the past. But with Jane’s death, I wondered if the rules and advice is being updated as language evolves or if the content is unchanged, ie. solely based on the guidelines she put forth?
Both the GrammarBook.com website and The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation are actively managed and maintained. An eleventh edition of The Blue Book was published in 2014, updated by Tom Stern and me, with a significant amount of new and updated material. The website was fully revised at that time to reflect the contents of the book. In addition, we continue to update the website to reflect the latest changes in rules and guidelines recommended by the leading reference books on English grammar and punctuation, as well as to clarify and expand our own material.
To help you keep current, you may wish to consider subscribing to our free weekly e-newsletter. You may also click on our Grammar Blog tab to see the articles we’ve issued in past e-newsletters, beginning with the most recent issue.
We are pleased to hear that you have often used the site. Thank you for the opportunity to let you know that what Jane started is alive, well, and thriving.