An Old Vocabulary Joke

I’ve seen versions of this joke several times over the years.

The mathematician SMEs in a math text writing job I had several decades ago insisted we use “can” where we writers would have used “may.” Okay, it sounded idiomatic.

I have a bigger problem with “may,” and I’ll lose this battle: Using “may” as a mild form of “might.” Just look at today’s headlines. You’ll probably see it several times. If you mean “might,” use it! You can afford the two extra letters.

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I don’t know about the finger motions, but the quotation marks around the word “guilty” have a name.

They’re called scare quotes. Use them whenever you want to call special attention to a word, such as using it sarcastically, or as the punchline in a comic.

PS—the informal name for quotation marks in German translates to “little goose feet.”

Don’t look below the comic unless you really don’t get it.

Here’s a clue: “Shave and a haircut…”

This (verbing a noun) is a well-known linguistic feature of English. You can do a search in the box on the upper right for more.

I still don’t like using “office” as a verb.

Anthimeria is the technical term for doing this, but nobody uses it.

Just some state puns.

Can you think of any more?