Grammar Quirks: Lauren Shippen on Adopting Her Mother's Pet Peeves

Grammar Girl: What’s your favorite word and why?

Lauren Shippen: I absolutely love the word “gloaming." It’s another word for dusk or twilight, but to me, there’s something special and unique about the time that is “the gloaming." The moment right as the sun slips below the horizon, and everything glows. It’s such a poetic, magical word for a poetic, magical kind of moment that lasts only an instant.

GG: What’s a word you dislike (either because it’s overused or misused) and why?

LS: As recently as a few years ago, the world “gaslight” wasn’t used very often—I remember writing it into a script and that being the first time many folks encountered it as a term. Now it’s used constantly online and—while it’s an incredibly useful word (with a fascinating origin)—people use it wrong.  A lot.  It’s a word I still personally love, but I wish we deployed it a bit more specifically as a culture.

GG: What word will you always misspell?

LS: "Occurring."  Every.  Single.  Time.  Even right now, looking at it here, I’m not sure I spelled it right.

GG: What word (or semblance of a word) would you like to see added to the dictionary? Why?

LS: I use “lol” a lot in texts and all kinds of online communication, even in handwritten communication sometimes too. Always all lowercased and usually not an indicator of me actually laughing out loud. It conveys an emotion that I can’t quite put words to, but that is not communicated through any other word, so I would love to see what a definition for it would even be.

GG: Any grammar pet peeves we should know about?

LS: I’m very much of the mind that grammar and language evolve and shift, and as long as we’re striving for clarity in communication and everyone understands the meaning of something, we can be fast and loose with a lot of strict rules. That said, it drives me bonkers when people use “less” when they could and should be using “fewer.” My mother drilled the difference into me growing up, and I would always make the argument I just made above, but it eventually wormed its way into my subconscious and now her pet peeve is...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips