"Shoo-in" and "Shoe-in." I have seen the latter written as "He was a shoe-in for the job," or "She was a shoe-in for the award." He and she were most certainly not shoe-ins. They were "shoo-ins." Remember the old word "shoo," as in "Shoo, fly, don't bother me" as in "Git!" Shooing someone means urging them or hustling them in a certain direction. To say that someone is a shoo-in is to suggest that they are so eminently qualified for a job or honor that it is just a question of opening a door to that job or honor and pushing them through. Webster's (which is where everyone should go before bunging in a word they don't really know) defines a shoo-in as "one that is a certain and easy winner." That's a shoo-in. As far as I know there is no such thing as a "shoe-in," unless shoes rise up and occupy federal buildings to protest their thousands of years of uncompensated servitude to humans, with our soft, useless feet. What's most distressing to me is that this is a pretty good example of how fairly well (and clearly uselessly) educated people will speak and write words that they don't know the meaning of, let alone how to spell.
"Appraise" and "apprise."In the the weeks leading up to the layoffs at Caput University (including yours truly; now available for brunch, tea and dinner at your convenience and expense) we got a lot of e-mails from leadership (that cosy clubhouse of functional illiterates) in which the words "apprise" and "appraise" were used interchangeably. Some boob at the top got it wrong and then the rest followed, happy in the acquisition of a very businessy and official sounding word. All of this could have been avoided by sending a message along the lines of "If we know anything we'll be sure to tell you right away." It would still be a lie, but it would have been an unprentious lie without any mixups in it.
Let The Girl break it down for you. The e-mails that promised to quickly apprise us of following developments were correct (if not strictly true). To apprise someone of something is to acquaint them with the known facts. To "appraise" is to consider a situation or much more commonly a thing's value. Appraisal is what they do on Antiques Roadshow when you bring in a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation (oddly enough penned on copier paper) or when you bring a working Gatling cannon to Pawn Stars. They tell you what it's worth. It's not usually used in reference to people, although I have been appraised by more than one sleazy dude by way of what is called an "elevator look."
Now that I am unemployed I will not be able to tap that rich seam of corporatese, word invention, and word repurposing that could all so easily be prevented by issuing every department a dictionary and an hour's training on how to use it; or as they say at Caput University, "deliver learnings" on how to "operationalize it." But no fear--I still watch the news, and newscasters are among the most prolific and dogged abusers of proper English. For now, á bientôt, mes amis.
