Nouns

“Anticlimatic”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns

I too frequently hear people say “anticlimatic” when they mean something else.

Problem:
“Anticlimatic” is a nonsense word.

Explanation:
Except for that use by those who have turned “anticlimatic” into a word applicable to climate — although it’s difficult to imagine what it means to be “anticlimatic” — this is a nonsense word.

Nearly everyone who says “anticlimatic” actually is trying to say an adjective whose meaning is expressing or pertaining to anticlimax.

“Anticlimactic” (notice the ‘c’ before the ‘tic’) — not “anticlimatic” — is the adjectival form of the noun “anticlimax” (just as “climactic” is the adjectival form of the noun “climax”).

I believe that the use of “anticlimatic” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to say “anticlimatic” than to say “anticlimactic” (which requires the speaker to emphasize the middle ‘c’).

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • anticlimatic — 283,000 matches
  • anticlimactic — 401,000 matches

Assuming that the co-opting of the nonsense word “anticlimatic” by climate writers is an insignificant portion of the “anticlimatic” count, this tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 1.4:1, which is a bit pathetic.

Solution:
“Anticlimactic”

“WOOD BASE HIGH END FURNITURE”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Hyphens, Nouns

I saw this in a television commercial.

Problem:
Hyphens and a comma are missing.

Explanation:
The noun “WOOD” and the noun “BASE” are used together as a modifier of the noun “FURNITURE”, so “WOOD” and “BASE” must be hyphenated together.

The adjective “HIGH” and the noun “END” are used together as a modifier of the noun “FURNITURE”, so “HIGH” and “END” must be hyphenated together.

We end up with two modifiers — “WOOD-BASE” and “HIGH-END” — of the noun “FURNITURE”, so we insert a comma between the two modifiers to get the solution.

It seems that the advertising copywriter fell prey to today’s prevalent copywriting style of avoiding hyphens and commas at all costs.

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

Solution:
“WOOD-BASE, HIGH-END FURNITURE”

“INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES UNIT & APPEAL’S”

Apostrophes, Common English Blunders, Nouns, Possessives

I saw this yesterday on a San Quentin State Prison sign shown during an MSNBC television program.

Problem:
A possessive apostrophe appears where it should not.

Explanation:
“APPEAL’S” of what?

The apostrophe in “APPEAL’S” should not be there.

The sign maker was trying to refer to the plural of the noun “APPEAL”.

He or she instead made the sign maker’s common blunder of inserting a possessive apostrophe when pluralizing a noun.

Maybe sign makers just love to create apostrophes?

Solution:
“INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES UNIT & APPEALS”