short takes

[cellio]

Happy 05/05/05. (First pointed out to me by lensedqso.)

Harkening back to a recent entry: how lightsabers work (link from ralphmelton and mabfan).

Ridiculous food challenges just got even weirder: 15-pound burger challenge -- if you and a friend can eat it in three hours it's free; otherwise it's $30. Ugh. On the other hand, if you go into it blowing off the challenge from the start (and get the wet condiments on the side), it's not a bad price for a week's worth of meatloaf for the right person. (I got the link from nsingman.)

Emails 'pose threat to IQ' (link from brokengoose). Well, at least a threat to the ability to write correct English. "Email" is not a counting noun! C'mon, journalists should know better! (I know -- many of them don't. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to criticize.) Easy way to tell that the phrase "an email" is wrong: substitute by analogy. Do you send "a mail" (physical) to your pen-pal? Email is the mass noun, like mail; it is not the instance, like a letter.

I was reading something recently and saw a reference to Rabbi Micha Berger. Rabbi? When did that happen? I feel bad that I failed to notice somehow. (While we don't talk often, we're occasional correspondents and I have been a guest in his home. He wasn't a rabbi then.)

Comments

[hopeness.livejournal.com]

Hmm, then what do you say instead of "an email"?

[cellio]

Just "email" ("I sent email to Bob"), or "a message" or "a note" or whatever. Same as with paper -- you send mail, or a letter, or a note, or... but not "a mail".

"An email" is pervasive enough by now (sigh) that I don't fault regular people for repeating it, though it makes me cringe. But professional wordsmiths -- who have helped to cause this error to propegate -- really should have known better, in my opinion.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

These same people really ought to have been pushing a term like "e-letter". Since they didn't, natural processes filled in the linguistic gap by borrowing a related word and making it serve double duty.

I've also heard things like "I just sent a 'mail to Bob," which always means electronic letter and never postal letter, and is one step worse than "an email." Your efforts at correctness are laudable, but may be doomed. :)