Fellow pedants rejoice!

Here’s the thing: precision of language allows for both more elegant and more useful communication. I love that English has this dizzying variety of words, many of which are similar in meaning, but with a difference of connotation that allows us to increase our precision.

However, I am also a pedant, so the flip side of my love of precise speech is that I’m the sort of person who gets upset if someone says uninterested when they mean disinterested. (Yes, I know making this kind of statement, or post, is an open invitation for all of you to point out every bit of incorrect language usage I’ve ever committed. I can live with it.)

Those two things together–love of precise speech and pedantic tendencies, contribute to my being very pleased while reading the style guide at the Economist. I suspect most people would find it overly picky, but I found it fun to read. I even picked up a few distinctions that I’m going to be very careful to make from now on. You won’t find there/their/they’re on this list.

Here are some samples:

Aggravate means make worse, not irritate or annoy.

Anarchy means the complete absence of law or government. It may be harmonious or chaotic.

Convince. Don’t convince people to do something. In that context the word you want is persuade. The prime minister was persuaded to call a June election; he was convinced of the wisdom of doing so only after he had won.

Effectively means with effect; if you mean in effect, say it.The matter was effectively dealt with on Friday means it was done well on Friday. The matter was, in effect, dealt with on Friday means it was more or less attended to on Friday. Effectively leaderless would do as a description of the demonstrators in East Germany in 1989 but not those in Tiananmen Square. The devaluation of the Slovak currency in 1993, described by some as an effective 8%, turned out to be a rather ineffective 8%.

Hobson’s choice is not the lesser of two evils; it is no choice at all.

Homosexual: since this word comes from the Greek word homos (same), not the Latin word homo (man), it applies as much to women as to men. It is therefore as daft to write homosexuals and lesbians as to write people and women.

And so on…