"Weary of" = "tired of"
"Wary of" = "Cautious of"
"Leery of" = "Suspicious of" (or, essentially, very close to "Wary")
I believe that, with increasing frequency, people are lumping Wary and Leery into Weary, and misusing the word (as in "I'm weary of the Red Sox this year, I don't think they're as good as everyone says they are."). Weary means tired of, not suspicious of. I've been seeing it more and more, and it's a problem. Stop doing that, all of you.
22 comments:
Whoa, I haven't seen that one. But I'll bet I will now that you've brought it up.
I know I'm seeing annoying things too . . . I know! Lots of people, sportscasters especially, seem to have given up entirely on the past perfect subjunctive -- which sounds a lot fancier than it is. It's the difference between saying, after the player strikes out, "If he had hit that ball, the Sox could have won the game" and saying, "If he hits that ball, the Sox maybe win the game." Listen to them. They do it ALL THE TIME. Arrrrrh.
And also. The word "captivate" is not a simple synonym for "fascinate." It means to be fascinated in a delighted sort of way. One is captivated by the rare butterfly in the garden or the talented singer on YouTube or the marvelous post on the Murphies Blog. One is NOT captivated by the release of the torture memos (though one may be interested or fascinated or obsessed) and one is NOT captivated by the gruesome news of the latest murder trial. Somebody's gotta tell the press.
Don't blame me. Caleb started it.
Did I tell you I'm thinking seriously about starting a grammar blog?
A good grammar blog could be a stepping stone to a book deal, along the lines of Eats Shoots and Leaves. To be really done right, it would need lots of video/audio clips and photos for critiquing, and would absolutely have to relevant to pop culture to get people interested. It could be really cool, actually.
The grammar things that usually get me riled up aren't necessarily grammatical at all. I tend to get annoyed at misuse of words very easily, while the first example you gave is not something that particularly bothers me. Even the lay/lie/laid thing doesn't get to me too much, because at least they're using the correct base word (and maybe a little because I don't 100% understand it myself). Confusing lose and loose absolutely drives me up the wall, I'll completely ignore a lecturer for the rest of their talk if their powerpoint says "Protein Loosing Nephropathy," which a lot of veterinarians seem to do. Your/You're annoys me too. I tend to be forgiving of it's/its confusion, because I still have to stop and think about it sometimes ("his and hers don't have apostrophes, so neither does its"), and I bet I still screw it up sometimes.
It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it
is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's.
It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.
I googled "weary of" to see if i could find some examples.
I'm not 100% sure how the phrase is intended here, but I'm pretty sure it's wrong.
here too.
This one is the perfect example, and relevant too!
I'm leery of this whole grammar thing. Makes me just want to lay down and die. sometimes I feel like I'm loosing my mind.
Well, Dad, at least you aren't captivated by it all.
I clicked your links, Caleb. OMG. You are absolutely right. The first headline is pretty much incomprehensible -- is it possible BabelFish translated that one? But the other two are clearly just what you were talking about. How could anybody not know what "weary" means? Personally, I am weary of such rampant stupidity.
As for the grammar blog, want to do it together? You can clue me in about pop culture, and I can, where necessary, clue you in on the rules. By the time we are done, I promise you, you will understand lie/lay/laid and its/it's (which I had to work at learning myself, and not so long ago, either).
In all seriousness, ever since I did that one post on this blog on may vs. might, Sitemeter has shown regular, frequent hits on that post. Most of them come from internet searches, but recently there was a link to that post FROM A GRAMMAR BLOG. And you said we'd lose readers . . .
I love the idea of audio/video clips. I had not thought of that. It's because I'm old. Perhaps an early post will be songs with grammatical errors. Lay Lady Lay, for instance. (Although that one is not the best example, because I have to admit that the assonance of the line is probably worth the grammatical error. "Lie Lady Lie" would be properly grammatical, but nowhere near so lyrical.)
Or this one, for which there is no excuse, lyrical or otherwise:
So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I
AaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaahhhh. It doesn't even rhyme!
There are many more.
Cool Mom! Anna and I will have a link to your blog on our Quarter Life Crisis Blog.
I don't want to say what I'm bothered by. As soon as I say it, I will make that mistake. BUT I grow weary (hehe) of getting emails that are full of ellipses...People are just too lazy to finish their sentences! I also see unnecessary quotation marks everywhere, but that is probably due to my obsession with this blog:
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
So, I went to Laura's favorite "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, and there I saw the funniest sign I have ever seen in my life. Scroll down to "insert my WHAT in WHERE?" and click to enlarge.
But...which one's the outside hole?
Hahahaha, this blog is just too funny. I don't have the best grammar, but I find this thing with quotation marks to be completely unfathomable. "Every 'PET' DESERVES A TREAT." Huh? Why did you do that? Seriously, there must have been some thought in that person's mind when they decided to put PET in quotes, so what the hell was it? I don't "understand"....
Haha, okay, just read the one about the "arm holes." Ummm.....
Oh my god....
Your small change can make "Children" happy.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Oh uh Luke, you've been bitten. Now you will see signs like this EVERYWHERE. Bring your camera on a daily basis and you can submit pictures!
"A good grammar blog could be a stepping stone to a book deal, along the lines of Eats Shoots and Leaves. To be really done right, it would need lots of video/audio clips and photos for critiquing, and would absolutely have to relevant to pop culture to get people interested. It could be really cool, actually."
I agree, but then you'd have to use correct grammar all the time. That, as I've found, is a huge pain in the butt.
That aside, one mistake that really annoys me is saying 'the reason [...] is because [...].'
Hey Laura, how do I get invited to view your blog?
Jessie, I don't actually have a blog yet. I'll certainly invite you if I ever actually make one.
Oh, well, to put my comment in context, I googled '"quarter life crisis" laura' (is that proper use of quotation marks?) and felt really smug because I thought I'd found your blog. I guess sometimes Google does backfire.
quarterlifecrisislaura.blogspot.com?!
That isn't me, but it sure is creepy!
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