977. This week, we cover the latest AP Stylebook updates that were just revealed at the ACES conference. From the switch to Merriam-Webster to easing up on the word "unique," we look at what these changes mean for writers and editors. Plus, we explore "catawampus" thanks to its cameo in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" finale. Learn about its quirky origins, regional differences, and wordy friends like "kitty-corner."
977. This week, we cover the latest AP Stylebook updates that were just revealed at the ACES conference. From the switch to Merriam-Webster to easing up on the word "unique," we look at what these changes mean for writers and editors. Plus, we explore "catawampus" thanks to its cameo in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" finale. Learn about its quirky origins, regional differences, and wordy friends like "kitty-corner."
| Kitty-corner map: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/kitty-corner-or-catty-corner/
| Register for my beginning AP style webinar April 23: bit.ly/ggap2024. Use the code MACMIL for a discount.
| Edited transcript with links: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/ap-update-catawampus/transcript
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.
But before we start, I also have an exciting announcement! For the next couple of months … or so … I'm going to have an extra episode every week. In addition to the regular Tuesday show, on Thursday, you'll also get an interview show we’re calling "Grammar Girl Conversations." So, today, I have breaking grammar news about updates to the AP Stylebook and a fun segment about "catawampus," "kitty-corner," and more.
And this Thursday, you'll hear from Charles Duhigg, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "The Power of Habit." We're going to talk about his new book, which I loved, called "Supercommunicators." This is kind of a test to see if you like having the extra episode and if I can keep up with it. So if you like it, definitely let me know. And be sure to check your feed for Charles Duhigg talking about "Supercommunicators" this coming Thursday, and be on the lookout for new episodes of Grammar Girl Conversations every Thursday!
by Mignon Fogarty
As long-time listeners may remember, the Associated Press updates its stylebook once a year, and last week was that magical time of year for copy editors who were in attendance at the ACES conference, that is The Society for Editing.
I wasn't able to attend in person, but I followed along and heard about the changes both small and large from multiple editors who generously live-posted the event to Bluesky, including Erin Brenner, who won the prestigious Robinson Prize for editing and will be a guest on the show, mmm, probably in June.
The biggest change that's gotten the most press and led to actual gasps followed by applause when it was announced is that the AP is changing its recommended dictionary to Merriam-Webster.
Now, I know this might seem like a weird detail for people to get so excited about, but every editor I know loves Merriam-Webster. It's a high-quality dictionary that's frequently updated and easy to access. Plus, they're really supportive of the editing community. They always have people who come to the ACES conference and speak, for example.
To back up a bit, the recommended dictionary is where writers and editors turn when a word or phrase isn't in the AP Stylebook. It's often where you go to look up an unusual word to see if it needs to be hyphenated, for example. Although the AP editors didn't explain their reason for the switch directly, the murmurs I heard afterward on social media were that the previously recommended dictionary had been all but abandoned by the publisher and hasn't been updated in years, so it was getting more and more out of date. The dictionary business is tough. In fact, just a couple of days ago, Dictionary.com also laid off its entire lexicography department. It's so sad. Merriam-Webster really does feel like one of the last few dictionaries standing, so this change was big and welcome news in the editing world!
The other change that led to some gasps and maybe both some applause and murmurs of discontent at the conference is that the AP Stylebook now says it's OK to qualify the word "unique." They note that "unique" does mean "one of a kind," but it also has a second sense of something that is extraordinary or highly unusual. You don't have to use it that way, but if you're editing for AP style, you no longer have to change phrases like "very unique" or "especially unique."
I definitely know some editors didn't like this one, and if you want to learn more about the history of the word and the thinking behind the change, check out Grammar Girl episode 840 because we have a long segment about the word and how it's being used more and more in this other way. That was back in late 2021. Episode 840.
Another huge change this year for editors is how to handle bulleted lists. In the past, the AP Stylebook called for putting a period at the end of every bullet item, even if it was a single word. So if you had a bulleted list with the items needed to make s'mores, each bullet would be
But now, you don't need those periods. Now, you only use a period or some other kind of terminal punctuation if the bullet item is a complete sentence.
Another thing they added is to encourage the use of just the word "said" for quotations. No "claimed," "believed," "admitted," "conceded," and so on. And I think that just really helps stories be more factual. It gets rid of words that can feel loaded or like they're making some kind of judgment about the quotation or the person.
All in all, it was a pretty big year for changes. These are just the biggest ones. And if you care or need to know AP style for work, I'm actually teaching an AP style webinar one week from today on April 23 for Ragan Communications. I'll have more of the changes to AP style in that webinar, but because it's a beginning webinar, I'll be spending most of the time helping you learn the most common rules and styles that you're likely to use every day as a writer or editor — tricky punctuation, handling those quotations, how to write numbers, and so on. You can sign up for that at bit.ly/ggap2024. All lowercase. And use the code MACMIL, M-A-C-M-I-L for a discount. Again, that's my AP style webinar on April 23, and you can sign up at b-i-t dot l-y slash g-g-a-p-2024. All lowercase. And the code MACMIL (and I'll put that in the show notes too).
by Mignon Fogarty
If you watched the recent "Curb your Enthusiasm" finale on HBO, you may have been delighted to see the old Americanism "catawampus" playing a central role in the plot.
Among all the typical quirkiness that led to Larry David being put on trial for giving a bottle of water to a voter, that voter rips him to shreds on the witness stand after hearing Larry's manager Jeff use the word (da-da-da) "catawampus" and realizing he had earlier tricked her into revealing her secret salad dressing recipe on a phone call in which he used that word. Mirroring the final episode of "Seinfeld" from way back in 1998, which was written by Larry David, in this final episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," David is sentenced to jail. But unlike the "Seinfeld" characters who ended the show in the clink, he gets a reprieve when the sentence is thrown out.
In his Wall Street Journal column on "catawampus" and the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" finale, linguist Ben Zimmer said, "Jeff Schaffer, who co-wrote and directed the episode, told me they hunted online for an odd-sounding Southern word: “Somewhere among ‘fixin’’ and ‘gumption’ and ‘yonder’ there was ‘catawampus.’”
And "catawampus" is a great fit for this oddball show. Most people have probably heard it, but it's rare. It's vastly less common than "gumption" and "yonder" in a Google Ngram search, for example.
Although originally, in the 1830s, it referred to a fierce imaginary animal, today it means "askew, awry, wrong in a discombobulated way" or to be diagonally across from something.
If someone were planning an elaborate birthday party for a child but when they picked up the cake it said, "Happy retirement, Bob"; the bouncy house wouldn't inflate; and the caterer delivered escargot instead of chicken fingers, that parent might lament, "It's gone all catawampus!"
Better yet, "catawampus" is part of a group of words that are said and spelled in all kinds of different ways, making Jeff's specific pronunciation in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" even more of an identifier. My mom used to say "kitty-wampus," for example, instead of "catawampus," and Etymonline also shows "cattywampus" — spelled a couple of different ways.
And that "diagonally across from something" meaning leads us to "kitty-corner" or "catty-corner," which are just two of MANY similar words people use, which vary by region.
Many years ago, I surveyed my Facebook group and made a map of where people use these different words. You can still see it on my website, and I'll put a link in the show notes. What I found was that people in the South, as far west as Texas and as far north as Pennsylvania and Nebraska, are much more likely to say "catty-corner," whereas everyone else in the U.S. and Canada is more likely to say "kitty-corner."
But people reported using many other words. In many cases, it seemed as if they may have only heard the saying and then guessed at the spelling. Responses included:
The Dictionary of American Regional English has even more variants: "kitty-cross," "kitty-katty," and "kittering," which means “askew” instead of “diagonally across” like all the others.
Nobody knows for sure where these words came from, but we have some clues. They probably all go back to another American dialect word, "cater," which means "to set or move diagonally" and which came from the French word for "four": "quatre." And Etymonline says the "wampus" part in "catawampus" could be "related to Scottish 'wampish' [meaning] 'to wriggle, twist, or swerve about.'"
The bottom line is that "kitty-corner," "catawampus," and their friends are considered dialect and informal. "Kitty-corner"-type words seem to commonly take a hyphen, but other than that, you can spell them pretty much any way you want. But if you work for a formal publication, do check how it’s spelled in your organization’s style guide or recommended dictionary. For example, Merriam-Webster shows "kitty-corner" and "catawampus" as the primary spellings. And if you use the word often, be consistent in your spelling. You wouldn't want your readers to get a sense that your writing is all catawampus.
Finally, I have a familect story from Marcia.
Hi, Grammar Girl, Marcia here. I want to tell a story about a word that perhaps isn't our own, but it's one that we've only heard ourselves and one other family use. About 40 years ago, the Harris family came to visit us, and they taught us the word "bappy," which is what you call that soup-like mixture that you get when you stir up your ice cream. How we all loved "bappy"! And so we've often used that word ourselves to describe that, and we've shared it with others. So we always do, of course, give the kudos to the Harris family for teaching us this word "bappy." So I'd like to thank Greg and Jeff and Molly and Morgan and Miranda for allowing us to adopt the word "bappy" as our own, and if you're out there somewhere, Harris family, it's "Hi" from the Beeches. Thanks, Grammar Girl.
Thanks so much, Marcia. I love bappy too, and now I have a name for it. And it's so kind of you to always give credit to your friends.
If you want to share the story of your familect, your family dialect, a word your family and only your family uses, call the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL. It’s in the show notes, and be sure to tell me the story behind your familect because that’s always the best part.
And now, if you're a Grammarpalooza subscriber you can also send a voice memo. To sign up, visit https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to marketing associate, Davina Tomlin; ad operations specialist, Morgan Christianson; audio engineer, Nathan Semes; director of podcasts, Brannan Goetschius; digital operations specialist, Holly Hutchings; and marketing assistant, Kamryn Lacey, who is a plant mom of one tiny haworthia succulent, which is named Spike Lee (because he's spiky).
And I’m Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl. Remember to look for our first episode of "Grammar Girl Conversations" this Thursday with Charles Duhigg! That's all. Thanks for listening.