It seems like just yesterday I was talking about zombies and dancing fauna. It was? Oh. Well, good.
I had a wisp of an idea for this, and I’m not entirely certain it will work out. I think I can make it work, but, I just don’t want to get too violent with it, that would be wrong.
Today’s Word:
funest
As in:
Through the magic of the Internet, the inner workings of a publication in the throes of the copy editing stage can be shared.
“You spell like an internet troll, ‘funest’ is not a word, and if it was, it would be spelt ‘funnest.'”
“Look at the context. It’s a story about a car accident. What kind of person do you think I am? Calling a car accident with multiple deaths ‘fun’ in any form? You’d run a story with the word “funnest” before making a simple check of an obscure word?”
“It’s not a good idea to use obscure words. Maybe he meant ‘funniest.’ Not sure that’s better, but, it’s the first suggestion from the spell check.”
“Oh, right, like spell check is never wrong. Next thing you’re going to suggest is that we don’t need copy editors. You know that spell check will not catch errors like ‘know’ for ‘now.’ This is why we have people to do it. We are the last guardians of a language suffering from the informality of ‘texting,’ and ‘chat rooms.’ There’s no time for practicing proper spelling and punctuation. Will no one learn to master the apostrophe or the semi-colon? It’s just one more sign of a decadent and declining society.”
“It’s not ‘fun-est, by the way. It’s fyoo-nest. Like ‘fyoo-neral.’ I guess it really is a word.”
“Our readers will probably think we made a mistake, and think we’re making light of a serious accident. We should simplify it. Who uses words like ‘funest,’ anyway? And where did he did up that old fossil?”
“Grammar Girl says ‘funnest’ is gaining ground. If it’s on the threshold of acceptance into general usage, we probably don’t want people getting the wrong idea.”
“Let’s not insult the intelligence of our readers. Give them some credit. Let’s set a higher standard. Go with funest. It’s the funnest!”
******************
Well, I think it’s ok. You can think whatever you’d like. Type to you tomorrow.
funest / fyoo – NEST / boding or causing evil or death; fatal; disastrous.