Vocabulary lesson.



In a short break from my studies, I've checked the blog to find two things: another link from Instapundit, indicating most certainly another slow blogging day, and an email from Dean Jens, pointing out a minor vocabulary issue. Dean writes, in reference to this post:

The word comprise with the meaning of "compose" is listed in some dictionaries as incorrect, though it is listed in others as correct. The role of an English language dictionary is to describe the language as it is spoken and accepted, and I tend to resist innovations of vocabulary less than those of grammar, but I make an exception for "comprise", just because "compose" is such a good synonym for the disputed meaning while the closest I've come to the older meaning is "contain" or "include". (Sometimes I try "take in", but that seems clumsy.)

An excellent point, Dean, and I feel foolish for having made this pseudo-mistake. Reason? Professor Stephen Carter, of The Emperor of Ocean Park fame, once took our Intellectual Property class to task on the issue of the whole being composed of the parts and the parts comprising the whole. Thought I had committed that one to memory, but I guess I hadn't.



Other verbal gaffes that have been ingrained by professors? Never say "a whole 'nuther." It's either "another whole" or "a whole other." I'm also quite wary in my use of "therefore" after my philosophy professor my freshman year tore apart my use of "therefore."

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