Mathematicians round, but do nurses?

April 20, 2012|Bill White


His latest discovery, he reported, was at a local hospital. He wrote, "In each patient room is a poster featuring a smiling nurse standing next to a bed with a smiling patient in the bed and smiling family members standing next to the bed under the caption, 'We round because we care.'

"It refers to nurses making rounds. Apparently, it's part of their healing through illiteracy initiative."

That one made me laugh — I thought only mathematicians rounded — but the critical scrutiny of the Grammar Police isn't necessarily a laughing matter. In fact, I came under some fire for mocking the headline, "Man steals a dressed manikin from Phillipsburg Mall Sears," in a recent blooper column.

Just as I received several emails that originally urged my inclusion of "manikin," I got multiple emails taking me to task for suggesting it was wrong. One was from a reader who wrote, "I was almost one of the ones who sent you the correction on the spelling of 'mannequin"' in that article, but something moved me to look it up first. Sadly, but truly, 'Manikin' and 'Mannikin' are now both accepted spellings of 'Mannequin.'"

Another reader, more whimsically, put up a Facebook posting, "The word 'Manikin' was in use back in the 1940s. I used to really enjoy the manikin arcade games like the one … at the Dorney Park arcade, and the ones at the Allentown Fair. These players were 'manikins.'"

Finally, another reader wrote, "'Manikin,' which you call out as being misspelled, is in fact in the Webster's New World dictionary. It lists your alternative spelling as the third option. Under mannequin, the dictionary tells readers to 'see Manikin.'"

Clearly, I should have given this item more attention. First, dealing with the arcade, the definitions of "manikin" explain why it was spelled that way. At, for example, the three definitions are:

1. a little man; dwarf, pygmy.

2. mannequin

3. a model of the human body for teaching anatomy, demonstrating surgical operations, etc.

The World English Dictionary reversed the last two:

1. a little man; dwarf or child


3. variant spellings of mannequin

All the "mannequin" definitions, on the other hand, refer to dummies or models used to display or fit clothing, with a third definition being the person employed to do the same thing.

Since the story was about a store dummy, I still would argue that "mannequin" is the most correct, albeit more difficult to fit in a headline. But it's true that "manikin" and "mannikin" are considered acceptable substitutes, and I should have made that clear if I used it at all.

To summarize, that mannequin wasn't the only dummy.

Here are a few more that caught readers' interest. The Morning Call has run a statement in its classified section that refers to the Fair Housing Act and concludes, "The Morning Call will not accept any ad that infers discrimination of any kind." The reader wrote, "I imply from that statement that the paper does not condone discrimination."

In case this one flew over your head, it's because people so often confuse "infer" — your internal decision-making process of coming to a conclusion on the basis of something you've seen or heard — and "imply," which is to indicate or suggest without being explicitly stated.

Someone else sent me a story that began, "The fate of the Pocono Mountain Charter School has gotten murkier," and asked: "Is 'gotten' a word? And what has become of 'become?' I put it right up there with 'no problem' instead of 'you're welcome.'"

I didn't find much on this, but I think the bottom line, as it is in many of these cases, is the difference between formal and informal language. In formal writing, "become" definitely would be preferred. In informal speech, "gotten" is OK.

One last one I've been trying to squeeze in. A reader wrote, "It seems many people who are trying to say Voila (meaning 'here/there is' in French) actually pronounce and write it as 'Walla.' This bugs the heck out of me. What do you think?"

I hear this all the time, too, but I think it's preferable to another version I saw once.

"Take a lightweight rustproof European-made machine," the story said, "toss it in the pool and, as the French say, 'Viola!'"

bill.white@mcall. com 610-820-6105

Bill White's commentary appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Morning Call Articles