Word of the Day
abusage
noun
improper use of words; unidiomatic or ungrammatical language.
More about abusage
The noun abusage, a derivative of the verb abuse, has been in English since the mid-16th century, and originally the noun had many of the original senses of the verb: “misuse, ill-use, abuse,” and the still stronger sense “corrupt practices, immoral behavior.” New Zealand-born British lexicographer Eric Partridge (1894–1979) is credited for giving abusage its current meaning “improper use of language” in his Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English (1942).
how is abusage used?
As a presidential campaign approaches, great rhetorical and metaphoric strain is placed on the language. … Lest this abusage corrupt the young, this department instituted (I started) the scrupulously bipartisan 1988 Hyperbolic and Metaphoric Watch.
Many New Yorkers and New Jerseyites persisted in referring to the agency as the “Port of Authority,” and this abusage long served as a kind of shibboleth for identifying natives of the area.
qua
adverb
as; as being; in the character or capacity of: The work of art qua art can be judged by aesthetic criteria only.
More about qua
The English adverb qua “in the capacity of, as being” comes from the Latin interrogative, relative, and indefinite adverb quā, one of whose many meanings is “in the manner in which, as.” In form, quā is the ablative singular feminine of the interrogative and indefinite pronoun and adjective quī, quae (qua), quod, which all but guarantees many syntactic uses. Qua entered English in the mid-17th century.
how is qua used?
There is a particular difficulty in discerning whether this book is good, not because the text qua text is somehow elusive or inscrutable but because one struggles to read it without sweeping for psychological clues.
… the privilege that attaches to a client’s confidences to his lawyer is limited to that which is revealed to him in secrecy, only qua lawyer, as distinguished from qua agent or qua negotiator or qua friend.
popple
verb (used without object)
to move in a tumbling, irregular manner, as boiling water.
More about popple
It is difficult to analyze the parts of popple, and most authorities say “imitative”—of the motion, of the sound, of both? There are possible related words in Frisian popelje “to throb, bubble up” and Dutch popelen “to throb, quiver (with emotion),” and German dialect poppeln “to bubble, bubble up.” Popple in the sense of “to move in a tumbling, irregular manner” entered English by the 15th century.
how is popple used?
The breeze had so far raised no more than a little ripple on the water, so that the boat poppled, and thumped gently, as it drifted along, but kept all the time one general course.
The leaves upon the aspen-tree / They poppled in the breeze / And held the drifting harmony / Of music in the trees.