It was one of the editors I hired who, a while back, made sure that you did not read a description of a homicide as a grizzly scene.
A grizzly is North American brown bear (Ursa arctos) so called because its brown fur has white tips. The word derives from grizzle — gray hair. Thus you would describe the author of this blog as a grizzled editor, among other terms. The etymology of grizzle is uncertain, the Oxford English Dictionary says.
The word the writer was reaching for is grisly — terrifying, horrible, ghastly. It derives from the Old English grislic, allied to agrisan, to terrify.
A particularly meaty scene could be gristly.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I remember seeing in a published book (of many years ago, so not a victim of modern editorlessness) the term "grisly nut of flesh". Took me a while to figure out that "gristly" was intended.
ReplyDeleteThis post sounds like the sort of everyday conversation at our house! Reminds me of that book Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss. Maybe I'll pick that one up for a second read.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some pretty grisly editing in my time, by grizzled veterans and gristle-bound gym puppies, but my all-time favorite was a description in a story of someone who was "not a pre-Madonna."
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tale of Homonyms Gone Wild was the story of a reporter who was traveling on assignment one April and returned to her hotel to find an urgent phone message from her editor, informing her that she had won a "poulet surprise."
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