satellite
SATELLITE
Originally a satellite was a follower. Astronomers applied the term to smaller bodies orbiting about
planets, like our moon. Then we began launching artificial satellites. Since few people were familiar
with the term in its technical meaning, the adjective “artificial” was quickly dropped in popular
usage. So far so bad. Then television began to be broadcast via satellite. Much if not all television
now wends its way through a satellite at some point, but in the popular imagination only broadcasts
received at the viewing site via a dish antenna aimed at a satellite qualify to be called “satellite
television.” Thus we see motel signs boasting:
AIR CONDITIONING,*
SATELLITE
People say things like “the fight” s going to be shown on satellite.” The word has become a pathetic
fragment of its former self. The technologically literate speaker will avoid these slovenly
abbreviations.
*At least motels have not yet adopted the automobile industry” s truncation of “air conditioning” to
“air."
List of errors
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schizophrenic
SCHIZOPHRENIC
In popular usage, “schizophrenic” (and the more slangy and now dated “schizoid") indicates “split
between two attitudes.” This drives people with training in psychiatry crazy. “Schizo-” does indeed
mean “split,” but it is used here to mean “split off from reality.” Someone with a Jekyll-and-Hyde
personality is suffering from “multiple personality disorder” (or, more recently “dissociative identity
disorder” ), not “schizophrenia."
List of errors
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sci fi
SCI-FI
SCIENCE FICTION, SF
“Sci-fi,” the widely used abbreviation for “science fiction,” is objectionable to most professional science fiction writers, scholars, and many fans. Some
of them scornfully designate alien monster movies and other trivial entertainments “sci-fi” (which they pronounce “skiffy") to distinguish them from true
science fiction. The preferred abbreviation in these circles is “SF.” The problem with this abbreviation is that to the general public “SF” means “San
Francisco.” “The Sci-Fi Channel” has exacerbated the conflict over this term. If you are a reporter approaching a science fiction writer or expert you
immediately mark yourself as an outsider by using the term “sci-fi."
List of errors
file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/scfi.html03/09/2005 15:39:54
sea change
SEA CHANGE
In Shakespeare’s Tempest, Ariel deceitfully sings to Ferdinand:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
This rich language has so captivated the ears of generations of writers that they feel compelled to
describe as “sea changes” not only alterations that are “rich and strange,” but, less appropriately,
those that are simply large or sudden. Always popular, this cliché has recently become so pervasive
as to make “sea” an almost inextricable companion to “change,” whatever its meaning. In its original
context, it meant nothing more complex than “a change caused by the sea.” Since the phrase is almost
always improperly used and is greatly over-used, it has suffered a swamp change into something dull
and tiresome. Avoid the phrase; otherwise you will irritate those who know it and puzzle those who
do not.
List of errors
file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/sea.html03/09/2005 15:39:54
