from Nyla’s illustrated Word Wall
TGIF: there’s really only one big language-and-usage story in the news this week, and everyone’s talking about it. Yes, it’s about the guy who was fired from his social media strategist job at a Utah school — after talking about homophones (sic) online. Just to be clear: that’s h-phones we’re talking about — not –sapiens, –phobes, –philes, –zygotes, or –sexuals.
According to a report in The Independent, “Tim Torkildson, the former employee at the Nomen Global Language Center, said he was removed from his role as head of social media because his boss believed that his post about homophones might give off the impression that the school promoted homosexuality.”
I’m very glad to have literate bosses who don’t mind that I tend to talk about homophones and other apparently dangerous words online a lot. While we’re talking about those word-pairs that can trip up even the most competent spellers, here are three earlier Glossophilia posts about the offending unmentionables:
Homophones and other similar words that confound us
And here’s a post about a common homophone with a long and illustrious X- (or R-) rated history. Warning: this might really offend, but not because it’s about a homophone.
The language of sex: come one, come all
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