A New Year Warning
A Great Deal of Knowledge Can Be a Dangerous Thing
By Your Blogger Carolyn Howard-Johnson,
author of the award-winningest book
in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, The Frugal Editor
So you’re a whiz at Latin! No? Maybe you’re a whiz at words borrowed from Latin because you pay attention to the dictionary when it lists the parts of words English has greedily borrowed from that language (many others?) I’ll admit, I think I am, too. So for this New Year column I’m going to leave you with a very short warning:
The word Octopus isn’t Latin. It’s Greek.
And there are lots of other words—especially scientific ones—that seem to be tricksters, too. So when you absolutely must get the plural right—say you’re writing a book where little booboos can live in infamy for a verrrry long time!—it takes but a minute or two to use your fave search engine. For now, the plural for “octopus” is
Octopodes (Greek)
Not octopi (Latin)
But for once, English has taken the easy road. We’ve anglicized it and the preferred plural is octopuses.
So your tricky edits tip isn’t so tricky. The word you’re sure of may be rooted in Latin—or maybe German because English—after all is rooted it’s a Germanic language. Or….well, you get the idea. Make it your New Year resolution to “Trust in an English that specializes in our American idiosyncrasies, especially when you think you “know it all.
More About Carolyn
Once a month Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares something writer-related she hopes might save some author from embarrassment (or make the task of writing more fun or creative.) The third edition of The Frugal Editor from Modern History Press includes a chapter on some of the words most misused by the very people whose business it is to know them. It is the second multi award-winning book in her multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. Find it on Amazon’s new buy-page offered in paper, hard cover, or as an e-book. (The availability of that new page for book series is another of her #FrugalBookPromoterTips which she liberally posts across Twitter when she isn’t editing a book of her own!) Find her there @frugalbookpromo.
Until then, The Frugal Editor has been fully updated including a chapter on how backmatter can be extended to help readers and nudge book sales. And an e-copy is available for your reading device for only $8.95. Modern History Press. You’re invited to partake of my most difficult book of all time, primarily because of the necessity for handling artificial intelligence in the new the getting reviews process. It is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically—hopefully early in the New Year in time for you to start 2025 on a writing-positive note.
Note: This article was originally published in Dawn Colclasure’s SPARREW newsletter where I have had a regular “Tricky Edits” column since its inception. You might want to subscribe. It is full of resources you might find useful for your genre or even your review-getting campaign.
