Pet Peeves

        This morning, as I was wasting away in the depths of THE Facebook, I came across one of my biggest pet peeves: "ect".  It slightly amuses me that the vast majority of my pet peeves can be directly related to the written or oral language, especially since I am far from perfect in this regard, but perhaps that topic should be left for a different post entirely.  Despite the aggravation and dismay that was invoked upon seeing this written multiple times in a single blog post, I continued to read the post and responses.  Perhaps I should have stopped while I was only moderately aggravated, because this single transgression turned into more than I could possibly write about in a single post.  Therefore, I shall only provide a small sampling of those that bother me the most and are probably not addressed as frequently as some of the other issues that I came across.  

 

“Ect” is NOT an appropriate abbreviation for the Latin expression “et cetera”.  The appropriate abbreviation is “etc.”—do you see how those letters are in the same order as the words are spelled?  That should be your first hint that “ect” is incorrect.  Even with accepted alternate spellings: etcetera, et caetera, et coetera this point is still valid.  Also, just as a reminder, it is not pronounced “excetera”.

I will be the first to admit, that in the past I have confused these; however, these do NOT mean the same thing. “I.e.” is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase id est, which loosely means “that is” and “e.g.” is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase exempli gratia, which means “for the sake of example”.   So let’s break this down even further.  The abbreviation “i.e.” would be used to stand for “in other words” or as a way to explain or describe a previous statement or even used as a metaphor.  The abbreviation “e.g.” would be appropriately utilized when one is providing examples.  One can check the appropriate use of the abbreviations by inserting the phrase “in other words” in place of “i.e.” or “for example” in place of “e.g.”.   

When you go to the store, please buy some vegetables, i.e., a plant from that is cultivated for its edible parts.

When you go to the store please buy some vegetables, e.g., spinach, broccoli, and bok choy.

Vice versa is yet another Latin phrase that seems to trip people up.  This phrase, which means “in reverse order from that stated” or “the other way around”, is not spelled vice a versa, nor does the correct spelling contain a hyphen.  Vice versa would be appropriately utilized in order to mean conversely. 

Veterinarians that are qualified to practice veterinary medicine in Sarasota can practice veterinary medicine in Bradenton and vice versa.

            Contrary to the popular misuse of this word, it does not imply that something is superfluous.  The word “moot” means that the subject is open to discussion or is disputable.  And please, please, please do not pull a Joey (from "Friends") and be completely wrong with the word and definition: 

Mad vs. Angry

            Mad and angry do not mean the same thing and learning this fact may make you both mad and angry.  Mad refers to insanity, uncontrolled excitement or emotion, or foolishness.  Angry or anger is strong emotion or feeling of displeasure or belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong. 

           “Alot” is not a word.  It is so much not a word that I had to tell my auto-correct five times that I actually wanted it to be written this incorrect way for this post.  A person has a lot of things, not “a lot” of things.  Or perhaps avoiding the phrase all together would be easier: a person has numerous things.  And “a lot” should not be confused with the word allot, which is a real word, but means something completely different.  Allot means to assign a portion of or dedicate, to appropriate for a special purpose, or to divide or distribute.  The parents will allot each kid $20 to spend at the gift shop.      

Now you know.  Consider this your warning.