The Vine: June 10, 2009
Dear Sars,
“Publicly” or “publically”? My instinct says the latter is preferable, but I see the former (which I HATE) more and more in print and online media. Online dictionaries claim they’re synonymous. Am I being old-fashioned and snobbish about this?
Thanks,
I Should Probably Stop Being So Public[al]ly Curmudgeonly
Dear Not On My Account,
They both look a little off to me, somehow, but Garner says “publicly,” “not publically, is the adverb,” and the Chicago Manual 15th distinguishes from other adjectives ending in “-ic” that do take “-ally” as the suffix.So, “pedantic” becomes “pedantically,” but “public” becomes “publicly.”
It’s just one of those things that will always bug you, like the pronunciation of “bilious” does me, but “publicly” appears to be correct.
Hi Sars,
(Apologies if this has been addressed previously; I searched the archives but didn’t find anything.)
This has been driving me crazy for a few years, and I figured you would know, if anyone would:Why is the noun “realtor” frequently capitalized?As in, “I was talking to my Realtor, and…”
We don’t do that for any other profession (“John is a Doctor”) unless it’s used as a title (“This is Doctor John Smith”).Not doctor, not lawyer, not scientist, not butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, so what makes realtors so special?Is it some PR move by the industry to raise their status?I don’t have anything against realtors, but this proper-noun thing is really starting to grate on me.
I know, I need more hobbies.But I’m the sort of person who mentally copy-edits grocery-store signs, and to see this particular trend appearing pretty much everywhere I look makes me wonder if I missed a memo or something.If there’s a good reason for it, fine and dandy and I’ll shut up about it, but it just seems so random.
So, do you know if there’s a reason?And if not, have you also noticed this and does it bother you?
Thanks for humoring me,
Taking a Red Pencil to the Whole Darn World
Dear Red,
My initial instinct was to tell you that it’s a pretension of the industry in an attempt to raise its profile — which I think the National Association of Realtors is in fact doing, based on the number of radio ads I’ve heard for it lately, in which they pronounce the word “reel-uh-tor” ack ack ack there is no vowel after the L aaaack.
But as it turns out, “Realtor” is a service mark, which entitles it to capitalization; the principle is similar to that of Kleenex, which now tends to stand for all brands of facial tissue even though it’s a trademark.
It seems like the NAR is advocating capitalizing the entire word and including the registry mark, which I find excessive, as I do the initial capitalization, but it does seem as though they have grounds.That said, I don’t think it’s incorrect not to do it…yet.
If I were writing about a sign-on page, I’d hyphenate “sign-on.” And, if I were writing about signing on to a web application, I wouldn’t hyphenate. If I were writing about putting into place single sign-on for a product, I would be fairly confident about my punctuation.
Now…if I were to write a paper on this interesting functionality, I would find myself torn: “Single Sign-on” or “Single Sign On”? The first seems correct, but once someone said, “that looks odd,” I started waffling. I’ve looked at Garner’s and in dictionaries, but I’m feeling this is a gray area. What’s your opinion?
Sign on, sign on harvest moon
Dear Moon,
You said it yourself: “single sign-on” is correct.If you don’t include the hyphen, it’s a bit confusing — there’s a “single sign on”…what, exactly?Okay, most people will know what you mean, but we hyphenate phrases like this the way we do in order to clarify which words modify what.
You might want to capitalize it differently, because “Single Sign-on” does look a little odd.Try “Single Sign-On,” but either way, you’ll need the hyphen.
Tags: grammar
The “REALTOR” convention also applies to “Certified Financial Planner” (CFP) and “Interior Designer,” although some industries are more vigilant than others. With CFPs, though, you can be assured the practitioner has achieved a decent level of education, passed a rigorous exam, and participates in continuing ed.
When we sold our last house, we had a truly awful agent. I knew it would be a problem as soon as she referred to herself as a “rillater.” Yeah, that’s not a word, honey. And no, it’s not our job to do showings for you because you’re tired from running a marathon.
I will get out of this before I open the debate about which PhDs do and don’t come off like weirdos when they want to be called “Doctor.”
Dude, it’s the physicians who should have to give up the word doctor, if anyone. From the latin root, that’s teacher.
Now who does more educating? The Ph.D. leading lectures and grading your papers? Or the guy looking in your throat with a flashlight?
I mis-pronounce “crouton” all the time on purpose, because Kenny on the Cosby show said “crow-ton” (first syllable vowel like that in “crowd”) when Bill took the kids out to a fancy dinner, and I picked it up and never let go. It drove my husband bonkers for our first few years together.
You have to pay extra money to be a Realtor TM. Otherwise you are a real estate agent, no caps.
“Re-al-i-tor” is like “ath-e-lete”–it’s adding an epenthetic vowel into a consonant cluster. “Nu-cu-lar” is like “comf-ter-ble”–it’s metathesis (an established example is “iron,” pronounced “i-ern”–or better yet, “bird” and “horse,” which have been followed by their orthography). The title essay in linguist Geoffrey Nunberg’s enjoyable and accessible collection Going Nucular explores the use pattern of this pronunciation and makes a case for its being a population-slice thing (a cultural regionalism, you might say). In other words, they’re just usual linguistic thangs.
Oh, and I’m a Midwesterner and I’ve said “comf-ter-ble” all my life; it was only recently that I realized it was actually swapping consonants and not just eliding a vowel. But fuck it, orthography isn’t prescriptive in English, and that’s how I say the word,
The ones that bother me are the TV commercials where they pronounce it Real-tor and not Realter as God intended.
I’ve lived all over the US and in several countries outside the US, and for everyone I’ve encountered except a few Brits, “comf-ter-ble” is the standard pronunciation. It bothers me enough that I will avoid the word unless I’m with people who know me well enough not to freak out when I do the mandatory “comf-ter-ble… comf-er-ta-ble… com-FORT-able… comf – cozy, dammit” routine that always accompanies my efforts to say the word.
Ditto “February.” 99% of English-speakers I have ever met pronounce it “FEB-you-ary” instead of “Feb-ru-ary.” And don’t even get me started on “Wednesday.”
“Medieval” has been a thorn in my side since I was 9 years old and fell in love with the Arthurian legends. For years I pronounced it “med-EE-vee-yal,” throwing the I after the V. A high school English teacher corrected me to “medy- EEV-il” but most people seem to just go with “med-EEV-il.” And last but not least, I was 14 before someone pointed out to me that there’s no I in “Parmesan” (as in cheese) so “Parmesan” does not in fact rhyme with “Parisian.”
All of which is why I can’t learn a second language – I’m still trying to speak the first one without making a fool of myself.
Sign-on (hyphen) is a noun. Sign on (no hyphen) is a verb. It really is that simple. Just like “login” and “log in.”
@ Linda, @ Sue…how could a female attorney use ‘Esq.’ — it’s short for ‘Esquire’ i.e. there are gender requirements! I suppose the female equivalent would be ‘Madam’, as I think ‘Sir’ is probably a contraction of ‘Esquire’, or ‘Miss’ (the courtesy title for female surgeons is still Miss, in the UK anyway)…anyway, think I’ll shut up now before I get into the fine print of what you call the husband of a female Alderman and all that malarkey!
@ phineyj – I’m a female attorney and “Esq.” is in my email signature block and on my letterhead every day. We’re talking about American legal practice and convention, not British Heraldry. We ladies have to pass the same bar exam as the men do, so we get those three little letters if we want them. Screw the gender differences. I can’t speak to what Brits do with their female surgeons, but “Doctor” sounds best to me. To me, anyone called “Miss” is about 12 years old.
On a totally different note, some people say that it’s unconstitutional for attorneys to take a heraldric form of address in any way, and one guy I know has called all attorneys traitors on that basis alone, but he is a putz anyway so I just ignore him. See Article I Sec. 9 of the U.S. Constitution, if you really want to delve into that argument.
I don’t really care that much about the use of “esq.” I find it a bit pretentious, and prefer that it not be used in reference to myself, but I don’t judge people who use it. But I don’t think it really functions as quality control — anyone who holds themselves out as an attorney without actually being licensed is risking criminal prosecution, so I don’t think the public needs to be afraid of lawyers who refrain from putting those three little letters after their name.
Speaking as a Realtor (I refuse to capitalize the entire word and put the TM after), the distinction is thus: anyone with a real estate license is a real estate agent, but someone who is a member of NAR is a Realtor. NAR holds their members to higher ethical standards (in theory), so for the consumer, it is supposed to be helpful to know whether you are merely hiring the services of an agent or a member of NAR.
I loathe the pronunciation “Real-uh-tor”; it’s akin to fingers on a chalkboard. It’s bad enough when non-real estate professionals use it. It’s worse when it’s a licensee.
Natalie, I hope that the physician does plenty of educating when explaining exactly what he or she found in your throat. :D
The “realtor” debate has been illuminating for me. Someday, when I buy a house, I won’t choose an agent who can’t say “ree-al-tor” (which is how it’s pronounced around here).
Hm. I always assumed that the ‘real-u-tor’ pronunciation had something to do with the l-t in the middle of the word. If you put a lot of stress on the word “real” and then try to say “tor,” for some folks there is a natural pause as the tongue totally repositions. I can only get the word right if I make it three syllables, “ree” “uhl” “tor.”
Hm. I imagine you could say something similar happened with “nucular,” way back before people just started mishearing. If you start with “nuke” and then try to add “lear,” you get “nuke-u-lear,” which could easily be “nuke-u-leer,” which could then slide into “nuke-u-ler.”
Just a thought.