Author: Kirk

“Does that have any relevancy … ?”

Nouns

I heard this last evening on The Bill O’Reilly Show on Fox News Channel.

Question:
What is the difference between “relevancy” and “relevance”?

Explanation:
The host of the show asked a guest, “Does that have any relevancy [to the topic being discussed]?”

The word “relevancy” struck me as odd, given that I grew up using the word “relevance”, so I researched these two words.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:

  • “relevancy” is a noun that dates back to 1561 and today primarily means relevance;
  • “relevance” is a noun that dates back to 1733 and today primarily means relation to the matter at hand.

This gives us the answer to the question.

Answer:
There is no difference in primary meaning between between the older noun “relevancy” and the younger noun “relevance”.

Freckle

Nouns

As soon as I said this noun this morning, I wondered about its origin.

The goal of this blog post is to promote curiosity about words.

“Freckle” is one of those words that made me curious, so I had to research its origin in a dictionary.

“Freckle” is a word that does not sound like most other English words — at least, not to me.

Sure enough, when I researched its origin, I confirmed that “freckle” does not come from French or German or one of the other dominant influences on English.

Instead, it seems to come from the Old Norse word “frekna”, a word that persists today in Norwegian and Icelandic, and a word that became “fräkna” in Swedish.

What words in English have made you wonder about their origins? Let me know!

“… did not have anyway to contact current members.”

Adverbs

I saw this in a corporate presentation.

Problem:
The single word “anyway” is incorrect in this sentence.

Explanation:
The sentence appeared in a presentation about a company’s customer-care systems.

The single word “anyway” is an adverb that means regardless or in any case.

An example of the proper use of the adverb “anyway” is “Although he hates the car, she is keeping it anyway.”

If we replace the adverb “anyway” in the presentation that I saw with the adverb’s definition, then we get “… did not have regardless to contact current members.”, which is nonsensical and clearly proves that the adverb “anyway” does not belong in the sentence.

The writer of the sentence actually was stating that there was not a method or way to contact current members.

This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“… did not have any way to contact current members.”