=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= EDline Vol. 4, no. 22 (6 June 1999) Editorial mailing list Published by the Electric Editors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents: Q & A---previous queries [2he] Preferred usage [2hm] Pet hates [2ho] Medical journal publishers [2hr] 'Dumbing down' [Offshoot of [2hp] Australian English] [2hs] Word origins Q & A---new queries [2ht] Flag flying [2hu] Infectious or contagious? FYI [3en] American Medical Writers Association: address change [5] Bookmarks [6] Just for fun [8] Administration =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ---[2] Q & A --------------------------------------------------- ** [2he] Preferred usage Date: Thur, 3 June 1999 From: David Ibbetson, ibbetson@idirect.com June Baker wrote: >> Jenny Roberts wrote: >> >> It's usual to say that someone 'has multiple sclerosis' or >> 'has cerebral palsy', so why should quadraplegia be any >> different? > > Quadriplegia is defined by my dictionary as "paralysis of all > four limbs, usually as the result of injury to the spine". > Therefore, the difference is that multiple sclerosis or > cerebral palsy are the causes, whereas quadriplegia is the > effect. You would have to say someone "has an injury to the > spine" or something similar to be able to make a true > comparison of the three phases. I have myotonia and malignant hyperthermia. These names are observed effects: (tense muscles and life-threatening overheating). The causes are inherited errors in muscle cell design. I also have diabetes mellitus. Again the name describes symptoms -- an excessive flow of urine that's sweet-tasting. For that matter "multiple sclerosis" describes symptoms, i.e. observed effects. Diseases are traditionally named for the physician who first described them or for some outstanding symptom. When I was a child I didn't have scarlet fever (fever with red skin), but I did have chicken-pox. A disease with pock-marks on my skin. As it was chicken-pox the marks went away. If I'd had smallpox (against which I had been vaccinated) the marks would have remained. Generally I prefer to be called crippled than to be called motionally disabled or whatever. End of rant. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2hm] Pet hates Date: Wed, 2 June 1999 From: Jane Lyle, jlyle@indiana.edu Omar Johnstone wrote: > Impact as a verb, and its sister, a noun used in the figurative > sense of 'affect,' both appear to be hyperbolic American usages, This list makes me laugh! Why are usages that you don't like in other parts of the world always considered "American"? In the case of the verb "impact" in this sense, the earliest citations from the OED are of W. G. Hardy (a Canadian) and Oxford Magazine. The earliest citations of the noun in this sense are from Coleridge and Stubbs. I know from editor friends in the UK that they encounter this use of "impact" as often as we do. (And I have to say that in my line of work--scholarly publishing--I don't encounter it all that often.) Like it or not, this sense is here to stay--and while some of us may consider it jarring, those who use it seem to feel that it communicates their meaning perfectly well. Our language is ever-changing, whether we like it or not. 1935 W. G. Hardy Father Abraham 370 For there was about them an air of eagerness and of shuddering expectation which impacted on his consciousness and fascinated even while it repelled him. 1956 Oxf. Mag. 8 Nov. 81/1 The Magazine.. is not the place for consideration of national and international events except in so far as they impact on Oxford. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 63 In any given perception there is a something which has been communicated to it [the mind] by an impact, or an impression ab extra. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. i. 7 The impact of barbarian conquest split up the unity of the Latin tongue. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2ho] Medical journal publishers Date: Tue, 1 June 1999 From: Patrick Lowery, plowery@mpg.com Mary Fox wrote: > I am working on a proceedings and have to obtain permission to > reproduce figures from a variety of medical journals. What is > the easiest way to get hold of contacts for these? Ideally I > would like an email number for the permissions department of > each publisher but fax or address would do. Is there a resource > on the Web that would give me this? Medical Matrix offers this "Complete List" of publisher links: < http://www.sciencekomm.at/publish/publish1.html > The trick is to know who publishes a particular journal, or for book citations who owns a particular imprint now. Medical Matrix also has several journal links under "Literature" on its main page: < http://www.medmatrix.org/index.asp > Access is free, but registration is required. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2hr] 'Dumbing down' [Offshoot of [2hp] Australian English] Date: Wed, 2 June 1999 From: Naomi Laredo, naomi@smallprt.demon.co.uk Diana Boatman wrote [in EDline 4.20]: > However, the statement that caused me most surprise was > Professor Aitchison's allegation that the word "might" has > virtually disappeared from the Australian vocabulary, having > been subsumed by "may", as in "Had the sea been rougher, he may > have drowned". Is this true? Is it important? I've noticed the increasing use of "may" for "might" in UK radio and television broadcasts, by journalists whom one might have hoped appreciated the difference. This is, of course, another lost battle, but it seems to me to be a genuine impoverishment of the language, because a difference of meaning is obscured. It's much more alarming to hear that someone "may have died" than that someone only hypothetically "might have died". My immediate reaction is to wonder why the journalist didn't check whether the person was alive or dead before filing the report! ---------------------- Date: Wed, 2 June 1999 From: Charonne Prosser, Charonne.Prosser@repp.co.uk Karin Walker wrote: > I became aware that Spiegel uses an enormous amount of > Germanised words, borrowed from English general usage, that 5, > 6 years ago were not around. Reading this message reminded me of my German teacher at school who once fired off an angry letter to Spiegel about their use of the word 'helicopter' instead of the perfectly good German word 'Hubschrauber'. As this happened 18 years ago, I would assume that Spiegel is now almost entirely written in English! +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2hs] Word origins Date: Thur, 3 June 1999 From: Simon Cauchi, cauchi@wave.co.nz Glen Wheeler wrote: > It seems that 'be' as a prefix often follows the rules of > grammar, for example in words such as belittle, befriended, > becoming, begrudge, and bedevil. Nevertheless, I don't > understand how the word 'beheaded' is connected to these > sorts of words. Can someone explain how 'beheaded' (meaning > cutting off the head) uses a prefix that generally means > 'to make'. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, the prefix "be-" is unrelated to the verb "be" but is a weak variant of "by". The main uses are these: A. with verbs, meaning (1) 'around, on all sides', 'to and fro, in all ways', as beset, besmear, bestrew, bedaub, besmirch; (2) 'thoroughly, extremely', as beseech; (3) 'off, away', as behead; (4) 'about, over' (lit. and fig.) as bethink; B. with nouns and adjectives, 'so as to make what is expressed by them', as becalm, befoul C. with nouns, 'surround or envelop with', as befog, benight D. with participial adjectives, often combining uses A (2) and C, as bedabbled, bemused. ----------------------- Date: Thur, 3 June 1999 From: David Ibbetson, ibbetson@idirect.com Two entries from Chambers Dictionary may help: be- used (1) to form words with the sense of around, on all sides, in all directions, thoroughly, as in _besiege_; (2) to form verbs from adjectives . . . behead . . . [be- (1) meaning off or away] So the answer seems to be that be- doesn't mean make. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2ht] Flag flying Date: Fri, 4 June 1999 From: Iain Brown, iain.brown@ucl.ac.uk One thing that has always puzzled me is how can one tell if the Union Flag is flown upside down? An item in the paper last week reminded me of this question. Isn't flying the Union Flag upside down a distress signal? Are there any other countries' flags which can be mistakenly flown upside down? And while I'm on the subject, why is the Union Flag often known as "the Union Jack"? Who's Jack? Should I know of him? +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2hu] Infectious or contagious? Date: Sun, 6 June 1999 From: Laura Pomeroy, 100131.3564@compuserve.com One of my colleagues at work has been ill with a cold. He walked into a meeting last week saying he had better sit apart from the others as he was infectious. The Chairman corrected him, saying that he was not infectious but contagious. Huh? I've always used the words interchangeably ... but looking in my trusty COD, I see contagious means "likely to spread disease by contact", whereas infectious means "communication of disease, esp. by the agency of air or water, etc." Can anyone reassure me that the Chairman was wrong, and that my colleague was not contagious but infectious? Are there any other words which are used synonymously, but which really are different? ---[3] FYI ----------------------------------------------------- ** [3en] American Medical Writers Association: address change Date: Thur, 3 June 1999 From: Kathleen Lyle, Kathleen@klyle.demon.co.uk Forwarded from the BELS mailing list: AMWA Headquarters has moved! Please note the new address and contact information. American Medical Writers Association 40 West Gude Drive, Suite 101 Rockville MD 20850-1192 Telephone: 301.294.5303 Fax: 301.294.9006 E-mail and web addresses remain the same. ---[5] Bookmarks ---------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 June 1999 From: Iain Brown, iain.brown@ucl.ac.uk Mary Houten-Kemp's Everything E-Mail: A site that covers almost everything to do with e-mail ... glossaries, tips, e-mail forwarding services, mailing lists and discussion groups. < http://www.everythingemail.net > ---[6] Just for fun ------------------------------------------- "Education, education and education", no. 17 Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ "How to write good", no. 15 One-word sentences? Eliminate. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ "Modern phrases", no. 1 Date: Sun, 6 June 1999 From: Iain Brown, iain.brown@ucl.ac.uk Have you encountered the problem of facing modern situations for which there are no existing words or phrases in the English language? The following are suggestions for some situations to which we might all be able to relate ... arachnoleptic fit n; The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider's web. ---[8] Administration ------------------------------------------ EDline provides the opportunity for a weekly online discussion of matters editorial and editorial business. * POSTING MESSAGES TO THE LIST All messages to be posted to the list should be sent to Jane Kerr, at: bywater@zetnet.co.uk Include as the subject line, "EDline [topic]", where [topic] is the subject under discussion. Topics might include areas such as Grammar, Spelling, American English or Punctuation. 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[7] Miscellaneous -- odds and sods * Administration All messages of a subscription or administrative nature should be directed to Iain Brown, at: iain.brown@ucl.ac.uk with "EDline ADMIN" in the subject line. * To subscribe to Grapevine To subscribe to Grapevine, the discussion list concerned with matters computing, please e-mail Electric Editors at: ElectricEds@bigfoot.com with [Subscribe Grapevine] in the subject line. * To subscribe to LANGline To subscribe to LANGline, which discusses modern languages, translation and editing in non-English languages, please e-mail Electric Editors at: ElectricEds@bigfoot.com with [Subscribe LANGline] in the subject line. * Homepage and back issues: Visit the Electric Editors at: < http://www.ikingston.demon.co.uk/ee/ > Back issues of all three mailing lists are available on the Mailing Lists archive page. --------- ** The views expressed in this mailing list are strictly those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the moderators or of the Electric Editors. ** Articles (c) 1999, by individual contributors Design (c) 1996, 1997, Iain Brown Compilation (c) 1999, The Electric Editors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= END OF EDline 4.22 Next issue: 13 June 1999 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=