Grammar Girl is my hero

Onomatopoeia. What makes it so striking is that, by definition, it means: the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss) . For such a lengthy and difficult word to spell, onomatopoeia is one of my favorite words.

I subscribe to Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. You probably can't tell by my writing that I am an avid reader and loyal note taker of Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty's website. However, I do. I am. I try.

Each week I receive an email focusing on one grammar do or don't. Sometimes these pointers are rather mundane, but helpful (oft times, the most boring details deliver the greatest punch). This week's spotlight item really caught my eye. It's so fantabulous that I had to share it with my utterly groovilicious blogging pals. Web-logging and learning all in one hit. Would that be blearning?


  • Portmanteau Words

    "Last week the Make-It-Green Girl did a show about smog, which made me think of portmanteau words because the word smog is a combination of the words smoke and fog. Such words, made from the combination of sounds from other words, are called portmanteau words or blends. Portmanteau is a French word for a type of suitcase that opens into two halves. Lewis Carrol assigned portmanteau its newer linguistic meaning in his book Alice Through the Looking Glass. Other examples include brunch (made up of the sounds from breakfast and lunch), spork (made up of the sounds from spoon and fork), and Bennifer (made up of the sounds from Ben and Jennifer)."

Comments

  1. You are incredibly smart, beautiful and funny and I love the grammar girl website...thanks for the link!
    One favor, please?! When you add editorials inside quotation marks, I believe the punctuation is placed within the quotation unless the last "word" is a number and then the punctuation goes outside the quotation. (That goes for a dash as well.)
    Love to read your blogs.
    -K

    ReplyDelete
  2. uh, as soon as I decipher what you just said I will comply. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh please...it's a BLOG, not Harvard's Thesis department! JEESH

    ReplyDelete

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