questions, who, what

words you are probably getting wrong

I freely acknowledge that, in a list of this sort, “glossary” is a fancy Latin word for a collection of pet peeves (noun, 1919), meaning an annoyance or irritation. One of my peeves is that, as a noun originating in America, it had not been admitted into the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1968) on my desk in London when I edited the Sunday Times. Now, it is recognised (“back-formation from peevish”). I admit I have no evidence for believing that the neglect of peeve is to blame for angering the poltergeist Peeves in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Affect/Effect You can only affect something that already exists. When it does, you can effect, or bring about, a change in it. To say: “It effected a change in his attitude” is correct; so is: “It affected his attitude.” To combine the two – “It affected a change in his attitude” – is silly.

Alibi Means “proof that one was elsewhere” but is confused with “excuse”, which has a wider generality. Let us save “alibi” for the precision of proving you were not within a mile of the kitchen when the last slice of apple pie vanished.

Alternatives Wrongly used for “choices”. If there are two choices, they are properly called “alternatives”. If there are more than two, they are choices. But in 2017, the tides of the expedient post-truth era sapped centuries of definition. Kellyanne Conway, a counsellor to Donald Trump, explained to NBC’s Chuck Todd that press secretary Sean Spicer’s series of falsehoods inflating the crowds at the Trump inauguration weren’t lies, they were “alternative facts”.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/05/the-35-words-youre-probably-getting-wrong

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