i looked up "flummoxed" a few days ago when i used it in a post where i mentioned how tripp hazard had me perplexed. i found the word, but not really a definition(i wanted to make sure i was using it properly)like i would normally get from websters or the free online dictionary. what little info i found supported me in my usage, so i went ahead,but then tripp called me out on it not being a word.
so here is one of my quirks: this kind of thing drives me crazy. i never used the word before, but i went ahead and then i was wrong. so i had to research it. i dont know what i did different in todays google search, but here ya go:
flum·mox (flmks)
tr.v. flum·moxed, flum·mox·ing, flum·mox·es Informal
To confuse; perplex.
so it is a word and i used it correctly. its really not about making anyone else wrong-i am not competitive that way, its that i cannot stand to be wrong in spelling, diction, or grammar. you might all be gasping because you read my blog and you might have seen the grammatical and spelling errors glaring at you, but another one of my quirks is that i sometimes get lazy. so lazy that i am willing to throw another quirk under the bus. like my lack of capitalization and punctuation. pure laziness.
I didn't say flummoxed was not a word. Nor did I say you used it incorrectly. I said that if you were flummoxed, and I caused it, does that mean I am flummoxing? And 'flummoxing' is not a word. Now, if you could only make it so your most recent post actually shows up each time (as opposed to being covered in a white box and I have to select all the text to actually see it) then I think we will really be making progress.
ReplyDeletemore of my quirks are surfacing all the time. skimming & poor recall. i KNEW i should have reread your comment! do you love me enough(not knowing me at all) to find such quriks utterly charming and cute? i am annoyed with myself!
ReplyDeletei have no idea how to go about making the changes to my blog that you are talking about. if you know and will impart your wisdom i will promise NOT to skim and follow your directions. i have been wanting to improve my blog, but get kind of lost. technically inept, thats me.
ps-mr lawyer man i never said that you said i used it incorrectly :P
just to be clear. and accurate.
pps-i did go back to read exactly how i put it and i didnt infer or imply that you said i used it incorrectly.
pps-sorry for my inaccuracies that included you. maybe i will go back and rewrite the post.
ok. i went back to reread your comment from the original post. it wasnt a skimming issue, really, i just get you were referring to flummoxING specifically-i thought you were referring to flummox(as the core word)and since i hadnt found a definintion(i must have been in some weird google bermuda triangle)it made sense. i couldnt find it and tripp(really smart guy)is saying it isnt a word. according to the online free dictionary FLUMMOXING is a word, but i dont know how reliable they are.
ReplyDeleteis this our first fight? ;-)
Umm, wow. Those comments were quite random. I checked both dictionary.com and merriam-webster.com. Merriam-webster.com does not list the word 'flummoxing' which was what I expected. However, dictionary.com does list the word "flummoxing.' Even the word 'flummox' seems to have limited legitimacy (with no certain origin or etymology). So you did use the word correctly and I did use what was probably a real word when I made fun of you for using the word. The important thing is that both of us improved our diction a little today.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call this a fight. More like a lecture (ha ha) as a learning experience for you. I don't know how to fix your website. It could be from all the ads that you throw out at us genteel readers. Or you just have some HTML code wrong. Back when I was an engineer, I might have tried to fix it. But now that I am a lawyer, I can safely say "That is outside of the scope of my legal representation."
another quirk. random comments. stream of consciousness type thinking and writing coupled with the lazy quirk sometimes means i dont go back to edit and make it more cohesive. especially in the comments.
ReplyDeletesigh. glad it wasnt a fight. not sure how i feel about the lecture. :)