# Dear everyone: **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 21, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470 "2015-05-21T02:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/61 "2015-05-21T17:48:07Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I would say that people trying to look smart by setting down a bunch of prescriptivist rules almost always find the effort backfires. They’re cheaper if you order them from Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/62 "2015-05-21T18:01:08Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > “Apropos” is not just a smarter-sounding synonym for “appropriate.” Don’t know about the “smarter sounding” part, but when [appropos is used as an adjective](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=define+apropos)the words are synomyms: > [@](#): > > ap·ro·pos > ˌaprəˈpō/Submit > adjective: apropos > 1.very appropriate to a particular situation. > “the composer’s reference to child’s play is apropos” > > synonyms: **appropriate** , pertinent, relevant, apposite, apt, applicable, suitable, germane, fitting, befitting, material; right on > “the word “conglomerate” was decidedly apropos” ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/63 "2015-05-21T18:05:38Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Can we make people use “beg the question” correctly while we’re at it? You truly are a dreamer.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/64 "2015-05-21T19:09:58Z")
[Stephen Fry says it best,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY) but I just wanted to point out that the OP missed the boat on “pen” as a verb by better than half a millennia. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/65 "2015-05-22T01:30:51Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The word you really wanted here was hypothesis. Yes, if I were writing for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. But “theory” is a word like practically every other word in the English language: it has more than one connotation and more than usage. And since this is NOT a peer-reviewed journal, it’s likely that the average reader would infer the colloquial usage intended. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/66 "2015-05-22T01:32:01Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Stephen Fry says it best,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY) but I just wanted to point out that the OP missed the boat on “pen” as a verb by better than half a millennia. Except that I didn’t say it was incorrect. I said is was pretentious. Precisely because it is, as you point out, such an archaic usage. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/67 "2015-05-22T01:37:57Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Don’t know about the “smarter sounding” part, but when [appropos is used as an adjective](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=define+apropos)the words are synomyms: 1. Descriptive verus prescriptive. 2. There are almost no absolutely interchangeable synonyms. Obviously the words are related. But most people don’t use one versus the other because of linguistic precision; they use “apropos” because they think it makes them sound smarter than “appropriate.” See: utilze v. use, frexample. ---
**Author:** ![HeXen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@HeXen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeXen)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/68 "2015-05-22T01:38:48Z")
If you understand what they are trying to say, then for an open forum, it served it’s only purpose. If you’re worried about how complete strangers perceive you and prefer them to think you’re smart, clever, perfect or whatever based on texts in a free open web forum then you have other issues beyond the scope of my give a damn meter. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/69 "2015-05-22T01:42:40Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > That’s, uh, wrong. Why can’t Mark Zuckerberg and the idiot with a trust fund each be an epitome of a rich bastard? > > I think “possesses to a high degree” encompasses all of their examples. If that’s how you mean it, then yes. If you think Zuckerberg is a good, average representation of the whole class of rich bastard, then using “epitome” to communicate that would be appropriate to your meaning. In other words, the definition of the word doesn’t rise and fall on your personal opinion of Mark Zuckerberg. But to say that Meryl Streep is the epitome of the working actress is nearly objectively wrong; an actress who works as a waitress and gets by doing background parts in L&O is the epitome of the working actress. And thus, if you believe that Zuckerberg is the worst of the worst of the WORST of rich bastards, epitome would be incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/70 "2015-05-22T02:06:20Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Also, I would like to present to you: voilà. It means ‘here is’, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘Ta-da!’ As in, ‘Voilà! The Christmas feast!’ > > A viola is a musical instrument, or one of Shakespeare’s best characters. ‘Viola! The Christmas feast!’ makes no sense unless you are demanding that Viola, or a viola, come to dinner. > > A wallah is an old-fashioned word for ‘guy’ in a phrase specifying his occupation or origin - ‘the viola wallah’ is ‘the guy who plays/sells/fixes violas’. ‘Wallah! The Christmas feast!’ doesn’t mean much of anything. > > The languagium is where they keep all the words. I’ve only every seen “viola” used with intentional irony. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/71 "2015-05-22T02:37:13Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > If that’s how you mean it, then yes. If you think Zuckerberg is a good, average representation of the whole class of rich bastard, then using “epitome” to communicate that would be appropriate to your meaning. In other words, the definition of the word doesn’t rise and fall on your personal opinion of Mark Zuckerberg. But to say that Meryl Streep is the epitome of the working actress is nearly objectively wrong; an actress who works as a waitress and gets by doing background parts in L&O is the epitome of the working actress. And thus, if you believe that Zuckerberg is the worst of the worst of the WORST of rich bastards, epitome would be incorrect. Yeah, I understood that was their point, but it’s such a stretch that the “error” is minuscule to the point of meaninglessness. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/72 "2015-05-22T06:09:50Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Also, I would like to present to you: voilà. It means ‘here is’, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘Ta-da!’ As in, ‘Voilà! The Christmas feast!’ > > A viola is a musical instrument, or one of Shakespeare’s best characters. ‘Viola! The Christmas feast!’ makes no sense unless you are demanding that Viola, or a viola, come to dinner. > > A wallah is an old-fashioned word for ‘guy’ in a phrase specifying his occupation or origin - ‘the viola wallah’ is ‘the guy who plays/sells/fixes violas’. So then, a voilà wallah would be a magician? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/73 "2015-05-22T06:17:52Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Stop using “pen” as a verb. It doesn’t make you sound clever, it makes you sound pretentious. > > Also stop saying “differentiate” when you mean “distinguish.” “Apropos” is not just a smarter-sounding synonym for “appropriate.” Look up “epitome”; it doesn’t mean what you think it means. > > And for the sake of all that’s holy, an adverb-adjective pairing does not equal a compound adjective: that’s what adverbs are for–to modify adjectives (and verbs of course.) In other words, fully loaded does not require a hyphen. Nor does wholly owned or maddeningly stupid. Inserting an unnecessary hyphen does not, once again, make you look smart. No one looks stupider than someone trying too hard to look smart. > > Thank you. That is all. Allow me to add that “epic” does not mean “large”. Also, an “epidemic” is an infectious disease, not a widespread condition. Obesity is not an epidemic. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/74 "2015-05-22T09:12:46Z")
I could care less about this rant, really. To all intensive purposes, it’s just an arbitrary rant. Now my eyeballs are literally bleeding from having to read what I just typed up there. Okay, not literally literally. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/75 "2015-05-22T09:34:14Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > So then, a voilà wallah would be a magician? No, it’s a city in Washington. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/76 "2015-05-22T09:51:38Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > So then, a voilà wallah would be a magician? It would also make a pretty good username. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/77 "2015-05-22T10:46:40Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > there are occasions where pen as a verb is appropriate but the problem the OP has is when people use it wrongly Don’t do anything wrongly. Only do things correctly. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/78 "2015-05-22T14:21:50Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I have an EpiPen. Where can I get an epitome? I suspect, from context, that you would need to become a spellcaster of a middling-to-high level. You could then fill a reasonably thick spellbook with healing spells suitable for offering relief from anaphylaxis. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/79 "2015-05-22T14:57:09Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > I like my strumpets with jam and tea. You’re thinking of moppets. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470/80 "2015-05-22T15:06:57Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > You’re thinking of moppets. No. Moppets are those pre-moistened napkins that you use to clean a baby that has shat itself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-everyone/720470.md?page=5)