A licence to practise

Practice, practise; licence, license.

This one is for Canadians only. Americans, I really don't understand your use of the two words, but I do know that you, through your printed and computer dictionaries, don't help the matter north of the border.

Up here, I see it wrong more often than not. Many of the young writers I've seen seem to have just given up and play the odds -- they know they have a 50-50 chance of getting it right.

For Canadians, though, it's pretty simple: use the 's' version for the verb form and the 'c' any other time.

My hockey practice is at 6 a.m. In order to get better, you must practise.

A doctor's practice. He practises quack medicine.

Driver's licence; licensed to kill.

Got it?

Hot for teacher

Who says learning about words can't be fun? Check out Marina Orlova, a Russian-born philologist (word historian) who was voted World's #1 Sexiest Geek. Her YouTube channel, HotForWords, boasts more than 170,000 subscribers. All of them wanting to learn about words.

Kill the redundancy

Here's another one from the department of redundancy department: "humanely euthanized." Once again, people who don't fully grasp the words they are using throw an adjective on top of a word where it is not needed.

Like "forever home" and "first-ever," the meaning is already there in the original word. No need to modify it, so please, please don't.

euthanize |ˈyoōθəˌnīz|
verb [ trans. ] (usu. be euthanized)
put (a living being, esp. a dog or cat) to death humanely.

(right now there are 50 stories with "humanely euthanized" popping up on Google News)

A first is a first is a first

Sunday, Sept. 2, 1990. Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb threw his first no-hitter (and to this day the only no-hitter for the Jays) in a 3-0 win over Cleveland.

First. Pretty simple concept, really. But even back then there were newscasters saying "first ever" and my father wouldn't stop.

"First means first. No modifier needed -- it's the first. What's so hard to understand?"

I'll never forget that and to this day use the Stieb example when trying to get writers to understand the proper usage of the word.

From the trusty Apple dictionary:

first |fərst|
ordinal number
1 coming before all others in time or order; earliest; 1st : his first wife | the first of five daughters
• never previously done or occurring : he threw his first no-hitter.

A home is already forever

Heard this on a radio advertisement for my local SPCA. They have animals waiting for a "forever home." Nothing grates on my nerves more than someone thinking a perfectly good word needs some sort of modification because they believe the general public doesn't understand the original one anymore.

It's different in a cheesy ad for a chocolate bar or something, but for a serious institution to do something like this, well, someone has to say something. Home means permanent already -- no need to modify it.

Just like they way anniversary is wrongly used, let's not allow "forever home" to take hold.

From my trusty Apple dictionary:

home |hōm|
noun
1 the place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family or household