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Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman
Personal blog · grammarphobia.com/blogwritingculture
Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman writes Grammarphobia, a personal blog at grammarphobia.com about writing and culture. Since 2012, 60 different Hacker News readers have linked it 66 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Grammar, etymology, linguistics, usage, and more from the bestselling language writers Patricia T. O\'Conner and Stewart Kellerman
Most-linked posts?
- /blog/2007/01/i-could-care-less.html2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-09-10
- /blog/2012/12/beyond-the-pale.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-04
What Hacker News says?
How? There is no racial connotation—black and white had those associations in European culture long before contact with Africa: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/12/light-and-dark-2.... > In Old English, the adjective could mean “very evil or wicked; iniquitous; foul, hateful,” according to the dictionary. The earliest Oxford citation is from a scientific and theological treatise written by a Benedictine cleri…
Comment linking /blog/2009/12/light-and-dark-2.html
on “Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay”Submitted Why “children,” not “childs”? (2016) as a story · 257 points
HN discussionThe word “copy” in the early 1700s when copyright was codified in law meant both a written text and a reproduction of a written text. The meaning you’re using, of text at an intermediate stage of a publishing process, is much later, 19th century. [0] So, the original meaning was a noun (the right to make “a copy” of a book) but meant the book itself, not the abstract text of the book. It would be interesting to rese…
Comment linking /blog/2013/08/copy.html
on “Meta claims torrenting pirated books isn't illegal without proof of seeding”Submitted 'Lukewarm' and 'lukecool' (2021) as a story · 51 points
HN discussionDepends on how far you go back with the language. https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/10/harebrained-hairbrain...
Comment linking /blog/2013/10/harebrained-hairbrained.html
on “Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock”Submitted Now I am become Death as a story · 11 points
HN discussionInterestingly, the OED disagrees with this (quite reasonably sounding) origin theory of lieutenant: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2015/02/lieutenant.html
Comment linking /blog/2015/02/lieutenant.html
on “What is the significance of the character "j" at the end of a Roman Numeral? (2013)”Submitted Origins of Coinkydink (2016) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionBegging the question isn't usually used like this these days, even if it did originate thus. The English language is used the way English speakers use it; yes, even that is quite circular, because there is no formal academy setting down rules that everyone agrees on. Institutions only teach stylistic choices. We use beg the question in exactly the way you say we shouldn't far more often than not to the point that it…
Comment linking /blog/2021/11/beg-the-question.html
on “`curl wttr.in`: Weather in your terminal”Submitted Why "children," not "childs"? (2016) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionReminds me of this recent post on the Grammarphobia blog: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2020/02/adjectives-comple... > We wish we could tell you that there’s a predictable pattern here—that certain types of adjectives can always be complemented by both participles and infinitives, while other types are always restricted to one or the other. > Unfortunately, no clear pattern emerges. Different adjectives simply…
Comment linking /blog/2020/02/adjectives-complements.html
on “Requirements volatility is the core problem of software engineering”Submitted Is the Temperature Hot or High? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMany of the older Oxford and Cambridge colleges have two doors in one doorway: the external one for the 'interruptible/not' signal, and the internal one to keep the heat in when the outer is open. We have a term for it: 'sporting one's oak'. http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2008/02/sporting-the-oak.h... This was a great system in medieval buildings where most doors opened directly to the outdoors, which in itself i…
Comment linking /blog/2008/02/sporting-the-oak.html
on “We're ditching the office completely”Submitted English Words Coined or Popularized by George Washington as a story · 3 points
HN discussionDid you mean "insightful" as in "has a lot of insight", or "inciteful" as in "likely to incite" or "provocative"? (I ask because "inciteful" isn't properly a word but it makes an interesting "mondegreen" in context.) edit: Excuse me! OED recognizes "inciteful" as a word. Sorry. https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/12/inciteful.html
Comment linking /blog/2010/12/inciteful.html
on “Man Underpaid Property Tax by $8.41 County Seized Home, Sold It-Kept Profits”Submitted A Stink over 'Odoriferous' as a story · 2 points
HN discussionfortran77 mixed up two famous linguists. He probably meant to refer to Steven Pinker. Here's a blog discussing it since I can't link to the book: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/i-could-care-less...
Comment linking /blog/2007/01/i-could-care-less.html
on “Auto-Antonyms”Submitted Why 'mayn't' may not live on as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is surprising to me because as a British person living in the US, who is familiar with British and American English, I've never once heard anyone use "and" to mean a decimal point. Literally never. The first time I'm hearing about it is from your comment. I even found this article about how "and" doesn't actually mean decimal point: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/02/decimal-point.htm...
Comment linking /blog/2012/02/decimal-point.html
on “The number input is the worst input”Submitted The origins of the word "jerry-rigged" as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis article claims the idiom predates Merriam-Webster. https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2020/12/one-of-the-only.html
Comment linking /blog/2020/12/one-of-the-only.html
on “American Prairie unlocks another 70k acres in Montana”Submitted So why not? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionVery tangentially related -- I keep hearing "disorientated" in the audio edition of The Economist (which is British). It drives me bonkers. I'm cool with neologisms if they add value -- but a 400-year old[1] neologism that's merely a longer way to say something we already have a word for is still too young for me to consider valid. [1] https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2020/01/disoriented-disor...
Comment linking /blog/2020/01/disoriented-disorientated.html
on “Reddit App – Suspicious high number of recent 5 star, one word reviews”Submitted Is This ‘Which’ Dead? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIf you know enough about the standard Perl warn() and die(), it turns out: croak(): (slang) To die[1] confess(): to provide information, commonly[2] as one is dying[3] carp(): To complain, often at length and of minor details[4] cluck(): Not actually sure about this one, although 'clucking their disapproval' seems to be something of an english idiom. So yeah, there's some logic to the choices, even if it is rather w…
Comment linking /blog/2012/01/croak.html
on “Perl is 25 years old today”Submitted Why You're Always Spelling Publically Wrong as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIn the 1930s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=average%20spen... Via: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/336478/is-it-rea... EDIT: lies, first use is 1688: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/04/spend.html
Comment linking /blog/2012/04/spend.html
on “Breaking a large AWS spend into understandable pieces”Submitted Drunk as a Skunk as a story · 1 points
HN discussion"Yeah no" is now fairly common in American English too. See, e.g.: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/05/yeah-no.html
Comment linking /blog/2013/05/yeah-no.html
on “The management myth (2006)”Submitted Why ‘well-heeled’ means well-to-do as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
