*Apropos *is not just a fancier way of saying appropriate. They are two different words.
*Comprised *is not just a word that will make you seem smarter when you really mean composed.
*Epitome *does not mean what you think it means.
Someone else can take the other ones.
I may have misspelled it; but it does mean what I meant it to.
I think Vocabulary Pet Peeves is a topic which should (god help us) stay civil enough to not need to be in the Pit. If rioting breaks out over this inapropos action of mine, we can always move it back.
Oh, your optimism is absolutely adorable. :pinches Giraffe’s cheeks:
“comprise” = “to be composed of”
“comprise” =/= “compose”
Note the distinction.
Correct; “typical.”
Most people use it to mean atypical; the best of; the apex; the exceptional. “Epitome” is closer to meaning “average” than “exceptional.”
Impact is not a verb. Something has an impact, it is not impacting on you.
Grrrrr… don’t get me started on alright, affect/effect,and its vs it’s or we’ll be here all night…
Okay, provide an example where comprise is used incorrectly to mean compose. The OP might have worked better with some examples.
That’s one of those corporate-speak uses of a word that annoys me so.
In other words, “comprise” is nearly a synonym of “include.”
Correct:
The book included nine chapters.
The book comprised nine chapters.
The book was composed of nine chapters.
*
Incorrect:*
The book composed nine chapters.
The book was comprised of nine chapters.
The book was included of nine chapters.
When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.
People take the phrase “the whole is composed of the parts” and just substitutes the word “comprised” for “composed.” Their usage is different, however. To use “comprise” correctly to communicate the same information, you would say “The whole comprises the parts.”
Mnemonics:
The parts compose the whole; the whole comprises the parts.
and
“compose” = “include”
Prescriptivist nogoodniks!
So . . . this is, for you, a question of whether Homebrew, himself, personally, individually, uses the word epitome correctly, or whether the word is frequently misused by many people.
Mods, can someone please Homebrew’s name to the thread title? Maybe, to be safe, to the forum title? Thanks.
I agree that the first and third are wrong, but the second, even if it is grammatically awkward, is not. I’ve seen the phrase “comprised of” many times, in many places. English is an evolving language, don’t be such a grammar absolutist.
No, I understand that language changes. That doesn’t mean I’ll go quietly into that good night.
For instance, we used to have two perfectly good words, with two different definitions and usages, “appropriate,” and “apropos.” Now we have two words that mean the same thing. This is a subtractive process. I love it when new words are added to the language, but it riles me when misusages subtracts a perfectly good word like “apropos” from the language.
And the transition is not complete, while I understand that, taking an objective, descriptive approach would demand that I simply observe that the language is changing, I leave that to the lexicographers. “Prescriptive” is different from “descriptive,” but there’s a place for both, and neither is “better” than the other.
It is, currently, prescriptively speaking, “wrong.” Common usage is making it more and more acceptable, so that eventually it may in fact become to be perfectly correct. Common misusage is the first step along the path to changing the meaning of a word. That makes it inevitable; that doesn’t make it “right.”
Inconceivable!
No, not unless you would say “The parts include the whole”, which they don’t.
Nor does comprise = include. Comprise is all-inclusive, Include is not.
For example:
My library includes a set of encyclopedias.
My library comprises several hundred books.