This is National Grammar Day. Perhaps this is a good day to try the Triangle Grammar Guide quizzes, if you haven't. You can find links to them here. Most of them are short. Strictly speaking, they aren't about grammar. Some parts deal with usage or word choice.

Have fun! 

National Grammar Day is Wednesday, March 4.

New words pop up all the time. They are a window into our culture and our times.

The words and phrases of an economic downturn fill our newspaper and Web site these days. One such phrase prompted a reader to write that we were "butchering" the language.

The economic stimulus bill that Congress and President Obama have been discussing this week led me to the dictionary today. I figured that the word had Latin roots, and indeed, it does.

Stimulus means "something that rouses or excites to action," according to Webster's New World College Dictionary. The Latin stimulus means a goad, sting, torment, pang, spur, incentive. That's a lot of meanings for one word.

The Oxford English Dictionary says the word was originally used in medical contexts, referring to something that causes a response in an organism. Stimulus is the perfect word for what the president and Congress want to do: cause a response in the economy.

A colleague asked about the distinction between "differ from" and "differ with." 

In R.W. Burchfield's update of Fowler's usage guide, he writes that "in the sense to be unlike, distinguishable," differ is followed by from. If the writer means to show disagreement or a difference of opinion, differ is followed by with. Bryan A. Garner says that differ from "typically appears whenever two things are unlike."

Here are examples:

My home computer differs from the one I use at work; mine is a PC, and the one I use at work is a Mac.

I differ with my colleague about computers: I think my Mac is better than his PC.

John McIntyre, director of the Baltimore Sun's copy desk, has a few things to say about Wikipedia in a recent blog post. But he also has something to say about editing:

"My whole professional effort for nearly three decades has been to make sure that the published texts at the newspapers for which I have worked are, as far as human fallibility and the pressures of time will allow, factually accurate, grammatical and clear. To do this requires knowledgeable, trained editors."

Amen, Brother John. 

A colleague asked about a preposition the other day. (Copy editors are funny that way.) He was puzzling over this set of sentences:

Hornsby’s boss called the search unlawful and forbade Hornsby to conduct searches without first getting permission from his supervisor.

Hornsby’s boss called the search unlawful and forbade Hornsby from conducting searches without first getting permission from his supervisor. 

Is the best form "forbid to (infinitive)" or "forbid from (verb+ing)"? I turned to Bryan A. Garner's usage book, "Garner's Modern American Usage." Garner says that "forbid to" is the more formal usage, but "forbid from" is also commonly used. I can accept either of the sentences above as correct, but we might be safer in choosing "to (infinitive)." 

Later, I checked Bernstein's "The Careful Writer," which says forbid "takes the preposition to (infinitive)." Fowler considered "forbid from" unidiomatic, but Burchfield in his Fowler update noted that "forbid from" was becoming more common. 

As for the past tense of "forbid," forbade is preferred. The second syllable sounds like "bad." 

A little book from the middle of the 20th century reveals lessons in grammar and life.

The American Dialect Society chose bailout as the word of the year for 2008. Here is the news release from the society. Among the other nominees: shovel-ready and game-changer. The trend started by references to "Joe the plumber" caught on like wildfire. Just call me Pam the Copy Editor. I like thought showers, a term coined to avoid using brainstorming. I can't wait to hear someone in my workplace say, "Hey, I need some ideas. Let's have a thought shower session on this problem."

The news release also gives the words from past years. Remember pajamahadeen from 2004? I didn't either. I did remember metrosexual from 2003, information superhighway from 1993 and potty parity from 1990. Those terms seem quaint now.

The New Oxford American Dictionary chose hypermiling for its word of the year. The word refers to efforts to get the maximum gas mileage from your vehicle. 

Webster's New World Dictionary said overshare was the top word for 2008. It means giving too much personal information about yourself. I disdain the word, even if I do indulge in the practice.

See this post for other words of the year links.