BEWARE THESE WORD-TRAPS! ‘Attorney’ and ‘lawyer’; ‘blatant’ and ‘flagrant’

“The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.” J. K. Rowling

By Alex P. Vidal

ONE of the best compilations of the editors of Reader’s Digest in the book, Word Power, is the brief article written by Theodore M. Bernstein, which warns readers to “beware these word-traps!”

Bernstein, assistant managing editor of the New York Times at the time he wrote his book, The Careful Writer, campaigned against misuse of English language for many years.

A.D. Anno Domini means in the year of our Lord, and its abbreviation should not, therefore, be affixed to the name of a century, Bernstein points out.

“The sixth century A.D.” would mean the sixth century in the year of our Lord, which, he claims, is preposterous.

Write “the sixth century after Christ” or, better still, just “the sixth century,” Bernstein clarifies.

Here are some of the word-traps, according to Bernstein:

ADAGE. “The press secretary recalled the old adage—‘vote early and often’” An “adage” is a long-established saying; therefore, the “old” is redundant.

ARBITRATE, MEDIATE. They are not interchangeable. “Arbitrators” hear evidence, act as judges. “Mediators” act as go-betweens to work out an agreement, but lack the authority of ultimate decision.

ATTORNEY, LAWYER. “Lawyer” designates one who practices law. “Attorney” refers to one who is designated by another to transact business for him. An attorney may or may not be a lawyer, but a lawyer is an attorney only when he has a client. It may be that the desire of lawyers to appear to be making a go of their profession has accounted for their leaning toward the designation “attorney.”

AVERT, AVOID. “The second war was different,” said a British prime minister. “I don’t think anything could have avoided it.” Not true. Switzerland “avoided” it (i.e., kept clear of it, shunned it). The prime minister meant that he did not think anything could have “averted” it (i.e., prevented it, warded it off).

BLATANT, FLAGRANT. In ”blatant” the emphasis is on noise: “blatant” means obnoxiously loud. “Flagrant” means openly evil or scandalous.

CAREEN, CAREER. “Careen” means to tilt to heel over: “The yacht careened sharply at the first buoy.” “Career” means to move at high speed: “Out of control, the car careered into the children.”

FLAIL, FLAY. “Who is to stay that ham-like hand when it flays away?” “Flay” means to tear the skin off. “Flail” means to whip or flog.

FLAMMABLE. Identical in meaning with inflammable, the variant “flammable” has for some years been pushed forward by fire underwriters. They argue—and no doubt with justice—that many people, on picking up a can of cleaning fluid labeled inflammable, believe the fluid will not burn. If it will save a single burned eyelash, by all means let’s have “flammable.”

GAMBIT. In chess, the word refers to opening moves in which a piece is sacrificed to obtain a strategic advantage. Derivatively, it means a concession to get things started. It does not mean any opening move, or merely a maneuver in the course of a game. If a lad wooing a lass invites her to dinner, it is not a “gambit”; if he in addition invests his hard-earned pay in orchids and champagne in the hope of a later return, it is.

GENDER. “Gender” is a grammatical term. It is not a substitute for “sex” (but, then, what is?).

KNOT. “The carrier Wasp is limping home at eight knots an hour.” “Knot” is a unit of speed: one nautical mile an hour. Therefore “an hour” should never follow “knots.”

MECCA. “The Yiddish Art Theater, which was a Mecca for Jewish theatergoers on New York’s Lower East Side…” For Jews a Mecca yet! Which proves that a cliché can be explosive in the hands of the unwary.

NEAR-RECORD. “New York City registration, which ended last night, set a near-record.” This is like saying, “The team scored three near-touchdowns.” A similar example in this headline: “Near-Riot Is Averted at Hudson.” What actually took place was, perhaps, a near-riot; what was averted was a full-fledged riot.

NON SEQUITURS. Irrelevancies often result from a writer’s desire to work in a piece of information and his incapacity to determine whether it should go. “Born in Des Moines, Mr. Tuttle joined Philip Ruxton in the business of making printing ink.” No wonder a reader wrote to the newspaper: “Born in Waukegan, III., I get damn sick of non sequiturs.”

PROPORTIONS. “A building of huge proportions.”  “Proportions” expresses a relationship of one part to another, or of parts to the whole. It has nothing to do with size. A better word would be “dimensions” or “size.”

SELF DEPRECATING. One can “depreciate”(belittle) oneself, but cannot normally “deprecate” (protest against, disapprove of) oneself.

SELF-MADE. A “self-made” man is a man who has made himself. But “the bulk of Mr. Getty’s fortune is self-made”?  Maybe that’s what is meant by “an independent income.”

STRANGLED. “He was found strangled to death.” Delete “to death.” That’s what strangled means.

ZOOM. Originally an aviation term, “zoom” denotes rapid upward motion. The following sentence is therefore incorrect: “Melville zoomed down the incline.” The writer may have had in mind the word “swoop.” “Swoop” is usually down.