A Conversation for The List: Useful Words

Not so fast, Pedant.

Post 1

satnitcboy

I guess anyone landing at this site will remember, if they've seen it, an episode of I Love Lucy in which mother-to-be Lucy hires a tutor, who is given the task of improving the language environment before the baby arrives.

Hans Conreid, as the professor, admonishes the Ricardos and Mertzes that there are "two words I absolutely will not tolerate: one is 'swell', and the other is 'lousy'."

"OK," says Fred Mertz. "Give us the lousy one first, then the swell one."

I'm not so sure about that definition of "pedant." It strikes me as a lousy definition of a swell word. Or is it just me? (Sorry: "Is it only I"?)

I'd hate to appear as one "overly concerned with minutiae and detail and whose tone is perceived as condescending," but to be precise, pedantry can be employed in service or damage to any old thing, right?

Signing off now - please excuse the lousy instructional attitude and have a swell day!


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Not so fast, Pedant.

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