Prepositions

“Myriad saw it.” vs. “Myriad people saw it.” vs. “Myriad of people saw it.” vs. “A myriad of people saw it.”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Nouns, Prepositions

According to Merriam-Webster.com and Dictionary.com, the word “myriad” can act as a noun or as an adjective.

“Myriad saw it.”

The first use of the source-word for “myriad” was in 1555 Greek.

The original Greek noun for “myriad” — “myrioi” — meant “ten thousand”.

Based on this, “Myriad saw it.” means “Ten thousand saw it.”

The noun “myriad” got generalized to “a great number”.[1]

Based on this, “Myriad saw it.” means “A great number saw it.”

“Myriad people saw it.”

The first known use of “myriad” as an adjective was in 1735, according to Merriam-Webster.com.

The primary definition of “myriad” as an adjective is “innumerable”.

Based on this, “Myriad people saw it.” means “Innumerable people saw it.”

“Myriad of people saw it.”

As noted, the definition of “myriad” as a noun got generalized to “a great number”.

Dictionary.com says that this is the primary definition for the noun; Merriam-Webster.com says that this is the secondary definition for the noun.

No matter which way you rank this definition of “myriad” as a noun, this definition tells us that “Myriad of people saw it.” means “A great number of people saw it.”

“A myriad of people saw it.”

This “a myriad of people or things” usage is problematic.

The word “myriad” in this usage is acting as a noun, but look at the two definitions for “myriad” as a noun:

  • ten thousand
  • a great number

Plugging in each definition, we get:

  • “A ten thousand of people saw it.”
  • “A a great number of people saw it.”

Each expression looks wrong.

Conclusion:
These three usages of “myriad” are clearly correct:

  • “Myriad saw it.”
  • “Myriad people saw it.”
  • “Myriad of people saw it.”

This usage of “myriad” may be incorrect:

  • “A myriad of people saw it.”

[1] This is equivalent to what happened to the verb “decimate”. It originally meant “to kill every tenth man”; its meaning got generalized into “to destroy in great number” instead.

“She graduated college.”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions, Verbs

I often see or hear this and similar sentences.

Problem:
A preposition is missing.

Explanation:
Here’s a simple way to teach someone that “graduated college” is wrong.

Ask him whether he would say this:

  • “She graduated in 2012 college.”

He could reply by changing it to this:

  • “She graduated college in 2012.”

But, to keep “in 2012” before “college” requires the preposition “from”:

  • “She graduated in 2012 from college.”

If he agrees that this is necessary, then ask him to remove “in 2012”, which leaves him with this:

  • “She graduated from college.”

“from college” and “in 2012” are two prepositional phrases, the order of which does not affect the meaning of the sentence:

  • “She graduated from college in 2012.”
  • “She graduated in 2012 from college.”

Dropping of prepositions may be common but can be, as in this example, bad English, too.

Solution:
“She graduated from college.”

Learn More:
See “She graduates high school this year.” for another explanation about why the preposition “from” is necessary.

“It’s third ten on the forty.”

Conjunctions, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions

Huh?!

Reader Brian P. wrote to me yesterday with “It’s third ten on the forty.” as an example of a statement that he heard recently while watching an NFL football game on television.

The statement meant “It’s third down and ten yards to go on the forty-yard line.”

I believe that what bothered Brian the most was the omission of the conjunction “and” between the word “third” and the word “ten” in the statement.

In other words, I believe that Brian would have preferred to hear “It’s third and ten on the forty.” at the very least.

I believe that the omission of the conjunction “and” in the sentence is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the conjunction than to include it.

Brian’s impression is that the omission is a broadcasting-school gimmick:

Dropping one[-]syllable words (many prepositions, plus articles, “and”, “if”, “as”, “is”, “are”, “have” and others) is the latest broadcast[ing-]school gimmick, and to my ear the most grating (with constant use of “actually” and “as well” running place and show).

If that is what broadcasting schools are teaching these days, then that is very discouraging.

On a brighter note: Happy New Year!