Like people who love wine or beer, I’m in love with words. I like the feel of some words in my mouth, the sound of them in my ears, their look on a page, the wonderful pictures they can paint. I am pained when words are misused, but I don’t want to be a word snob. In fact recently I was embarrassed when I flinched at what I perceived as a mispronunciation of a word and the speaker noticed. Words can be weapons, but I choose— for the most part—not to use them that way.

My love of language probably came from my parents, who encouraged me to read voraciously and broadly. My father couldn’t spell and often quoted Mark Twain, who said “I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.”  But my father loved words and their clever use by authors such as Twain, James Thurber and Dr. Seuss.

When someone uses words so well they create images in our minds, I am joyful. I try not to quibble when someone takes liberties with their words or uses unoriginal phrasing. On the other hand, I do take issue with a Cadillac ad that claimed something like, “More fun, less hassles.” Why not fewer hassles? Fewer refers to a smaller number of individual things. I don’t think one tiny syllable would have gone over the ad’s time limit. Less is used to mean a smaller quantity of something. “If there were fewer errors, I might drink less.”

Perhaps I quibble and this usage is simply a function of an evolving language.

Confusing lay and lie is a frequently occurring error that has more to do with verb tense with than evolving usage. Lay is a transitive verb that needs an object. Ralph asked her to lay the gun on the desk. Past tense: laid.  She laid the dish on the table. He has laid those forks on the counter many times. Lie, when it means to recline, is simple in the present tense. I told my dog to lie down. The past tense of lie is lay. Last night the children lay quietly in their beds. They have lain in their beds for hours.p or use another word. The children slept quietly in their beds. Cast your fears aside.

Working at my desk brings to mind another word challenge: sit, set, sat.  Sit means to be seated. I sit at my computer. Yesterday I sat far too long. I have sat many hours. Set (to place) needs an object. He sets the roast on the table. Yesterday he set it in front of me. He has set it there every Sunday for months.

Semicolons do seem to be declining in favor as our language evolves and sentences shrink. People occasionally use a semicolon in place of a comma to appear more formal, but they should not. The semicolon has its own purpose. Never as powerful a part of speech as the period (or full stop as they say in Britain), the semicolon signals a pause between independent clauses in a sentence or between items in a series that must be set off by commas. She brought to the party her uncle, Josiah Smith; her cousin, Mae Weston; and her nephew, Ralphie, a winemaker from Westport, Virginia.

What are your favorite words? Pet usage peeves?