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Jewish World Review
June 16, 2005
/ 9 Sivan, 5765
What's the real way to say it?; what's special about The Bronx; meaning and origin of bloviate?
By
Editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Dear Editor:
A family member gives me a hard time every time I say ya'll come
back real soon. He says real shouldn't be used in phrases like
real soon. It sounds fine to me. Who's right?
J.R., Columbia, Ky.
Dear J.R.:
The word real has been functioning as an adverb since the 18th
century. The adverbial use was borne out of the adjectival use, as
when real is used to modify noun phrases like good turn. By the
18th century, real was being used to modify good alone, and the
independent adverbial use grew from then.
The adverbial real is most often used the way you report using it:
in speech. It's an informal usage that peppers the language we
encounter in casual conversation. It's avoided in formal writing,
though it occasionally crops up in writing that is meant to have a
conversational feel.
Some critics insist that real is always and only an adjective, and
that the adverbial use of real is actually a mistaken version of
really. This is not correct; real and really are not
frequently used in the same way. Real is a simple intensifier,
more or less equivalent to very; it is used only with adjectives
and adverbs. Really is a full-fledged adverb; it is only sometimes
used in an intensive function, and even then is more likely to mean
truly, unquestionably than simply very. In a phrase like ya'll
come back real soon, the adverb real is doing what it does best.
Dear Editor:
I was born in the Bronx and was wondering why we don't put the in
front of any of the other boroughs of New York City.
C.W., Somerset, N.J.
Dear C.W.:
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut answer to your
question, but we can explore some possibilities.
The land called Keskeskeck by American Indians and now called the
Bronx was sold in 1639 to the Dutch West India Company. In 1641
Jonas Bronk (also spelled Bronck in some sources) became the first
white settler in that region when he brought 500 acres between the
Harlem River and the Aquahung.
At this point two versions of the story diverge. One version is that
the Aquahung lost its original name and became known as the Bronk's
River; then the area was named after the river and the borough kept
the definite article before its name. Another version claims the
land belonging to Jonas Bronk was simply referred to by visitors as
the Bronks', short for the Bronks' place or house or land.
Either way, the name of the borough retained the the as it came to
acquire its present-day spelling.
Another possible explanation has to do more generally with
place-name usage in the United States. If a place-name retains the
definite article, that indicates a uniqueness, usually local,
associated with the place. Though the Bronx doubtless has several
unique qualities, one we are familiar with is that it's the only
borough located on the mainland. Whether this was enough to
influence the retention of the before the borough name, we cannot
judge.
Dear Editor:
Is it true that President Harding invented the word bloviate?
What's the story?
C.L., Hamden, Conn.
Dear C.L.:
We define bloviate as to speak or write verbosely and windily. A slang dictionary published in 1897 called it a made up or
factitious word, which has been used since at least 1850, and is
perhaps older. It is irregularly used to signify verbosity,
wandering from the subject, and idle or inflated oratory or blowing
...
President Warren G. Harding did use the word, but he obviously did
not originate it, and in fact he apparently employed it in a
different sense. In his biography of Harding, Francis Russell
explains that it was a word current in Ohio, meaning to loaf about
... and enjoy oneself. Outsiders later credited him with having
coined it.
Even so, the association of bloviate with Harding, which no doubt
was influenced by his own talent for long-winded oratory, did help
to bring this old Americanism out of obscurity.
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