Devolution toward Simpler

“I thought that the ask of me was …”

Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns, Verbs

I heard this in a conference call yesterday.

Problem:
The word “ask” is not a noun, except when capitalized, in which case it means something different.

Explanation:
Except for the capitalized form “Ask” — spelled CAPITAL-A-S-K — which refers in Scandinavian mythology to the first man, who was made from an ash tree by the Scandinavian gods, the word “ask” is a verb, not a noun.

The person who said “I thought that the ask of me was …” was referring to a request that someone had made to him. This gives us the solution.

Unfortunately, I increasingly hear Americans misuse “ask” as a substitute for the noun “request”. I believe that this is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say the one-syllable “ask” than to say the two-syllable “request”.

Solution:
“I thought that the request to me was …”

“Polka Dot” vs. “Polka-dot” vs. “Polkadot”

Adjectives, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns, Versus

I wondered which spelling was correct after seeing each in writing.

Problem:
One of the three spellings is incorrect.

Explanation:
The compound noun “polka dot” — with a space in the middle — is an Americanism that dates back to the 1880s.

The word “polka-dot” — with a hyphen in the middle — is the adjectival form of this noun.

The word “polkadot” — with neither a hyphen nor a space in the middle — is not recognized in most dictionaries, although a search for this form (with the quotation marks) in Google returned about 2,090,000 matches.

In contrast, a search in Google for “polka dot” — with a space in the middle — returned about 9,300,000 matches.

I believe that the elimination of the space in more than two million Web instances is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the space than to include it.

Solution:
Use “polka dot” — with a space — as a noun. Use “polka-dot” — with a hyphen — as an adjective. Never use the no-space, no-hyphen form, which is a misspelling of the other two forms.

“w w Amazon dot com”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler

Phrases like this have become increasingly common.

Problem:
A letter “w” is missing.

Explanation:
It is becoming an increasingly common English blunder to omit one “w” and the initial dot or period when an American English speaker tells another person the address of a website.

I believe that this is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to say two “w”s than to say three “w”s, and it’s simpler to omit a dot than to say it.

It’s worth noting that “w w Amazon dot com” — when written as “wwamazon.com” — is an actual domain name. What some Web users probably do not realize is that Amazon, the company, had to register this second domain name so that it could redirect traffic to “www.Amazon.com”.

Unfortunately, not all domain-name owners realize that others can effectively steal visitors away from their websites. For example, if one wanted to steal traffic from “www.acme.com”, then one could register “w w acme dot com” — written as “wwacme.com” — and get visitors who do not know to type three “w”s and the initial dot.

Solution:
“w w w dot Amazon dot com”