Cato's Grammar Grumble

[Scarpia]

Interesting: although my Random House dictionary does not explicitly make the distinction, I have been seeing "carpet" used to mean specifically "wall-to-wall carpet(ing)" and "rug"  used for the kind one can roll up and move.

A "throw rug" also is heard here in Ohio.

And what would one do then with the idea of "The Flying Carpet" ?
  0:)

Wall-to-wall carpeting" gets three times as many hits on Google as "wall-to-wall carpet."  And carpet is sometimes used to describe the material a carpet is made of as well.  But carpet as the thing and carpeting as the material are the more common usages.

[DavidRoss]

Hey, Joe, re "medication".  I don't find changes in vocabulary over the years inherently objectionable.  But some changes are.  "Medicine" is still a good word; I can't figure out why it was ever changed.  "Medication" means to deliver or prescribe medicine.  There was  never any need that I could see to confuse these 2 words when they both clearly meant different things. 

The verb meaning "to deliver medicine" is not "medication" but "medicate."  "Medication" is a noun that describes a means of delivering medicine.  For instance, a typical tablet given as medication might include 5% medicine and 95% binders, buffers, coatings, colorants, and so on.

[Joe Barron]

Woody Allen once said his parents were very Old World, down-to-Earth People whose values in life were God and carpeting.

The joke wouldn't work with "carpets." In this sense, carpeting is not just material. It's an activity that involves selection and pricing.

[Joe Barron]

Hey, Joe, re "medication".  I don't find changes in vocabulary over the years inherently objectionable.  But some changes are.  "Medicine" is still a good word; I can't figure out why it was ever changed.  "Medication" means to deliver or prescribe medicine.  There was  never any need that I could see to confuse these 2 words when they both clearly meant different things.

You should leaf through the AMA style guide sometime. Some of the distinctions they make --- like radiograph v. X-ray, or dose v. dosage -- would make you feel right at home. Or else drive you nuts.

[Chosen Barley]

The verb meaning "to deliver medicine" is not "medication" but "medicate."  "Medication" is a noun that describes a means of delivering medicine.  For instance, a typical tablet given as medication might include 5% medicine and 95% binders, buffers, coatings, colorants, and so on.

Would this be correct:  "The medication of the general public with aspirin would reduce heart attacks"?  Not the content but the use of the word medication.  Or should one be saying, "The medicating of the general public..."

I guess what I was originally trying to say is that, for a long time,  common usage was, "Jimmy,  take your medicine!"  Now, it's, "Jimmy,  take your medication!"  Still sounds pompous to me, as per Cato's commentary.

Why would this be an improvement irrespective of all the other information here as to definition of "medication"?

[karlhenning]

Fred's meds

[Scarpia]

Would this be correct:  "The medication of the general public with aspirin would reduce heart attacks"?  Not the content but the use of the word medication.  Or should one be saying, "The medicating of the general public..."

I guess what I was originally trying to say is that, for a long time,  common usage was, "Jimmy,  take your medicine!"  Now, it's, "Jimmy,  take your medication!"  Still sounds pompous to me, as per Cato's commentary.

Why would this be an improvement irrespective of all the other information here as to definition of "medication"?

Webster's defines "medications" as "the act of process of medicating" or "a medical substance."  So your use of medication in the example sentence is correct, although perhaps not idiomatic.  The second strikes me as even more awkward.   For all of the fine distinctions we could make between medicine and medication, there are no sharp boundaries in actual usage or in the dictionary definitions I have found.  They are essentially synonyms.   Medications strikes my ear as more "technical," what a doctor would say, but I don't find it particularly pompous.  Apparently medication is not a recently minted work, either (again, according to the dictionary).

[Chosen Barley]

Thanks for your  helpful commentary, Scarpia. 

I just wanted to discuss the scrapping of a  common, age-old usage for no apparent reason. 

Does anyone here think that we are all much or even marginally better off because everyone and his mutt now says "medication" instead of "medicine"?

Also, I do recognize that the AMA style guide is useful for doctors and hospital personnel in general, but that is a different bunch of people and I'm not talking about that specific use at all.

Dose VS dosage.  Now, that should be fun to get into!

[Scarpia]

I just wanted to discuss the scrapping of a  common, age-old usage for no apparent reason. 

I may  be beating a dead horse here, but according to the Random House dictionary the first citation of the word "medication" is from 1375.  If there was an argument that using the word medication was "scrapping age-old usage" it should have been made in the year 1376, not today.

[DavidRoss]

I may  be beating a dead horse here, but according to the Random House dictionary the first citation of the word "medication" is from 1375.  If there was an argument that using the word medication was "scrapping age-old usage" it should have been made in the year 1376, not today.

Pssst...Scarps...the correct verb form for hypotheticals is "were," not "was"--though contemporary usage failing to distinguish factual from counterfactual statements is leading to the scrapping of that age-old usage. 

[karlhenning]

Maintain the subjunctive mood!

[Scarpia]

Pssst...Scarps...the correct verb form for hypotheticals is "were," not "was"--though contemporary usage failing to distinguish factual from counterfactual statements is leading to the scrapping of that age-old usage. 

Well, I'm from da Bronx, so and in the vernacular, I should have just said, "yo, it ain't like that" and been done with it.   

[DavidRoss]

I just wanted to discuss the scrapping of a  common, age-old usage for no apparent reason. 

Dose VS dosage.  Now, that should be fun to get into!

Dose vs dosage.  Looks like use vs usage to me. 

Who has scrapped the term "medicine?"  I hear it in normal, everyday use, just as I always have.

"Okay, doc, what medicine would you recommend for his pain?"
"For chronic, severe pain the best would be hydromorphone hydrochloride."
"Is that Dilaudid?"
"Yes, that's one of the best-known trade names, but the medication I would recommend is the new controlled-release Exalgo, which has been shown to be particularly effective at steady-state pain management."

[Cato]

Pssst...Scarps...the correct verb form for hypotheticals is "were," not "was"--though contemporary usage failing to distinguish factual from counterfactual statements is leading to the scrapping of that age-old usage. 

Maintain the subjunctive mood!

Amen!   0:)  I have fought for the preservation of the Subjunctive throughout my career in the classroom.  I am sometimes met with puddles of drool and eyes with a glaze thicker than a Christmas ham.  But being a quixotic type, I march into the thicket of their ignorance and reveal the hierophantic mysteries.

Whether or not my revelation survives the onslaught of the kulcher outside is questionable.   0:)

[DavidRoss]

Well, I'm from da Bronx, so and in the vernacular, I should have just said, "yo, it ain't like that" and been done with it.   

And I'm from California, so I'll just say, "I hear you, dude." 

[DavidRoss]

Amen!   0:)  I have fought for the preservation of the Subjunctive throughout my career in the classroom.  I am sometimes met with puddles of drool and eyes with a glaze thicker than a Christmas ham.  But being a quixotic type, I march into the thicket of their ignorance and reveal the hierophantic mysteries.

Whether or not my revelation survives the onslaught of the kulcher outside is questionable.   0:)

Perhaps there's a market for t-shirts: "Save the Subjunctive!"

[karlhenning]

I'd wear one!

[Scarpia]

I'd wear one!

I have no doubt.   

[karlhenning]

Even if I were not a grammar geek, I should ; )

[Cato]

Perhaps there's a market for t-shirts: "Save the Subjunctive!"

Great idea!

"If I WERE you, I would

Save The Subjunctive!"