Grammar Moses: 'Old-school' engineer is lost in space

By Jim Baumann

jbaumman@dailyherald.com

I'm occasionally asked whether it is proper to put two spaces after a period ending a sentence or if one is enough.

My definitive response is: It depends.

Tom Nesnidal of Streamwood wrote: "I learned typing before the days of personal computers. I work as an engineer, and as such have written hundreds of technical reports over the years.

"I always put two spaces after a period. It would drive me bonkers to proofread a report from a junior engineer only to find a single space after a period.

"I've been updating my resume, and the Number One 'don't' for resume style and format is double spaces after periods!"

In newspapers, we use only one space after a period. That has a lot to do with the price of newsprint.

The AP Stylebook calls for one space, and modern typography authorities also call for one space.

Many of us were taught to type our class assignments with two spaces after the sentence-ending period.

If my wife were the kind of woman who liked a man who put his pants on both legs at a time, I'd probably learn how to do that. You know, just to make up for my other deficiencies.

So if the person to whom you send reports at work is a two-space person, by all means go with two spaces. It hurts nothing.

But if you're writing a letter to the editor, save us the hassle and use one.

I don't feel the need to be doctrinaire here. And this is probably my bias from having discarded double spaces midway through college 35 years ago and having deleted other people's second spaces since then, but I don't see the need for them.

I don't think they make anything more readable.

Quick quiz

Give me a word that is both a palindrome (a word spelled the same forward and backward) AND an acronym (a word formed by the initial letters of a series of words.)

Look for the answer at the end of this column.

Discomfiting question

Grammar groupie Jacqueline Jablonski of Naperville was reading a Kathleen Parker column on the editorial page and was stopped by this sentence: "While a greater number of Americans support greater immigration enforcement, as well as major reforms aimed at greater security, the visual effects of raids that don't always target 'bad dudes' is discomfiting."

Jacqueline assumed Parker meant "disconcerting" or "unsettling."

"Discomfiting - I don't believe I've ever seen that word before. I'm sure I must have heard it, but I probably thought it was an Easterner or a Southerner way of saying 'discomforting!' My internet search left me more confused. The majority of explanations seem to suggest the meaning involves embarrassment: To embarrass someone, or to feel embarrassed. However, all of them seem to suggest some degree of emotional or intellectual discomfort, which is probably why it's such a confusing word choice. When is 'discomfit' the best word choice?"

Take a breath, Jacqueline; help is on the way.

I refer to grammar guru Bryan A. Garner for a succinct answer:

Discomfit is to thwart or frustrate; to disconcert; to put into a state of unease and embarrassment.

So, yes, Jacqueline, like most words it has a range of meanings.

But here is the part that really separates them: Discomfort is a noun, while discomfit is a verb.

The noun form of discomfit is discomfiture.

So you can be discomfited, but you feel discomfiture.

If you look at the Google Books' Ngram Viewer, which traces the use of words in literature, "discomfort" has been growing steadily since 1800, while "discomfit" has been on a bumpy decline since about 1805.

I suspect that is because "discomfort" has been misused increasingly as a verb.

The descriptivist's argument, then, would be that if it is used more often then it has become the word.

The answer

Thanks to reader Thomas Schantz for this puzzler.

A word that is both a palindrome and an acronym: radar.

Radar stands for Radio Detection and Ranging.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.