what does grammdaemonium mean?

Friday, January 2, 2009

We chose it because we like portmanteaus--you know, those words that are made up of two words, like "ginormous," which is a combination of "gigantic" and "enormous" (by the way, interestingly enough, blogspot's spellcheck registers "ginormous" [but it doesn't register, even more interestingly enough, either "blogspot" or "spellcheck"]).

Anyway, "grammdaemonium" is a portmanteau of "grammar," meaning, "the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and syntax" and "pandemonium," meaning a "wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos."

We felt that was appropriate because the rules of language seem to be in a state of constant change. Maybe it's not as riotous as "pandemonium" suggests, but it's pretty turbulent. That's why we try not to be Grammar Nazis who nitpick the placement of each hyphen and quibble over the inclusion of a comma in an introductory phrase that's fewer than five words--we don't much see the point of that; the time people spend dwelling on all those little symbols would be better used if they focused on content and clarity instead.

And that's why we write that the best method of writing is whatever gets your point across.

(Finally, if you're wondering about the dipthong--the ae in "Grammdaemonium"--it's because we also like Milton, and "Pandaemonium" was the capital of Hell in Paradise Lost.)