If Your Contract is Not Renewed, Are You Fired?

Vinny Del Negro is out as Los Angeles Clippers coach, and I as a season-ticket holder could not be happier. I met the coach before his second season, the lockout-shortened one, at a meet-and-greet. Chris Paul had just fallen into his lap, and with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in the front court, I thought the Clippers could be really special.

I walked up to Del Negro, shook his hand and said, “You’ve got the personnel; let’s see what you can do with them.”

He responded, “We’re going to be good.” But other than a 17-game win streak in December 2012, I never thought Del Negro was the right coach to lead this group of players.

The Los Angeles Times’ headline included the word “Fired.” But upon reading the article, Del Negro will finish out his contract that expires June 30 and will not be renewed.

To me, that’s not being fired. Fired is being terminated while still under contract, at which time the contract’s balance usually is paid. Fired is being let go against your will if you don’t have a contract.

It’s true that the Clippers have told Del Negro that his services are no longer needed, and that is something fired people are told.

But was Del Negro really fired?

Breaking out the dictionary, fired means “to be dismissed from a position.” That’s kind of vague. Are you dismissed if you served out the contract but was not given another one?

I looked up dismissed. It means “to remove from position or service, as in discharge” (italics added).

I’ve never heard of anyone leaving the armed forces as being “honorably fired from the army.” I hear “honorably discharged from the army.”

So, I believe Del Negro was not fired. But I can see why the Times and others have used fired in these situations.

Regardless, I hope the Clippers hire Byron Scott.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

Is Gray Hair “Distinctive” or “Distinguished”?

I’m balding; one friend of mine isn’t, which pleases his wife.

Over the weekend, she and I discussed her husband’s graying hair. She said his hair was distinctive. Then she corrected herself and said it was distinguished.

I started graying long before my hair thinned. I remember hearing that graying temples makes one look distinguished.

But is that right? I went to the dictionary.

Distinctive means “serving to distinguish.” It lists as a synonym characteristic.

On the same page, distinguish means “to perceive a difference in,” “to mark as separate or different,” “to set apart into kinds, classes, or categories” and “to single out: take special notice of.”

So, it appears both can be correct: Gray hair can be distinguished, but hair that is graying can be distinctive.

I love those fine lines, like fine hair.

Thanks to Sue S. for the utterances.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

The “Unique” Redundancy

I was thinking today about how so many times we use intensifiers for words that aren’t necessary. Today, I thought about the word true. If something is true, does it really matter if it is very true, absolutely true or positively true?

Here is another example: unique. Its definitions in my dictionary: “being the only one,” “being without a like or equal,” “distinctly characteristic,” “peculiar” and “unusual.”

So, something that is unique is unique. It’s not rather unique or most unique. Nor is it – worst of all – uniquely different.

It’s just unique. Why use more than one word when one word will do?

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

 

Yo! Don’t Use “Yo” as a Pronoun

I recently read on the National Public Radio website an article about how Baltimore middle- and high-school students in Baltimore used the interjection yo! as a gender-neutral pronoun.

The examples given in the article sound grammatically incorrect: “Yo handin’ out papers” to mean “The teacher is handing out papers.” Also, “Peep, you!” means “Look at him/her.”

To me, both examples demonstrate how our language often devolves. Yo sounds a great deal like a bastardization of the pronoun you, as in the incorrect sentence  You handin’ out papers and the grammatically correct  Look, you! albeit with the slang peep instead of the proper verb look.

Perhaps my opinion would differ if the sentences these grade-schoolers uttered were grammatically correct. But probably not because Yo is handing out papers (which would be correct if yo was third person) sounds like the speaker uses the wrong form of the verb to be (you is instead of the correct you are).

It’s confusing, and there’s nothing wrong with gender-specific pronouns.

So, yo! Use the right words!

Until next time!

Thanks to Isaac B. for bringing the article to my attention.

leebarnathan.com

 

Is It “Libel” or “Slander?” It’s “Defamation”

Last week, my condo association owners meeting got really weird. Board members started yelling at each other, police arrested a board member for violating a restraining order against another board member, other board members openly attacked former board members … it was surreal.

At one point, an owner accused the board of dereliction of duty — specifically, failing to abide by the code of ethics set forth in the CC&Rs. She accused the board of publishing her complaint and libeling her in an email that outed her as the one complaining.

That got me thinking, is an email libel or slander?

In pre-Internet days, it was clear: Slander occurred when the false communication was spoken and heard. Libel occurred when the false communication was written and seen. The laws governing libel and slander, which are collectively known as defamation, are identical.

From what I can gather online, defamation in an email is libel. However, since I am not an attorney, I suggest anyone who believes they have suffered defamation should check their state law.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

Ten Minutes is Ten Minutes

I attended a networking meeting last night and heard the leader say, “We will now take a quick 10-minute break.”

Huh? A quick 10-minute break?

Now, I know that our perceptions of how time passes influence us into saying something that, taken literally, makes no sense. I remember that in fourth grade, my school’s recess was 10 minutes, and it seemed that as soon as we got to the playground, the bell rang to return us to class.

But since I am a word snob, I’m calling it. There is no such thing as a quick 10-minute break. By simply saying, “We will now take a 10-minute break,” it solves all problems and is completely accurate, honest and correct.

By the way, the break wasn’t quick. it was closer to 15 minutes.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

 

What the Hell is a “Natch” and a “Nigh?”

While reading the current issue of Time magazine, I came across two words I can’t believe someone wrote. One was very old and the other was very slangy.

I’ll address them in order I read them. The article, detailing a Japanese clothier’s strategies, had this: “He dresses casually in a plaid shirt and brown pants — his own label, natch — and underlines his brand loyalty …”

This wasn’t the first time I had come across natch. When I have, I pause because I don’t know what that means. Then I continue reading as if I had never read it.

But this time, I looked it up. Natch, my dictionary revealed, is a slang term from about 1945 that is a shortened form of the word naturally. It also means “of course.”

Why do we need to shorten naturally? It’s a perfectly decent word. I can’t remember ever hearing anyone use it. I’ve only read it.

Later in the same article, on the same page, I read this: “[M]anagement experts have been preaching it to Japanese firms … for nigh on two decades.”

I remember reading nigh in Shakespeare, perhaps in a sonnet or in a poetic passage in one of his plays. My dictionary shows the word does go back to the 12th century (or hundreds of years before Shakespeare) and means “near” as a preposition and “to come near” as a verb.

So, is the article’s author, Michael Schuman, in the 12th or 20th century? He’s using the words correctly, but both stuck out when I came across them, and I remember my journalism instructors teaching that any pause might cause a reader to stop reading.

In my case, it caused me to blog about it.

A nigh for a nigh, a natch for a natch.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

Can You Be “A Little Bit Livid?”

I officiate several high school and youth sports, including volleyball. Today, a fellow official called to tell me about the playoff match he worked last night. He said I would have been “a little bit livid” because one team led two sets to none and had three match points before losing in five sets.

I would have been bothered that I wasn’t finishing so fast, but could I have been a little bit livid?

Livid means “very angry” and “enraged.” I don’t think anyone could be a little bit very angry or a little bit enraged. You either are or you aren’t.

But livid has other meanings as well: “discolored by bruising; black-and-blue,” “ashen; pallid” and “reddish.” I’m not sure you could be a little bit of any of these.

I know we tend to use “a little” to modify something we don’t think is whole. So, a little bit reddish would mean “lightly red.” But doesn’t reddish suffice? Aren’t you simply black-and-blue? You can have a little bruise but is it a little bit discolored?

Looking online, it appears my friend got it wrong. But in other instances, we can be a little bit livid in some instances, although a little bit is redundant to a little  or a bit.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

 

The Absence of Gender Neutrality in Softball

I recently read an article about gender-neutral language on a Plymouth (N.H.) State University Women’s Studies web page. It listed 29 examples of gender-bias and the gender-neutral equivalent.

Most of them are already in use:

mankind/humankind

stewardess/flight attendant,

policeman/police officer,

fireman/firefighter,

waiter/waitress/server,

mailman/mail carrier,

salesman/salesperson/sales clerk,

manning/staffing,

manpower/work force,

weatherman/meteorologist,

gunman/shooter,

mountain man/mountaineer

and anchorman/anchorperson.

Others might one day be the norm: caveman/prehistoric people, brotherhood/kinship, cowboy/rancher, foreman/leader, congressman/congressional representative.

Then there are those that I can’t ever believe will be used: milkman/milk vendor, snowman/snowperson, freshman/first year.

That leaves the single sports one: First baseman. Why is there no gender-neutral equivalent? Plymouth State lists first base player, but I can’t see that ever becoming the norm. I’m around softball, and even now, the girls refer to themselves as basemen, not base persons or base players.

The closest I’ve heard  is a coach who simply calls out his/her player’s name and assigns a position: “Katie, first base.”

Anybody got any ideas? Leave a message.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

 

Are You a Citizen, Resident, Subject, National or Native?

So many ways to describe you relative to where you live. Love that English language.

You can be more than one. You could be a citizen and a native, or a citizen and a native or a subject, or a resident and a national, or a citizen and subject and resident, etc.

Citizen — One who enjoys complete civil rights of a nation, whether by being born or naturalized there.

Resident – One who lives in a particular city or state.

Subject – One who lives in a monarchy.

National – One who lives outside the country of which he/she is a citizen/subject (also a Washington DC baseball player, but that’s not important right now).

Native – One who is born in a particular place.

Choose your IDs!

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com