Grammar Monkeys

It's all about clarity. Grammar and language from editors at The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle.

[Steve Case @JoeBugBuster]

It's National #GrammarDay
Are your participles dangling? #GrammarMatters

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘schadenfreude.’
https://t.co/BG2MdB7RXD

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘wanderlust.’
https://t.co/YS6kHZuynL

[Sandra Boynton @SandyBoynton]

#PunctuationDay #punctuation

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘dicker.’
https://t.co/uhdQrDRPN6

[APStylebook @APStylebook]

AP style uses the forms Fourth of July, July Fourth and Independence Day for the holiday on Thursday.
https://t.co/rh7jlTnsfV

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘insuperable.’
https://t.co/nwB6ttY13y

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

champion | noun | a winner of first prize or first place in competition

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

When someone texts ‘effect’ when they mean ‘affect.’

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘melee.’
https://t.co/guvorbofre

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘vicarious.’
https://t.co/mfoiEMYgd7

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

syzygy | noun | the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘fatuous.’
https://t.co/sAXEJcewLw

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

'Lay' has been used intransitively in the sense of "lie" ('lay' down for a nap) since the 1300s.

The practice was unremarked until around 1770; attempts to correct it have been a fixture of schoolbooks ever since.

So for centuries, no one cared...

then one day someone did.

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘meticulous.’
https://t.co/87WKDiQVTJ

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

scroll | noun | a roll (as of papyrus, leather, or parchment) for writing a document
First known use: 15th century

scroll | verb | to move text or graphics up or down or across a display screen as if by unrolling a scroll
First known use: 1973

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘flout.’
https://t.co/MQ0bKFm2hj

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is Weltanschauung.
https://t.co/mMCD7BbiXP

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘luminary.’
https://t.co/V4yBl4jv16

[APStylebook @APStylebook]

A majority is more than half the votes cast; a plurality is the largest number of votes, but less than a majority.