Kirk Mahoney . com

I saw this in an Ars Technica article published today about the Nintendo DSi.

I like the creativity of “eleventy billion”.

I searched for “eleventy” (with the quotation marks) on Google, and I got about 304,000 matches.

According to Wikipedia, the word “eleventy” was coined by linguist and author J. R. R. Tolkien and refers to the number 110.

I can imagine that some non-native speakers of English must be puzzled when they see this word, but it also makes sense when one compares it to the rhyming word “seventy”.

I heard a Fox television sports commentator say this last evening during Super Bowl XLII.

Problem:
This phrase does not contain the correct adjective for the euphemism.

Explanation:
“Unchartered territory” would refer to territory that has not been chartered.

The definition of the adjective “chartered” is related to an arrangement of leased, exclusive, temporary transportation for a group of travelers.

Given that one charters transportation, not territory, “unchartered territory” makes no sense.

In contrast, given that one can map — or chart — territory, the correct adjective for the euphemism is “uncharted”. That is, “uncharted territory” is the euphemism that was mangled by the sports commentator.

For fun, I searched Google — with the quotation marks included in the search box — for “unchartered territory” and “uncharted territory” and got about 59,600 and 734,000 matches, respectively. That tells me that Web authors have written the euphemism correctly by a ratio of 12.3:1, which is good, but not excellent.

I believe that the spoken use of “unchartered” instead of “uncharted” in the euphemism is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It is simpler to pronounce the “ered” sound than to pronounce the “ed” sound.

Solution:
“Uncharted territory”

I thought again the other day about these death verbs after hearing a woman on an HGTV television program say that her cat had “passed away.”

Problem:
Although synonymous, “die” and “pass away” and “pass” don’t have the same impact, and the latter two can confuse readers or listeners.

Explanation:
Avoiding euphemisms sometimes requires courage.

One could argue that “pass away” has a religious origin as a euphemism for “die” and therefore that “pass away” is a valid substitute.

However, it is worthwhile to know that clinical social workers are taught that their clients who use “pass away” often have a harder time with working through the death of a loved one than those clients who use the plain-spoken verb “die”.

Can a dog or cat “pass away”, given the religious origin of the phrase? I doubt it, but maybe I am confused about the religious origin.

Or maybe the woman who said that her cat “passed away” simply was more comfortable with this than saying that her cat “died” — what she really meant but maybe did not have the courage to face.

It is worthwhile to know, too, that “pass away” is not commonly used throughout the entire world of English speakers. The verb “die” does not have this problem.

You can confuse even more people when you say “pass” instead of “pass away”.

For example, “He passed last night.” will invite curious stares from some listeners. “He passed what?” they will ask. “Passed gas? Passed a kidney stone? Came by your home?”

I believe that the use of “pass” as a death verb has two origins:

1. It’s essentially a euphemism of a euphemism, letting the speaker or writer take two steps away from saying or writing “die” (the dreaded ‘D’ word!).
2. It is simpler to say “pass” than to say “pass away”; this is further proof of my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

Solution:
Use “die” wherever possible. Use “pass away” in religious contexts, if you know that your readers or listeners understand this euphemism. Do not use “pass” as a substitute for “pass away”; you will confuse many people!