Month: March 2008

“Inoften”

Adverbs, Outsider's Perspective

I caught myself saying this yesterday.

Problem:
“Inoften” is a made-up adverb.

Explanation:
I was tired yesterday when, seemingly out of nowhere, I said “inoften” instead of “infrequently” or something else.

This made-up adverb puzzled me because I did not recognize it, so I asked my wife. She said that she had never heard of it.

The word then amused me because it made sense. In other words, if a non-native English speaker said this, you probably would understand what he or she meant.

I looked up “inoften” in an online dictionary and got back “Did you mean unoften?” instead of a definition.

It turns out that “unoften” is in at least one dictionary as an obsolete adverb that mean not often.

A Google search for “inoften” returned about 671 matches — relatively rare for the World-Wide Web today. In contrast, Google found the obsolete adverb “unoften” about 32,600 matches — not so rare.

Solution:
“Not often”

“Wood” vs. “Wooden”

Adjectives, Nouns, Versus

I wondered the other day whether both of these words are adjectives.

Problem:
One of them looks more like an adjective than the other one does.

Explanation:
The primary definition of “wood” as an adjective is made of wood.

The primary definition of the adjective “wooden” is made of wood.

The secondary definition of “wood” as an adjective is wooden.

The secondary definition of the adjective “wooden” is wood.

In other words, “wood” as an adjective is interchangeable with “wooden”, despite the fact that “wooden” looks more like an adjective than does “wood” (which also is a noun).

Solution:
Don’t worry about which word to use as an adjective; they mean the same thing.

“Provides Dentist Recommended Benefits”

Devolution toward Simpler, Hyphens

I saw this on a Crest Pro-Health toothpaste tube.

Problem:
A hyphen is missing.

Explanation:
Surely the designer of the toothpaste-tube label meant to put a hyphen between “Dentist” and “Recommended” — so that the label reader learns that the toothpaste provides benefits that are recommended by dentists.

Otherwise, this phrase means that the toothpast provides recommended (by whom, we’re uncertain) benefits to dentists (who, by implication, would be the readers of the label).

I believe that the label writer fell prey to the avoid-hyphens-at-all-costs style that is prevalent today in advertising copywriting.

I believe that this style is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to leave out the hyphen than to include it.

Solution:
“Provides Dentist-Recommended Benefits”