I don't care how much I respect you as an author

[conuly]

If you're going to claim that this, that, or the other thing isn't a word, you should at least check a dictionary first. Preferably the OED, but since I lack one of those, I just use online Merriam-Webster when being a snot.

Why? Because chances are, it *is* a word. Really, it's hard to see how it can't be. I mean, if I can use it, and other people have a fighting chance of understanding what I mean when I do, I'd like to know what the heck it is if it's not a word. But I mean to say it's a word that's been properly pinned down and recorded, and may have existed for a very, very long time indeed.

Once you've determined that it is, in fact, considered a word by the experts in the field, you can then make a slightly more coherent complaint - it's a word, but one you feel is unwieldy, or ugly, or that marks people as ignorant, or that only serves to cause confusion, or whatever the heck you want to say about it, I don't know.

You've then made your complaint, and you've done it without looking silly. Everybody wins.

Edit: Incidentally, I totally agree that nobody should ever wait for anything with baited breath. However, the word bated is otherwise so obscure that I suggest anybody who doesn't know what the word means (don't go looking it up! I mean it!) immediately go out and just find a new expression to cover the meaning of "waiting with eager anticipation". We'll all be happier for it.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It's always reassuring to know I'm not the only person who tends to get into this kind of argument.

My mother recently asserted that there was no such word as genre, which surprised me quite a bit. Someone else claimed that efficacious was not a word in common parlance (http://elenbarathi.livejournal.com/189337.html) - well hey, je parle, and so do a lot of other people I know. I admit that the people I know have larger vocabularies and more attachment to history than the average person, but there are just as many people above average as there are below, so I don't believe that 'common parlance' has been dumbed-down as far as some may claim.

[conuly]

Genre? What?

The words in question were the somewhat better choices of "anyways" and "impact-as-a-verb". And I can see how they set your teeth on edge, but when one has existed since the 13th century, and the other one is cited from 1601, I think the time has come to allow them to be called words, even if you think they're poor word choices.

[conuly]

Incidentally, remember the talk about the kid going into kindergarten? You left a comment there that cut off, and I've been on tenterhooks to see what the rest of it was.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, true enough. It's like people who now say that the planet Pluto isn't a planet.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ummm... alas, no, I don't recall, but if you post me a link to the comment, I'll go look.

[tenou-k.livejournal.com]

I said efficacious yesterday, sitting in the living room, eating Nutella on graham crackers and playing Lego Star Wars.

Parlance does not get much more common than that.

[conuly]

http://conuly.livejournal.com/1353070.html

[conuly]

I've always said that Pluto isn't a planet, but I can appreciate that there's more than one definition for the word.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I remember somebody complaining about the way I speak, I forget how it was worded, but basically saying it was pretentious. The word that triggered this complaint was "shall". I suppose "will" is more common where I am and was, but I didn't even think of it as an unusual word. I certainly didn't think much more of that word choice than my choice to use "unusual" in the previous sentence, though I suppose I could have said "rare", "uncommon", "weird", "archaic" or many other things.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It's always reassuring to know I'm not the only person who tends to get into this kind of argument.

My mother recently asserted that there was no such word as genre, which surprised me quite a bit. Someone else claimed that efficacious was not a word in common parlance (http://elenbarathi.livejournal.com/189337.html) - well hey, je parle, and so do a lot of other people I know. I admit that the people I know have larger vocabularies and more attachment to history than the average person, but there are just as many people above average as there are below, so I don't believe that 'common parlance' has been dumbed-down as far as some may claim.

[conuly]

Genre? What?

The words in question were the somewhat better choices of "anyways" and "impact-as-a-verb". And I can see how they set your teeth on edge, but when one has existed since the 13th century, and the other one is cited from 1601, I think the time has come to allow them to be called words, even if you think they're poor word choices.

[conuly]

Incidentally, remember the talk about the kid going into kindergarten? You left a comment there that cut off, and I've been on tenterhooks to see what the rest of it was.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, true enough. It's like people who now say that the planet Pluto isn't a planet.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ummm... alas, no, I don't recall, but if you post me a link to the comment, I'll go look.

[tenou-k.livejournal.com]

I said efficacious yesterday, sitting in the living room, eating Nutella on graham crackers and playing Lego Star Wars.

Parlance does not get much more common than that.

[conuly]

http://conuly.livejournal.com/1353070.html

[conuly]

I've always said that Pluto isn't a planet, but I can appreciate that there's more than one definition for the word.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I remember somebody complaining about the way I speak, I forget how it was worded, but basically saying it was pretentious. The word that triggered this complaint was "shall". I suppose "will" is more common where I am and was, but I didn't even think of it as an unusual word. I certainly didn't think much more of that word choice than my choice to use "unusual" in the previous sentence, though I suppose I could have said "rare", "uncommon", "weird", "archaic" or many other things.