“Whatever” and contingency

On Tuesday on his blog Whatever, John Scalzi announced the arrival of the NOAD and The American Writer’s Thesaurus in his mailbox. In addition to giving the customary compliments to Erin McKean, Editor of Oxford’s US Dictionary program, Scalzi was surprised to find both books “delightful” and “fun to read.” He then turns to the entry in NOAD for “alright,” one of Scalzi’s personal bugaboos.

I’m not at all fan of “alright” myself, but this dovetails into my thinking that the word had the misfortune of being popularized in an era during which books on grammar and usage became the rage and found itself on the wrong side of the proper usage fence. I suppose this makes makes the “all right”/”alright” thing like a secret club handshake, i.e., if you know how to use it correctly you can get into the Grammar Club, which is like Mensa, except with watercress sandwiches rather than Cheetos for snacks.

We made a special note Scalzi’s post because of our own interest in word origins this week. Yesterday, we launched Anatoly Liberman’s new column: The Oxford Etymologist. Click here to read his first post on the history of etymology.

Ironically, further down in the post Scalzi mentions a review of his latest science fiction novel. The reviewer, James Tranfo compared the ideas of individual choice in Scalzi’s novel to the role of contingency in history, especially as seen in David Hackett Fischer’s books Paul Revere’s Ride and Washington’s Crossing. Both Tranfo and Scalzi admit to not having read either of Fischer’s books yet and base their posts on an extensive article on Fischer’s view of history at National Review Online. We would urge both bloggers to read Fischer’s wonderful introduction to Washington’s Crossing by clicking here .