Grammar Moses: Forgive my flagitious language

I might have mentioned that I am not a Bible scholar, though I did read it, along with the awful allegory "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and some political science tomes that were on the family bookshelf of my youth because I would read anything at eye level.

From time to time, though, I find myself running through a passage in the Bible in search of a word.

"I found a great word in 2 Maccabees in the Bible," reader Cynthia Cwynar wrote to me. "'Flagitious,' meaning 'criminal, villainous.'

Try saying it, though."

Fluh-JI-shuss. That's not so hard!

I have heard the word but thought it meant worthy of a whipping. I was only partly wrong. The Latin root is "flagellum."

If you're being flagitious, you've probably earned some punishment - at least as the Bible tells it.

If there is something I know a lot about, it's self-flagellation. I'm sure I'll even apologize before the end of this column.

"Flagitious" also is used in the Book of Genesis: "He (Lot) who dwelt in Sodom ... and was dwelling in such a wicked place; and he might charitably hope there were more in so large a city and in the parts adjacent, at least that were not so flagitious and abominably wicked as the greater part were, and who, in comparison of them, were sober and moral people."

I'm sorry, but that is one major run-on sentence. (See, I apologized.)

I've found various references to flagitious deeds and language in religious commentary, too. Of course, there is a lot of smiting in the Bible, and I don't hear a lot about that in everyday discourse.

One-upmanship

Last weekend I wrote about big words and mentioned "facetiously" contains all the vowels in a row.

Not to be outdone, Trey Higgens wrote to tell me his daughter and her husband came up with another one: "abstemiously."

Excellent word, but one with which I have only a passing familiarity.

Why? Because I have less willpower than Burger King has healthy options.

"Abstemiously" describes one's avoidance of things that offer pleasure but might be bad for you.

There is a reason I keyed on Burger King, you see.

For good measure, Paul Krickl wrote to mention "abstemiously," too.

Less is more

In reference to last weekend's discussion of "less" versus "more," pen pal Doug Picirillo mentioned he had a conversation with a checkout person at his supermarket.

"The signs say '15 items or less.' We agreed that nothing is more clearly a countable noun than 'items.' The sign should say, '15 items or fewer,' unless the intention is, 'The number of items in your order should be 15 or less' because, ironically, '15' serves here as a noncountable noun. In mathematics, we would always say that 15 is less than 16. On the other hand, if the sign refers to the magnitude of the order, especially when 15 is not strictly enforced, then an order containing 15 items is lesser than one with 16 items. There are fewer items in the lesser order. The young lady was a high school student at the time. That a young person would humor me, understand the problem, and even seem to care about it gave me hope."

If I may, Doug, you note "the young lady was a high school student at the time."

Was she still a high school student at the end of your conversation?

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.