A.Word.A.Day |
About | Media | Search | Contact |
|
Home
|
Dec 29, 2008
This week's themeUncommon adverbs This week's words seriatim pell-mell withal imprimis shilly-shally 
Discuss
Feedback
RSS/XMLA.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place." William Strunk and E.B. White wrote in their venerated Elements of Style. Adjectives and adverbs are the black sheep of the Parts of Speech family, but there's a kernel of truth in the above quotation. Use of too many adverbs may be a sign of lazy writing. If you show, not tell, you don't need adverbs. Consider:
She ran out angrily Typically adverbs are recognized as words ending in -ly: partly, happily, hopefully, really, virtually, and so on. But there are dozens of adverbs that don't end in -ly. This week we'll look at five less familiar adverbs. seriatim
PRONUNCIATION:
(seer-i-AY-tim)
MEANING:
adverb:
One after another; in a series.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin seriatim, from Latin series, from serere (to join). Ultimately
from the Indo-European root ser- (to line up) that is also the source of
words such as insert, assert, desert (to abandon), desert (a dry sandy
region), sort, consort, and sorcerer.
USAGE:
"I do not have to itemize seriatim the positive transformatory effects of
steady and reliable electricity supply on all aspects of our national life."Douglas Anele; The Fumbling Continues; Vanguard (Nigeria); Dec 7, 2008. See more usage examples of seriatim in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Trust is the first step to love. -Munshi Premchand, novelist and poet (1880-1936)
|
|
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
© 1994-2025 Wordsmith