Archive for November, 2012

The distinction between hanged and hung is one of the odder ones in the language. I remember learning in high school that people are hanged, pictures are hung. There was never any explanation of why it was so; it simply was. It was years before I learned the strange and complicated history of these two [...]

Recently on Twitter, Mark Allen wrote, “Despite once being synonyms, ‘enormity’ and ‘enormousness’ are different. Try to keep ‘enormity’ for something evil or outrageous.” I’ll admit right off that this usage problem interests me because I didn’t learn about the distinction until a few years ago. To me, they’re completely synonymous, and the idea of [...]

Spreadshirt just opened a new production center in Las Vegas, and to celebrate, they’re giving away free shipping today with the coupon code HELLOLASVEGAS. Once again, the code works at both the regular Arrant Pedantry Store and the new product designer.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with Mededitor on Twitter about name spelling and style. It started with a tweet from Grammar Girl linking to an old post of hers on whether you need a comma before “Jr.” She notes that most style guides now leave out the commas. Mededitor opined that [...]

I’ve been meaning to write a real post for a couple of weeks now, but until it’s up you’ll have to satisfy yourself with free shipping on all orders at the Arrant Pedantry Store with the coupon GIVETHANKSSHIP. You can use it at both the regular store and the new product designer, which allows you [...]