# Your opinions on English grammar and usage \[Click on each arrow for more\] **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327 "2021-08-22T20:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/142 "2021-09-03T08:37:06Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’m hearing the word “resiliency” a lot lately. What ever happened to “resilience”? It lacked staying power. I thought Gaylord Perry ought to have titled his autobio “The Spitter and Me” (rather than “Me and the Spitter”). It has better flow, for one thing, and the politeness shown by placing his bread-and-butter pitch ahead of himself is becoming. The only advantage to “Me” first is that it makes the alphabetizing more obvious. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/143 "2021-09-03T17:28:56Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > > [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > > > Resilience used to be a verb form… > > Really? Could you use it in a sentence? In Latin, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/144 "2021-09-03T18:28:16Z")
Resilience and resiliency have battled for supremacy since forever. The last time they were nearly equal in use was the 1920s. Since then, use of resilience has skyrocketed. Its rise can be mapped pretty closely to prescriptivist teaching, the increase in mass communication, and the internet. In any event, you’ll see similarities in other -cy nouns like impotence/impotency and complacence/complacency, many of which began life as Latin verb forms then split into two noun forms when some people added the -cy noun ending to denote quality or likeness and some didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/145 "2021-09-03T19:54:29Z")
One oddball among the -cy nouns is normality/normalcy. You can thank Warren G. Harding for normalcy (he didn’t invent the word, but he popularized its use in that context). ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/146 "2021-09-03T21:34:29Z")
There are a bunch of instances of words being adopted from Latin or Greek in a particular form, then there was sometimes a back-formation of a shorter form. Sometimes the shorter form didn’t stick, though. In the History of English podcast, there’s an example given of expedite and it’s opposite, impedite, adopted in the same time period. Both led to shortened forms: expede and impede. Expede didn’t stick, so we have expedite, but impede. Discussed around the 42 minute mark here: [https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2021/04/28/episode-147-a-rude-and-rusty-language/](https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2021/04/28/episode-147-a-rude-and-rusty-language/) ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/147 "2021-09-03T22:13:39Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > In the History of English podcast, there’s an example given of expedite and it’s opposite, impedite, adopted in the same time period. Both led to shortened forms: expede and impede. Expede didn’t stick, so we have expedite, but impede. I love that podcast. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/148 "2021-09-03T22:18:03Z")
Ack. Seeing it quoted I immediately noticed the apostrophe in its. I admit it’s because I rarely type apostrophes–I just let autocorrect put them in as a shortcut. But it sometimes comes back to bite me when I forget to select the correct word for were, well, ill, and its. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/149 "2021-09-03T22:21:22Z")
Don’t sweat it: > [@Sexism issues?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexism-issues/949960/25): > > “Spitballing”, in this context, does not mean “launching spitballs at a person”, if that’s what you were thinking. Pretty sure nobody was thinking that. That’s what the phrase means in general, certainly. But it’s use in that context means “this thing I’m about to say should be painfully obvious.” Maybe–and I’m just spitballing here–you should talk to a doctor about that rash. On the other hand (and I’m just spitballing here), maybe try not frying bacon in the nude. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/150 "2021-09-03T22:34:25Z")
Why does Tony Bologna rhyme but Sean Bean doesn’t? Shouldn’t his name be pronounced Seen Been or Shawn Bawn? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/151 "2021-09-03T22:45:29Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Why does Tony Bologna rhyme but Sean Bean doesn’t? Shouldn’t his name be pronounced Seen Been or Shawn Bawn?  They might have in their earlier forms–John Bohn. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/152 "2021-09-04T00:41:58Z")
Seán uses Irish spelling, and bean doesn’t. [https://sillylinguistics.com/comprehensive-guide-to-irish-spelling/](https://sillylinguistics.com/comprehensive-guide-to-irish-spelling/) The “e” in Seán is there to tell you how to pronounce the “S.” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/153 "2021-09-04T16:35:07Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > In Latin, maybe. I’m confused - weren’t you saying that resilience used to be a verb in English, which is how I read it? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/154 "2021-09-04T16:37:29Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Why does Tony Bologna rhyme but Sean Bean doesn’t? Shouldn’t his name be pronounced Seen Been or Shawn Bawn? Same reason as Bologna only rhymes with Tony in American English, not in Italian (or in other forms of English). Their pronunciation doesn’t have the same language root. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/155 "2021-09-04T17:10:40Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > > [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > > > In Latin, maybe. > > I’m confused - weren’t you saying that resilience used to be a verb in English, which is how I read it? Ah, no, sorry. I wasn’t very clear there (in my defense, it was after 2 in the morning). I was trying to show why some nouns had -cy endings while words with similar sound and meaning didn’t. To clarify, they were often Latin verbs that became English nouns, hence the addition of the noun ending. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327/156 "2021-09-04T17:21:10Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Ah, no, sorry. I wasn’t very clear there (in my defense, it was after 2 in the morning). I was trying to show why some nouns had -cy endings while words with similar sound and meaning didn’t. To clarify, they were often Latin verbs that became English nouns, hence the addition of the noun ending. Ah, that does make sense now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-english-grammar-and-usage-click-on-each-arrow-for-more/949327.md?page=7)