Tosspot Words

I’ll mainly quote A Word A Day, which you ought to subscribe to. Here’s the link: https://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html

Here’s the quote:

In these words, the noun is the object of the verb, and the two together define an identity. For instance, consider the term pickpocket. It conjures up a vivid image of nimble fingers (the verb “pick”) stealthily exploring unsuspecting wallets (the noun “pocket”).

So pickpocket is a tosspot word because a pickpocket picks pockets; repairman is not, because a repairman does not repair a man, unless you call your doctor a repairman (better to call them sawbones).

This fascinating linguistic category showcases the inventive spirit of our language and the storytelling potential packed within simple words.

Here’s a picture of someone portraying a lackwit (the subject of the AWAD post for October 2, 2023):

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In english, adjectives normally belong right before the word they modify, but sometimes we put two words together to make a compound adjective. Then we need to hyphenate!

See? In the first two, each adjective separately modifies the last word. In the third panel, though, we have a compound adjective, so it should have a hyphen. Except then the comic wouldn’t be as funny.

I’ve never seen “coincidence” included in a list of figures of speech, but I suppose it fits here…

Now what’s your definition of sarcastic?

Perhaps this distinction has fallen into disuse since I was in sixth grade. Mrs. Clemens taught us

• Use “may” to refer to permission. May I do this?
• Use “can” to refer to ability. I can do it!

I don’t see this distinction much any more. I was even forbidden to make this distinction for one of my writing projects; I had to use “can” all the time.

Well, here’s an example of when using the correct word (may) makes sense. Third panel:

So do you ever use may and can “correctly”? Maybe you’re an old geezer like me.

Most folks write “who” when it’s the first word in the sentence, even though it should be “whom” when it’s not the subject.

“Whom” here is a direct object; “I” is the subject. (The comic is rather large, and this is only the first panel. Click the link if you want to see the whole thing.)