• Home
  • About Me
    • About Me
    • Work With Me
  • BlackBerry
  • Life
    • Sports
  • Autism
    • Resources
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Games
  • Grammar

Jenn Writes

Writing my way through life, one word at a time.

Word Wednesday: Storms of Historic Proportions

September 20, 2017 by koalateagirl

It’s been awhile since I got really pedantic on here but it’s happening today. I was going to write this post last week but then decided that the issue really wasn’t *that* bad and just ranted a bit to some Facebook friends. In the past two days however, I’ve heard the phrase “historical storms” at least 5 times on 2 different television networks and a radio news broadcast and it needs to stop.

I realize that not everybody is as into history as I am and that may explain some of the confusion surrounding these terms. Historic and historical are terms I’ve become very familiar with over the years as a history major but it’s quite possible others don’t realize they’re not interchangeable. (Although major news networks have editors who should know this sort of thing). They are both adjectives, which undoubtedly doesn’t help the matter, but the main difference is this:

Historical is always used to describe events that occurred in the past (and not the recent past), while historic can be used to describe both events in the past and current events that will become important to history in the future. Thus a hurricane can be historic but is not historical – unless it is swirling figures from history around near the eye of the storm.

hurricane with figures from history in it
This is what I think of every time I hear the words ‘historical hurricane’.

Yes, in the grand scheme of things it’s a small error, and I know in time these hurricanes will be historical events but that time is not now and every time I am watching or listening to the news and hear about how much damage the current “historical hurricane” is causing I’m going to think about historical figures being swept up in a hurricane and deposited on random islands / territories. Because it at least brings a little levity to an otherwise horrific situation.

Historical (his·tor·i·cal) Adjective

  1. Something of, relating to, or having the character of history or past events.
  2. Something belonging to the past, not the present.

Historic (his·tor·ic) Adjective

  1. Something famous or important in history
  2. An occasion or person having great and lasting importance.

 

Filed Under: Grammar Tagged With: Grammar, historic, historical, history, hurricane, pedantic, Word Wednesday, words

Word Wednesday: I’m a Logophile and I’m Okay

April 12, 2017 by koalateagirl

First off, I’m sorry if I gave you a Monty Python earworm with the title. Actually no, I’m not sorry since the lumberjack song is one of my favourite Monty Python songs and if you haven’t heard it you need to go and click on the link right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait. It isn’t a long song but it’s seriously catchy and never fails to make me smile.  Secondly, if the title of this post made you run for a dictionary (physical or online – I’m not too picky) to look up logophile and you returned with a smile, you just might be a logophile too.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Grammar Tagged With: Books, etymology, geek, Grammar, Greek, logophile, love, Monty Python, reading, school, Wednesday, Word Wednesday, words

Word Wednesday – On Facing my Fears

March 29, 2017 by koalateagirl

I’m an overthinker. I like to weigh out decisions carefully, and make the best possible choice and even then I often second guess myself. I’m the person you want to plan your hike because I’ll have come up with solutions to problems that most people haven’t even considered.  I’m pretty self-aware about this though, so sometimes I try to force myself to agree to things before thinking about them too much. Once I commit to something I very rarely back out – which makes this tactic work really well at pushing me out of my comfort zone to try something new.  Except that it’s called a comfort zone for a reason – it’s comfortable, and comfortable is nice and safe. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Grammar, Life, Travel Tagged With: Barrie, beginner, Casino Rama, Coldwater, comfort zone, fears, Grammar, learning, Mount St. Louis Moonstone, Ontario, Ontario's Lake Country, Rama, Resolve, Skiing, tourism, travel, Wednesday, Winter, word nerd, Word Wednesday

Word Wednesday – Present Tense

November 30, 2016 by koalateagirl

In case you’ve been living under a rock, last Friday was Black Friday and even though Canada doesn’t have the day off like many Americans (nice job getting a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving by the way), we seem to have adopted the Black Friday shopping insanity. I’m all for a bargain, but getting up at 5 am to line up to get into a store to save $20? Not so much. Of course, there’s always Cyber Monday where there are deals online and I don’t need to put on real clothes, but this year many online retailers had deals for both Black Friday AND Cyber Monday which made me a happy girl.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Grammar Tagged With: amazon, black friday, gift, Grammar, instant pot, kitchen gadgets, present, shopping, Wednesday, Word Wednesday

Word Wednesday – Losing Faith

November 16, 2016 by koalateagirl

It’s been a week since I woke up to the news that Donald Trump had won the US Presidential Election. I’d like to say the world is the same place in the week since, but that would be a lie. There have been protests. There has been fear. There have been many bad words. There has been a President-Elect who has has zero experience in government making appointments that make supporters of BOTH parties cringe. There has not been much in the way of hope.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Grammar Tagged With: American Politics, Change, Decision, Donald Trump, Election, Electoral College, Faithless, Grammar, Hillary Clinton, President, US, USA, Wednesday, Word Wednesday

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Assorted Pictures

Jenn Writes Logo. An old fashioned typewriter with an cartoon owl next to it.
A tea cup with white and pink flowers on it full of tea
Lovely little tea cup… the teapot filled it 5 times
A picture of BMO field at twilight with the words "Every New Beginning Comes from Some Other Beginning's End
A curving road with trees with bright fall leaves on either side
The long and winding road

Copyright © 2023 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in