Bad writing

[Richard Chonak <rac@gabrielmass.com>]

One of my bugbears of bad English usage, the misuse of the word
"anniversary", appeared this week in FM 96.9's promo for
September 11 programming.  They say it will be heard not on the
first anniversary of the tragedy, but on "the first-year
anniversary".

Since an anniversary is an annual commemoration -- the same date
exactly one or more years later -- that redundant little phrase
stumbles awkwardly over itself: the first-year annual
commemoration.

The even sloppier usage of referring to the "six-month 
anniversary" of an event is beyond the pale.   *That* is chalk 
on a blackboard, as far as I'm concerned.

Even contemporary lexicographers, a very non-judgmental tribe
who profess to document the language as she is spoke rather than
to prescribe correct usages, discreetly consign *that* abomination
to non-standard speech:

  The usage problem has arisen because anniversary is sometimes
  used Informally to mark other occasions, as in our first week's
  "anniversary" or our three-month "anniversary." There is no harm
  in this extended sense, as long as it stays in the
  Conversational levels and Informal writing. Note that even in
  this written use, the word is placed within quotation marks to
  indicate its special status. 

  ["Columbia Guide to Standard American English", 1993]
  http://www.bartleby.com/68/1/401.html


Considering how often FM 96.9 derides the supposedly stupid AM
audience, that station shouldn't let itself be caught in either 
of these gaffes.

--RC



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