On language

Today marks the undoing of not one but two semantic principles I held dear.

I don't hold linguistic things dear lightly. You've seen me split infinitives and end sentences with prepositions, because those are bull$hit rules that add no grammatical value.

I will continue to cringe when I hear "Someone and myself..." as the subject of a sentence.

But today-- after a week of identity crisis induced by hearing educated people use it in the "new" way, I had to accept that "to comprise" can legitimately be used to signify "to make up," in addition to its 'pure' meaning, "to include." It's just too widespread; fighting it would be futile. And it sounds better than "to make up" or even "to compose," so meaning creep serves a useful purpose in society.

Not but a few hours after conceding to the expanded meaning of "comprise," the Express crossword (which is really a syndicated crossword) clued "enormity" as "vastness of size." I'd always liked to use it as "outrageous," "beyond normal." If I wanted to signify vastness in size, I'd use "enormousness." Alas, I will pick my battles and move on.