Misused words
Linguists estimate that there are about seven thousand different languages spoken by humans throughout our world. I would bet that in each and every one of them there are words that are widely misused, just as there are in English. For example, we use several words that are of Latin origin, such as data, media and criteria that are almost universally misused. These are plural words, yet people say “this data”, “that media” or “a criteria”.
Another widely misused term refers to a condition the occurs in women during the menopause. We say they experience “hot flashes.” However, the correct medical term is “hot flushes”. Light bulbs flash, but menopausal women flush (or blush).
Other commonly misused words are bathroom and restroom, which are regularly used in public places such as bus and train stations, and in restaurants to request where the toilet facilities are located. These facilities are very rarely equipped with a bathtub or furnishings for resting.
And finally, the indigenous people of the Americas, or native Americans, are often called American Indians, but these people have no more connection to the people who live in India than to those who are Scandinavians. This error originated with Columbus and his crew members who thought that they had reached Asia when they first arrived in the New World in 1492. The available anthropological evidence indicates that American aborigines originated from east Asia and Eastern Siberia. I doubt that we will ever see these terms being used correctly by a majority of our population.
Charles S. Nicoll, Lucerne
A free pass
In regard to the Benghazi hearings it appears that Guff Worth (R-B 10/24/15) is willing to give Hillary Clinton a free pass because even though she lied to the American people about the video there was nothing else that she could have done because she was under the jurisdiction of the Administration.
Wouldn’t the right thing have been for her to simply tell the truth regardless of the consequences?
Guff Worth sees himself as a purveyor of truth but what kind of example is he setting when he goes along with the popular narrative? Taking a neutral stand on moral issues leads to a spread of evil. I am sure that this is not what Mr. Worth intended.
Bill Kettenhofen, Kelseyville
Accepting opinions
Few of us have ever used the book to anything like its full usability for learning. Accepting an opinion averse to our own is unpleasant to a beginning learner, and that is one of the reasons we find so many adults learning so avidly from the computer today. Another reason is that it’s fun. When the new wears off we will probably lose some interest in the computer.
Because learning itself is not fun (having to accept opinions superior to our own) man will be a long time evolving an enjoyment of learning for learning’s sake, ergo we don’t like to have to accept someone else’s opinion and freedom is ergo not the answer. The land of the free is a land of dunces. My mother had to whip me halfway to school every morning in my first few days of school, and I know of a man whose father had lots of money and who granted his little boy’s desire not to go to school. That little boy is probably dead by now, but when I used occasionally to see him he was a middle-aged man who could not read, write, add, subtract or divide. He seemed interested in everything and was always talking to somebody.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
