Common Idioms, Common Misused
by Jane Harmon
Sometimes I'll be reading an essay, a blog, a newspaper article,
thinking the writer is quite informed and intelligent, and then boom -
there will be an instance of a misused idiom that makes me sadly
conclude that the author wasn't as well-read as I had previously
thought.
The worst offenders? 'wrecking havoc', and giving someone 'free reign'.
Wrecking havoc
This one bugs me the most. Because it's just so wrong, yet you can
understand why people might get it wrong. We know what havoc is - it's
chaos, destruction on a wide scale - "Cry 'havoc' and let slip the dogs
of war." Brrr. And wrecking is
destroying. So on
the principle that like things go together, people often say things
like 'my cats got into the kitchen cabinets and wrecked havoc'. But
it's a double negative - if the cats are destroying havoc, they're creating order,
or tidying up. And I don't know about your cats, but
mine never clean up after themselves.
It's 'wreak', people,
pronounced 'reek'. One wreaks havoc.
'To wreak' is to cause to
happen, usually in a negative context - one wreaks one's will on a
miserable populace, but rarely does one wreak sunshine and happiness
throughout the land. Wreaking havoc is to cause massive destruction.
Wrecking havoc... well, just don't say it.
Free Reign
This one is almost logical, and has passed into common usage, but it's
still wrong. Giving someone free reign would seem to mean giving them
rulership over the area in question, which is what the writer means, so
what's the problem?
The problem is, it's just wrong. The phrase is 'free rein', and it
comes from the pre-automobile days when one would ride horses to get
about. If you were going down a tricky slope or perhaps navigating a
patch of trees with roots your horse might stumble over, you gave your
horse 'free rein' and let him decide which path to choose, since
presumably he has more knowledge of what he can and cannot navigate.
Thus being given free rein is being allowed to choose your own path.
Oh who cares?
... everyone does it, I hear many of you say. And that's true, these
mistakes are made all the time.
But they cause readers like me to make unkind judgments about your
education and level of literacy. 'Who cares what you think?' I now can
imagine you're thinking. Trust me, if I know the difference, editors
know the difference. If you are submitting manuscripts hoping for
publication with these errors in them, and your name is not Nicole
Ritchie or some other starlet who is expected to produce illiterate
prose, you may find yourself never seeing your prose in print.
If that matters to you, brush up on your idioms before you use them.
|
