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Friday, November 9, 2012

And When Did THIS Start Happening?

As bad as "on accident" is, there's another linguistic tic even more nails-on-a-chalkboard-like: "agreeance." As in "The committee met for three hours in order to reach agreeance on the best course of action."  Of course, I know what that sentence means. . . or meant. . .or MENT.  (See what I did there?)

According to Dictionary.com, "agreeance" has a track record dating back to the 16th century.  Now, however, the usage is "rare," and the word itself is described as a "bastardization of 'agreement.'"  I'm no linguistic prescriptivist, but when one's choice of usage prompts the appearance of the word "bastard," I submit there is a problem.

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