I have put together a page of resources. I mentioned a few books in my previous posts that I think are helpful or interesting, and I thought it might be handy to have a central list. It may be of interest to writers and students in particular. The books I have included are accessible and fairly straightforward.
I have also included a couple of websites I find or have found helpful.
I’ll update the page with any new discoveries.
Alternate:
Alternative:
In American English, alternate has come to be used in the sense of something being another possibility or choice. (The Chicago Manual of Style suggests this is appropriate when that something can be regarded as a substitute.) It is not common to see this in British English, and it is often regarded as incorrect.
Here’s a modern linguistic term that I really like. An eggcorn is a word or phrase created by mishearing or misinterpreting another. An element of the original is replaced by something that sounds very similar. To be an eggcorn, the word or phrase must sound similar (or identical) to the original and make some sort of sense.
An eggcorn that I have already posted about is on tenderhooks (for on tenterhooks).
The squirrel doesn’t care how it’s spelt.
If you say ‘acorn’ in a slow drawl (as in the southern US), you will probably find that it sounds a lot like ‘eggcorn’. The spelling eggcorn goes back as far as 1844. It makes sense when you think about it – acorns look a bit like eggs, especially in their cups, and they are produced by a tree while an egg is produced by a chicken or other egg-laying animal (although not in the same way).
‘Egg corn’ was adopted in 2003 by the linguist Geoffrey Pullum as the term for misheard words/phrases of this type. Because it describes a category of words that it is a member of, it is autological.
Source: Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Jeremy Butterfield (editor).
Flaw:
Floor:
Grandiloquent is usually considered an autological word.
It means pompous, lofty or extravagant in language, style or manner, especially in a way that is intended to impress or attract admiration.
The word’s origin is late 16th century. It stems from the Latin grandiloquus, meaning ‘grand-speaking’. The association with eloquent has altered the ending in English.
Magniloquent is considered a synonym of grandiloquent. And they rhyme.
An infinitive is the form of a verb made by adding to to its stem (e.g. to go or to do).
It is often argued that there should never be anything between the to and the stem. In Latin, the infinitive is a single word. This has led to the belief that the infinitive in English should be treated as a single unified concept, and that it is bad grammar to separate the two parts.
It is not bad grammar to split an infinitive; there is no grammatical reason not to. It is sometimes impossible to convey your meaning without splitting the infinitive. Sentences quite often read better when the infinitive has been split.
The most famous example of a split infinitive is probably to boldly go (from Star Trek). Would to go boldly or boldly to go have the same emphasis? No. Are they more natural? No.
As with ending a sentence with a preposition, there are circumstances where it would be more appropriate to avoid splitting the infinitive. It might be, for instance, jarring to split it.
You may also find that some publications would rather that you didn’t split infinitives lest you upset people by doing so. For that reason, The Economist’s Style Guide sadly declares that the ban on split infinitives is ‘pointless’ but that you should observe it anyway.
I’m not sure how healthy it is to obey a ‘rule’ that isn’t a rule just to keep your readers from confronting that it isn’t a rule.
If you want to read people agree with me, here are some books you should take a look at:
* Fowler’s suggests that you should avoid splitting infinitives but also states that it is acceptable and often necessary.
(To make things even more complicated, I recommend Trask’s The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar for an explanation of why you aren’t actually splitting an infinitive at all.)
Thank you to Lucy aka Blondeusk for suggesting this post.
I bring you more homophones.
Whine:
Wine:
an alcoholic drink produced by the fermenting of grapes (usually with sugar and water)You can wine and dine someone by offering them (usually lavish) drinks and a meal, or you can wine and dine as you enjoy yourself by eating and drinking.
Thank you to Jeff Curry for suggesting this post.
A pooh-bah is a person who has a lot of power and/or influence. They may hold (but not necessarily fulfill) many offices at the same time, and they are often seen as pompous or self-important.
The word originates from a character in W. S. Gilbert’s The Mikado (1885). In the opera, Pooh-Bah bears the title ‘Lord High Everything Else’; his behaviour matches the definition above.
When I am proofreading, I often find that it’s is used when its would be correct. I 
think that this occurs because the writer is thinking about apostrophes as a way to show possession. However, its is a possessive pronoun. It doesn’t need an apostrophe because it is already the possessive form of it.
Its means ‘belonging to it’.
It’s means ‘it is’ or ‘it has’.
The following are also possessives and don’t require an apostrophe: hers, his, mine, yours, theirs and ours.
In British English, these are the spellings for two words with different meanings.
Tire:
Tyre:
In American English, tire is the standard spelling for both meanings. Tyre is actually thought to be a variant of the old form tire (a shortening of attire because the tyre was seen as the ‘clothing’ of the wheel).
Thank you to Aeryn Rudel for suggesting this post.
Hannah McCall 