It’s maybe just me but I’m seeing an awful lot of confusion, in newspapers and elsewhere, about when one word is two words. Or when two words should be one word.
Mind you, some of them depend on opinion. In many cases there isn’t a definitive right and wrong.
Let’s start with a few easy ones. It is an eyesore, not an eye sore. And nonetheless, isn’t three words. Notwithstanding is one word though, bizarrely, I’ve seen it as three. And you gain the upper hand, not upperhand.
All of those are straightforward. Not straight forward.
What about flowerbed? You would always make vegetable patch or grass lawn two words, but flowerbed doesn’t offend me too much.
Under-rated (things get complicated when you start putting in hyphens) offends me less than the double R in underrated. I’m not saying it is wrong, it just doesn’t look natural.
What about pot holes? That’s two words to me, though you’ll often see it as potholes.
An ensuite bathroom, is it an en suite? Ach, call it a toilet.
There was a story in this paper a few weeks ago about a “Dundee hardman video”. To my mind it is a “Dundee hard man video”. Hard man is two words.
Let’s have a look at football. Wingers (or what used to be wingers when football was good) are now widemen. They play to a gameplan. They sometimes take quickfire shots.
Two of those are definitely two words: wide man and game plan. But I’d accept Paul Sturrock was a quicksilver player who tried quickfire shots.
A court case recently told of a thuggish chap dragging a woman downstairs. I didn’t like that, for several reasons. It could be, however, that he dragged her down stairs to a downstairs room.
Because sometimes you can have distinct one- and two-word meanings. A rescued cat can be given a forever home where it will stay for ever.
And, though some might disagree, I don’t agree that a band has a frontman. It has a front man. A war has a front line, not a frontline.
There is a word which annoys me so much I have been known to tut (yes, that’s how serious it is).
On to is two words. Onto is not a word. I don’t care what your dictionary says, your dictionary is wrong.
Worst of all is under way. Under way is two words. It has always been two words and always will be. It is a nautical term, the journey is under way.
An underway might be some sort of tunnel.
Word of the week
Droll (adjective)
Humorous, especially in an unusual, whimsical, or odd way. EG: “The droll fellow, cleverly working his way through an amusing vignette with a few meanders into fantasy, turned out to be a government minister describing policy.”
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
