Common Errors in English Usage

[estebanrey]

This site is pretty old but some of you may not have heard of it...

Common Errors in English Usage

A compulsory read for anyone who wants to avoid the G.D pedants. Here are three of my favourites that I like correcting people on as they are so common.

BUTT NAKED vs BUCK NAKED

The standard expression is “buck naked,” and the contemporary “butt naked” is an error that will get you laughed at in some circles. However, it might be just as well if the new form were to triumph. Originally a “buck” was a dandy, a pretentious, overdressed show-off of a man. Condescendingly applied in the US to Native Americans and black slaves, it quickly acquired negative connotations. To the historically aware speaker, “buck naked” conjures up stereotypical images of naked “savages” or—worse—slaves laboring naked on plantations. Consider using the alternative expression “stark naked.”

CATCH 22

People familiar with Joseph Heller’s novel are irritated when they see “Catch-22” used to label any simple hitch or problem rather than this sort of circular predicament: you can’t get published until you have an agent, and you can’t get an agent until you’ve been published. “There’s a catch” will do fine for most other situations.

CONCERTED EFFORT

One cannot make a “concerted effort” all by one’s self. To work “in concert” is to work together with others. One can, however, make a concentrated effort. The prefix “con-” means “with.”

 

[estebanrey]

I've never heard the above examples used incorrectly to be fair. Interesting read though!

Really? I hear people say "I made a concerted effort" quite a bit. I bet a search of 'Catch-22' in this forum would bring up a few erroneous examples too.

 

[estebanrey]

I have never heard anyone use the term "I could are less" instead of "I couldn't care less"......so not so common methinks.

Equally with the term "Catch 22", I have only heard it used to infer a circular problem like the op described.

"Could care less"
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=22790546&postcount=4

OK so it could just be a typo but I have heard people use it in speech.

Catch-22 Misused (See thread title and OP)
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=20335371

Not having an alternative Sim Card isn't a circular problem.

 

[estebanrey]

Equally with the term "Catch 22", I have only heard it used to infer a circular problem like the op described.

I think you mean 'imply'...

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/imply.html

IMPLY/INFER

These two words, which originally had quite distinct meanings, have become so blended together that most people no longer distinguish between them. If you want to avoid irritating the rest of us, use “imply” when something is being suggested without being explicitly stated and “infer” when someone is trying to arrive at a conclusion based on evidence. “Imply” is more assertive, active: I imply that you need to revise your paper; and, based on my hints, you infer that I didn’t think highly of your first draft.

 

[estebanrey]

No I think Infer works in those cases

Not in the context of what he was saying.

The person making the claim is implying, the person listening to the claim is inferring.

In both cases he is talking about the person making the claim.