This is the place where Richard Mateosian comments, sometimes nitpickingly, about questions of writing style, grammar, and vocabulary that occur to him as the words of others impinge upon his consciousness.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Vagary
Today I heard someone complain about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's financial plan. The worst thing, according to this commentator, was the vagary of the plan. Checking Merriam-Webster, I formulated the following distinction:
Vagueness: lack of clarity or definiteness.
Vagary: an erratic, unpredictable, or extravagant manifestation, action, or notion.
One of my published stories has a character for whom language (and the world) is all jumbled up. One of the things that she repeats to herself is "vague vagaries." Just for fun. To which you can find references by googling ""james james morrison's mother" story ellen finch", but alas the story itself is not online.
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One of my published stories has a character for whom language (and the world) is all jumbled up. One of the things that she repeats to herself is "vague vagaries." Just for fun. To which you can find references by googling ""james james morrison's mother" story ellen finch", but alas the story itself is not online.
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