Polysemous is a term for words that have more than one meaning. Most words in general use are polysemous.
The word is thought to be early 20th century in origin. It comes from the prefix poly-, meaning ‘many’, and the Greek word sēma, meaning ‘sign’.
Words with a single meaning are monosemous.
I have previously covered how to use an en dash (–) and an em dash (—). Now to turn to the thing they are not: a hyphen.
A hyphen (-) shows that the matter it is attached to is not a complete word by itself. It should not be used with a space at both ends, although sometimes it is appropriate for it to have a space at one end.
The use of hyphens is often a matter of style. But they are used to do the following things:
You might have heard of soft hyphens and hard hyphens. Soft hyphens are those that indicate word division at the end of a line. Hard hyphens are those that indicate words or parts of words are joined together to form compounds. There’s no difference in size or shape.
Hyphens are also used to indicate stammering or paused speech:
'W-w-what are we to do?'
And they indicate the omission of the second part of a hyphenated expression or solid compound:
three- and five-door cars over- and underpaid employees
If you would like to find out more about when to use a hyphen, I can recommend the Penguin Guide to Punctuation for a thorough and simple explanation.
The difference between mold and mould is the u. The meanings are the same. If you use American English, the spelling is mold. If you use British English, the spelling is mould.
Mold/mould:
a shape, form, nature, character or typeGoogleganger is a fairly new word; it has an equally interesting synonym in doppelgoogler.
A googleganger is a person who has the same name as you and is discovered when you search for yourself using an internet search engine.
The origin of both googleganger and doppelgoogler is the originally German word doppelgänger, meaning ‘a double of a living person’.
Googleganger has been named the Macquarie Dictionary word of the year (2010) and was nominated (in the form Googlegänger) for word of the year (2007) by the American Dialect Society.
Last week I posted about en rules. An em rule (—) is twice the length of an en rule (–). They are also referred to as en dashes and em dashes.
You will often see em rules used closed up (no spaces on either side) as a parenthetical dash; this is usually the preferred style for US publishers (instead of spaced en rules).
A spaced em rule can indicate the omission of a word; a closed-up em rule can indicate the omission of part of a word. It can also be used closed up in written dialogue to indicate a sudden break or interruption:
'You probably shouldn't put your knife in the toast—'
It is unusual but you might see some writers use a single closed-up em rule to set off dialogue instead of using quotation marks:
—Will he make it for dinner tonight? —Not in this weather!
You may also see a closed-up em rule between an introductory noun (or nouns) and the pronoun introducing the main clause:
Cars, thunder, the neighbour's cat—nothing disturbed the plucky dog.
Em rules are used in indexes to indicate a repeated word, and they are sometimes used to indicate a repeated author’s name in consecutive bibliographic entries.
The first homophones of the year are cue and queue. The order of the vowels in queue is also a source of confusion for some writers.
Cue:
Queue:
a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn; to form or remain in a line while waitingCue jokes about British people in a queue.
No, I have not misspelled Gallifrey.
Gallimaufry is an old-fashioned word and I think it deserves to be used more than it is.
It means ‘a confused jumble’, and it is a synonym of the equally glorious hodgepodge.
Gallimaufry originally meant ragout (the stew). It first appeared in the mid 16th century, having developed from the archaic French word galimafrée meaning ‘unappetizing dish’.
It is thought to combine the Old French galer ‘to have a good time’ with the dialect mafrer ‘to eat a lot’.
You are probably familiar with two types of dashes: the en rule and the em rule. Neither is to be used as if it is a hyphen.
The en rule (–) is longer than a hyphen (-) and half the length of an em rule (—).
You will often see it used with a space either side as a parenthetical dash; this is usually the preferred style for British publishers (the alternative is a closed-up em rule).
When considering the other uses, it might be helpful to think of the en rule as meaning (roughly) and or to.
The en rule should be used closed up (with no spaces either side) in elements (usually figures) that form a range:
pp. 18–25 1865–72 Monday–Friday
The en rule should also be used at the end of unfinished number ranges.
It is important to remember to always write from xxxx to xxxx or xxxx–xxxx. Do not use a combination of the two. The same applies when writing between xxxx and xxxx.
An en rule can be used closed up to express connection or relation between words, to express an alternative (in a similar way to a solidus) or to indicate joint creators (a hyphen between the names would suggest it was only one person).
En rules can also be used to indicate individual missing letters:
'The utter b – – – – – – !' she shouted.
It isn’t common to see this any more; people tend to be able to cope with seeing rude words spelt out.
It’s 2016.
Here are last year’s top 10 posts on this blog (according to my stats page) in case you missed them. You’re welcome.
If there were any posts you particularly liked, I’d love to hear from you.
I hope the new year is treating you well, and I hope you will join me for many more posts to come!
If you sing or listen to carols, this word is probably very familiar. It is to me – some of my best childhood memories are of singing carols with a choir at Christmas.
Noel is often used as a refrain in carols and on Christmas cards. It means ‘Christmas’. A noel is a Christmas carol.
Its origin is early 19th century, from the French Noël. Noël is based on the Latin word natalis meaning ‘birthday’.
Joyeux Noel is sometimes used by English speakers to wish others a happy or merry Christmas. If you are writing to a French speaker, remember to use Noël.
You may have seen the spelling Nowell or Nowel. Nowell is the Middle English spelling of Noel. It’s now regarded as archaic and is rarely used. However, it is common for the carol ‘The First Nowell’ to be spelt using the original form (you can read more on why here).
If you use Spotify, here’s the carol with its famous refrain:
This is my last post for a week or so. I’ll still be contactable should you have any proofreading-related emergencies.
I wish you a very merry Christmas.
Hannah McCall 