SIMPLE ANSWERS TO BASIC QUESTIONS: Via frequent reader Megan:
I'm a frequent reader of the blog and have noticed you spend some time on grammar issues. Just wondered what you think of the word, "agreeance". As in, "I am in agreeance with you." My aunt insists it's proper word usage, but I think it makes a whole lot more sense to just say, "I agree."
The word is in the dictionary, but I just think it's stupid and would love to have some back up that agrees with me, since my whole family has taken to using the word/phrase just to annoy me.
This is not a word. Webster's 3d Unabridged doesn't recognize it; it apparently was popularized at the 2003 Grammy Awards when Fred Durst stated "I just hope we are in agreeance that this war should go away as soon as possible," but he has no more power to make this a word than he did to render
"biskit" "bizkit" as a proper spelling. The word is "agreement," and don't let
those Oxford twits tell you otherwise.
Are we saying we have a grievance with agreeance?
ReplyDeleteHah? Hah?
I have an employee who uses it all the time. It's not my favorite (non-)word.
ReplyDeleteSure it's a word. It's just a terrible, awkward, unnecesary word that tends to make those who use it look silly.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter who puts it in their dictionary.
Doesn't matter that a large portion of the Chicago condo conversion real estate community circa 1995 used it in an attempt to sound important or fit in with those who were attempting to sound important.
It is a nehru jacket of a word. Perhaps the Prime Minister of India could make it look elegant despite its being such a simple, rumply little thing, but it's not for the rest of us who make agreements wearing perfectly serviceable jackets sewn in more standard configurations.
I say "agreeance" when I want to annoy my girlfriend with my bad word usage.
ReplyDeleteNOT A WORD! NOT A WORD!
ReplyDeleteOn the Durst link ALONE it should be struck from the lexicon.
I am in agreeance with Adam.
ReplyDelete"Agreeance" is a word that says "A $.05 word would do just fine in this sentence, but I'm the kind of person who would nonetheless be willing to use a $.25 word ... if I knew any."
ReplyDeleteThis is a Joey Tribbiani word - someone is trying to sound smart, and ends up sounding not so much. "It's a moo point. You know, like a cow's opinion. It's moo."
ReplyDeleteOf course, his roommate was a transponster, so what can you expect...
The thought of it is making my teeth hurt. If I were editing a brief in which someone else used that word, I would write, "This is the worst word I have ever heard."
ReplyDelete<span>I agree with the above commenters. I am also in agreement with them. I will never be in agreeance with anybody; indeed, I find the word aggrieving.
ReplyDeleteIt brings to mind the time I heard a snowboarder at the X Games express satisfaction with his second medal by calling it a "two-peat", which nearly made me claw my hair out. "Agreeance" comes close to that experience.
Don't fix what ain't broke, is what I'm saying.</span>
Thanks to everyone for agreeing with me about the word agreeance. I have sent this link to my aunt, but I'm sure I haven't heard the last of this word.
ReplyDeleteObviously no one needs me to tell them that this refers to Miss Chanandler Bong, but I felt like saying so anyway,
ReplyDeleteAdam--It's "bizkit." If you're going to reference non-words, at least spell them correctly. :)
ReplyDelete(And "agreeance" makes me retch.)
Ugh. Not to thread hijack, but after watching SYTYCD when Lil C is on, I feel like I need to grab a dictionary. What is that guy saying?
ReplyDelete