I can tell that we’ve been living with all the pretty significant restrictions for 6+ weeks now in the way that things that I used to easily overlook are now grating on my nerves like fingernails on chalkboard. For instance, since all this began, people all over the place have been talking about their quarantine activities (or lack thereof), and in the beginning I didn’t think twice about it.
But today? Every time I saw the word quarantine on Facebook, it made my eyes water. Why? Because–and repeat after me, friends–you do not quarantine the healthy.
Don’t believe me? The Oxford dictionary spells it out pretty clearly:
And don’t get me started on “shelter in place”. That’s not something you do for six weeks, let alone while also intermittently leaving the house for groceries and carry out pizza.
The long and short of it is that I’m a jerkface who’s becoming more and more pedantic as this thing stretches on, and I feel bad for the people who have to deal with my ever more unyielding opinion on what words are and are not acceptable in which circumstances. (Although, just to be clear, it is never okay to misuse there, their, and they’re outside of the occasional accident, or to use “could/should/would of” instead of could/should/would have.)
All of which is to say, I might be losing my mind.
Luckily, I wore this delightful pair of argyles today in my high school’s colors, which definitely helped to keep me from taking to social media to shake my fist and decry all the fools misusing the Queen’s English like uncouth barbarians.
Because I’m pretty sure the only uncouth barbarian in this lexicographical situation is me.
Happy Monday!
Pud’n
Like my writing? Check out my latest book, Famine (writing as JR Andrews)!
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