General contractor currently doing some home repair jobs for us. The cat, naturally, is keeping a close eye on the proceedings.
I said to my son, “She looks a little nonplussed.”
“What does nonplussed mean, anyway?”
“Can’t even.”
Language is fun.
I’ve noticed that when I’m reading a web article, regardless of the site… if I run across a spelling or grammatical error, like “their” when it should be “they’re,” my perception of the site’s credibility immediately plummets. Basic language mistakes like that, to me, communicate “this site is a one-man operation that can’t even afford a proofreader, never mind a fact checker.”
I mentioned this prejudice to my husband, who pointed out to me that most web sites now are not publishing articles to be informative, but to churn out content in order to generate click-through revenue. And considering the low rates I’ve seen offered for “web writers,” it’s not too surprising that the authors of such articles aren’t exactly producing stellar work.
So I guess I’m a language snob. And I’m okay with that.
The Artist was out front with the weed whacker, clearing up the overgrowth along the driveway. Duchess didn’t know what to make of it. She crouched on the back of the couch, watching him out the front window. When he moved to the side of the house, she ran over to the side door to watch from there.
The Director strolled by and attempted to pet her. She jumped about a foot and scooted out of reach.
“She’s all discombobulated,” I told him.
Seems he’d never heard that word before. “What’s combobulated?” he asked, laughing.
“It’s discombobulated,” I clarified, “I don’t believe combobulated is a word. It means she’s confused and disoriented. The Artist has the weed whacker out and it’s freaking her a little bit.”
“I guess that’s one of those words that always has dis in front of it,” he said.
“Yep. Kind of like I’ve never heard of anyone being gruntled.”
He was giggling for five minutes over that one.