Sunday, February 11, 2007

Better drowned than duffers

If not duffers, won't screw up their cliches in huge type in the 1A centerpiece. When you "weigh" [5. a. Naut. To heave up (a ship's anchor) from the ground, before sailing] the anchor, it's "aweigh." Not "away." Hence the title of the Navy's march, "Anchors Aweigh."

Now, to avoid being mistaken for Pilotless Drone Man, we ought to point out a couple of things. One, back before the English learned to spell, "weigh" often came out "wye" or "wey" -- even "way." Two, the homonym "away" crops up in the sort of phrases -- chocks away there, Biggles, old shoehorn! -- that make the confusion understandable. But all that aside, if you don't want to flood your in-box with questions about your education, patriotism and general fitness to breathe the same air as the public at large, look stuff up before you commit it to big type.

It's always possible, of course, that the Herald is just trying to take our minds off the appearance of another Anna Nicole Smith story in the lede position. Another sign of the apocalypse from the glory that was Knight-Ridder.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whenever I see "Anchors Away" (sic), I get this unfortunate image of the captain saying "Right lads, we've set sail so we don't need these anchors any more. Chuck 'em away."

5:36 AM, February 12, 2007  
Blogger Strayhorn said...

Hey, you've got Anna Nicole Smith and Justin Timberlake on the front. That's almost perfect. Don't go starting trouble with wanting news on the front. And correctly-spelled news at that.

8:49 AM, February 12, 2007  

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