Are you inferring that I'm implying?

Listen and you'll hear people misuse these words. You don't, of course.

infer and imply

The difference between these two involves whether there is some assuming going on by the reader or listener. “Imply” means that something is inherent in the text or conversation without being explicitly stated. (Example – When the teacher stated that the test results were not good, she implied that few, if any, students got good grades.)

On the other hand, “infer” is when the reader or listener draws some kind of conclusion. (Example – When the teacher told us that we would all have to retake the test, we inferred this was because few, if any, of us got a good grade on it.)

-- MoneyInstructor

Incoming!

Here's an interesting word we all use in one way or another.

flak / flæk / noun

1. Antiaircraft fire, rounds from antiaircraft artillery.
2. Heavy abusive criticism.

Dr. Goodword points to the definition I know as a journalist, using a different spelling:

Be careful to avoid inserting a C in this word. Some folks think that since it rhymes with black, it should look like black, right? Not really. As the Word History will show, the rhyme of this word is purely coincidental and, even though US dictionaries condone the folk-etymological spelling, this word should be spelled without a C. A flack is a booking agent or publicity man (since 1946) and a bulletproof vest is a flak-jacket, with only one C.

Flak, Dr. Goodword tells us, started out referring to fire aimed at bombers by antiaircraft artillery on the ground. Today, however, this word generally refers to harsh criticism: "Henry took so much flak for suggesting his company produce helicopter ejection seats that he decided to duck staff meetings in the future."

History: Flak first appeared in the 1938 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships. It was borrowed directly from German, where it was an abbreviation for Fliegerabwehrkanone "pilot defense cannon". The German word Flieger "pilot, flyer" comes from the verb fliegen, which shares an origin with English fly. The original root was plau-, which emerged in Lithuanian as plaukti and Russian plavat', both meaning "swim, float, sail". The same original root became plunein "to wash, bathe" in Greek and ended up in English as flow as well as fly.

When writing or speaking, decline to divagate

divagate / di-vê-gayt / verb, intransitive (no object)

1. To wander about, meander, drift about in different directions.
2. To ramble, digress, stray from the point in speaking, writing, or thinking.

Divagate hasn't been used much since the 19th century, but that is no reason to avoid applying it today. There is still plenty of divagation (the action noun) in the world and divagators (the personal noun) who need to know what it is called.

Anything that moves in no particular direction divagates: "After puncturing the balloon with a pin, little Abner watched it rapidly divagate around the room before plopping to the floor." Abstractions divagate as well as concrete objects: "About halfway through his lecture on raising rice in South Carolina, Llewellyn divagated into a suite of reveries about partying his summers away in his ocean-front house at Myrtle Beach."

Divagate, of course, comes from Latin, this time from the past participle, divagatus, of divagare "to wander around", made up of di(s)- "away, apart from" + vagari "to wander". The root vagari was derived from vagus "strolling, wandering", a word which also ended up in English as vague, borrowed from Latin's descendant language, French. Although it resembles divagate a bit, navigate comes from a completely different source. It is built of navis "ship" + agere "to drive, lead", the root of English borrowings agent and act.

-- Dr. Goodword

More annoying words

Word "czars" at Lake Superior State University "unfriended" 15 words and phrases and declared them "shovel-ready" for inclusion on the university's 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

"The list this year is a 'teachable moment' conducted free of 'tweets,'" said a Word Banishment spokesman who was "chillaxin'" for the holidays. "'In these economic times', purging our language of 'toxic assets' is a 'stimulus' effort that's 'too big to fail.'"

A few of the most egregious:

FRIEND AS A VERB
Came into popularity through social networking websites. You add someone to your network by "friending" them, or remove them by "unfriending" them.

TEACHABLE MOMENT
What might otherwise be known as 'a lesson.'

CHILLAXIN'  
The combination of "chillin" and "relaxin'" into "chillaxin" was an easy pick for banishment. 

Here's the list.

(Thanks, Dick)

Some annoying words

Here are some words that got overused in 2009:

Meme -- Ask five people what this word means, and you'll get five answers, not to mention pronunciations. A good friend, a man of letters, in fact, told me with a straight face it's meh-me (rhymes with hemi). Of course, meme is pronounced with a long "e" and rhymes with steam. According to Merriam-Webster, a meme is "an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture." Meme may make you look smart for five seconds, but the word has definitely lost its way. It needs about a century in rehab.

Narrative -- As in, "The pro-Obama narrative featured an almost mystically talented young idealist . . ." The word is not bad in itself, especially as an adjective, as in narrative poetry. But why use it when a much simpler word will do? Like story. Doesn't story do the job as well, without the pretense? Apparently not. Especially when talking about President Obama. "Obama narrative" shows up more than 33,000 times on the Internet.

Trending -- If you don't tweet, you're probably clueless here. Last week, for example, I learned that the word "BlackBerry" had been trending in Twitter for 15 hours. I figured out its meaning from context, but made the mistake of asking for confirmation. My bad. I had exposed myself as a fusty old newsosaur. No amount of tech- and Twitter-speak could redeem me. If a word or topic is trending, BTW, it means it's currently in the top-10 most searched items in Twitter. A person could just say it that way. But that's so last year.

Whatever -- This dismissive answer/statement isn't new or even new-ish, but does continue to be an equal-opportunity irritant. It topped the list of most annoying words of 2009 in an October poll.

(Thanks, Lainey)