Journal johndiii's Journal: "tantamount" vs. "paramount" 9
Paramount. Tantamount. Nope, not synonyms.
Yet, from CNN, we have "For John Aravosis, who runs AmericaBlog.com and is a D.C. resident, the need for security is tantamount -- but it comes with a price for those trying to witness history." Ok, yes, this is CNN and not exactly a bastion of good writing. But this is the second time that I've seen the words confused by people who really ought to know better. The first was in a workbook for a technical writing course, which struck me as even more odd than the CNN example.
These are not common words, but one would expect a professional to get it right. Or at least to check their work.
On the other hand, the second usage example for "tantamount" in the definition linked above reads "a.: Alabama to other have occurred except the homeowner and tantamount to a. The non-standard auto rates for a for a given then when your."
Oral society (Score:2)
This kind of mistake is made by aliterate people. Illiterate people aren't able to read, whereas aliterate people are able to read, but don't. Sadly, this describes so many people that the well of compassion runs dry pretty quickly.
The author heard someone use the words correctly at one time or another, but has obviously never seen them in a written context. On attempting to use the word himself, he screwed it up.
I once had a boss who was notorious for this. Though a native English speaker, he would talk ab
Moo (Score:2)
Most dotters know the difference... (Score:2)
My English boogeyman (Score:2)
moof (Score:1)
I've noticed an article on CNN's web site that was updated only about 10 minutes later, and then at least a couple of more times throughout the morning. So it may already be corrected by now. If not, for their web site, they might not run the articles by a copy editor's eyes before letting it go into "print". So the word monkeys' output goes directly into production, unvetted. Just like with code monkeys!
Re: (Score:2)
Still there [cnn.com]. Ninth paragraph. Possible that they got the word from the blog that they're talking about, though.
::angry monkey noises:: (Score:1)
Hey! Don't blame the code monkeys! Blame the monkey-managers who impose the impossible deadlines, after the sales-monkeys tack on extra promises of stuff we can't deliver to close sales!
Although this does remind me immensely of a funny interlude sometime back...we were working late hours once on a deadline, and somebody tossed a koosh (it was always either a koosh, rubber bands, or that set of ping-pong-ball guns we got a while back, we were always throwing something around). Anyway, our boss walks by...
You would probably like wtfcnn.com... (Score:1)
(more accurately http://wtfcnn.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com])
They feature headlines by CNN that are really boneheaded.
And yes, I see tantamount used for paramount all the time, though never the converse...
English (Score:2)
These are not common words, but one would expect a professional to get it right.
That's your first mistake. I used to work for The Times [the-times.co.uk], which was once the newspaper of record, and a shining example of good journalism[1]. During my time I saw a fair number of people that upheld the old traditions, and were worthy of the name and reputation that went with the paper. But sadly I also saw a fair number of frankly illiterate fools. It doesn't surprise me in the least that a professional journalist would get it wrong like that. Later on, I went to work for a big bank. Depressingly, as a sy