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Words to Know for 2016

Posted on Jan. 15, 2016  /  Subscribe 0

By Joseph Priest, Corporate Writer, Syniverse

Being a good public relations professional means being familiar with new, changing and hard to-spell words. For this reason, it’s occasionally useful to review spellings for new words, words with more than one spelling, and those oldies but goodies that continue to confound new generations of writers. Below are some of these to keep in mind for 2016.

A note about spell-checkers. Don’t count on them. The following sentence will escape spell-check every time: “I try too right good butt eye half trouble with spelling.” Use a spell-checker as a starting point, but never use it as a substitute for a thorough proofreading.

Now, here’s your memorization assignment for 2016 (with correct spellings in bold). Let me know how many you know and any questions you come across. Hit me at [email protected].

• accommodate - One of the all-time typo champs.
• adviser -  The AP-style preference over advisor.
• canceled - Be careful not to let the British-English “cancelled” slip into your writing.
• could not care less - Don’t use the common but incorrect “could care less.” This literally means “I care more than I might.”
• dialogue - Stay away from the variant, “dialog.” Also, avoid using this word as a verb, which is particularly grating. There are plenty of other verbs to use for that.
• email - Unfortunately, the normally astute AP Stylebook sanctioned this hyphenless spelling of “electronic mail” in its 2011 edition and gave validity to a fundamentally flawed word formation. What’s the big deal with losing the hyphen? Don’t other hyphenated words merge into one? Yes, compound nouns do tend to go from separate to joined, often with a hyphenated stage (e.g., “per cent” to “percent, “to-day” to “today”). The problem with “e-mail,” though, is that it’s not a simple compound noun. It’s an initial-based abbreviation, and the hyphen is crucial in clarifying that “e” is an initial and not simply a syllable. What’s more, in the English language, initial-based abbreviations don’t merge into solid words. Some are split; the rest are hyphenated: C-section, Q rating, T-shirt, X-ray. In any event, the ship has sailed as far as “e-mail,” and “email” (ugh) is the standard spelling now.
• high tech - Never “hi tech.”
• judgment - A notoriously tricky one that leads people to write “judgement.”
• just deserts - “Desert” here is spelled like the arid region, not the sweet treat. In this sense, “desert” is being used in an archaic sense to mean “something that is deserved.”
• mike - Controversy surrounds this AP-sanctioned abbreviation for “microphone,” which was changed from “mike” several years ago. What’s the problem? “Mike” is the correct way to spell the way we say the abbreviation for microphone, but broadcast journalists complained to the AP that the abbreviations on their equipment were all written as “mic.,” and the AP caved in to this and changed its official spelling to “mic.” Despite the AP’s decision, those of us who have experience with the printed word know better than to take our cues abbreviations squeezed into limited space on equipment. More importantly, truncated forms of words tend to be written with phonetic spellings if a simple shortening of the word would suggest an incorrect pronunciation. For example, we write “bike” instead of “bic” for bicycle; “fridge” instead of “frig” for refrigerator; and “Trish” instead of “Tric” for Patricia. Therefore, in a break with the AP Stylebook, I advise using “mike” in all cases. In fact, creating even further confusion, the AP Stylebook does sanction “miked” – and not “mic’d” or “micced” – for the verb form.
• OK - The AP-style preference over “okay” and “O.K.” (Trivia tidbit: The word evolved in the 1830s as a facetious abbreviation for “oll korrect.”)
• Portuguese - Not “Portugese.”
• similar - Watch out for “similiar.”
• Super Bowl - This one is a biggie among misspellings. It’s always two words, not “Superbowl.”
• theater - Use this spelling, which is the American-English spelling, instead of “theatre,” unless a proper name includes this latter spelling.
• traveled - Be careful of the British-English spelling, “travelled.”
• trouper - This, and not “trooper,” is the right word to use for “a reliable, uncomplaining and hard-working person.” It’s derived from “troupe,” a group of performers, and the notion that the “show must go on” and performers must proceed with an event even under trying circumstances. A “trooper” is a state police officer or member of a cavalry unit.
• website, Web page, Web - The spelling “website” became the AP style standard in the 2010 stylebook and replaced the two-word spelling, “Web site.” “Web page,” though, should continue to be written as two words with a capital “W.” It remains two words because “page” is not ordinarily used to form single words, as “front page” and “back page” attest. And  “Web” with a capital “W” should be used as a short form of “World Wide Web,” a proper noun. Although “Web” is increasingly written with a lowercase “w” and treated as a common noun in many technology publications, “Web” is still the AP style standard.

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