Not a prescriptivist but I do squirm about these things as a writer, who is likely to have their work edited by someone else I don't WANT somebody changing my em-dashes into hyphens, I don't WANT them changing "nauseated" into "nauseous", I don't WANT punctuation inside quoteshttps://twitter.com/Nymphomachy/status/1304188911233699840 …
-
Show this thread
-
Replying to @Nymphomachy
Proofreading is inevitably necessary for any big professional writing job but a good proofreader should be asking the writer about whether the "errors" are intentional or not, and talking about how the audience will perceive "nonstandard" style
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy
The "nauseous" thing is interesting because it's a kind of hyperpedantry A lot of people were all "checkmate" when they went and looked and the oldest reference in print of the word "nauseous" indeed has it mean "someone feeling nausea" But so what
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy
That was a one-off reference from before "nauseous" was a "real word", the next use of it comes decades later For most of the word's history the "rule" clearly was "nauseous = causing nausea, nauseated = experiencing nausea", by analogy with "poisonous" vs "poisoned"
2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
So like you can use whatever word you want obviously but you can't tell someone the logic they like better is "wrong" based on just looking for what the oldest possible source said
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.