Jul 03 2008
Using Phrases You Don’t Understand
I read a lot of writing on the internet, and so many people screw up the simplest phrases because they’ve only heard them and never read them and don’t think about it. Today it was “intensive purposes” which is supposed to read, “intents and purposes.” Let me ask you something, does for all “intensive purposes” make any damn sense? Of course not. People just don’t think about phrases.
If I didn’t see crap like this all the time, I would just assume that someone had mis-typed a phrase, which happens to all of us. But that’s not the case - people actually don’t understand the phrases they’re using.
Occasionally, because I read so much and don’t actively define words outside of context, I’ll be writing and a word or phrase will come to mind that I think fits but don’t know if it’s accurate or correct. The great thing about the interwebz is you can look that word or phrase up and see if you’ve defined it correctly and used it appropriately.
For example, a google search for the phrase “for all intensive purposes” pulls up tons of hits with people arguing that the phrases mean the same thing. No they don’t. “For all intensive purposes” sounds stupid and makes not a whit of sense. “For all intents and purposes” is derived from a latin phrase.
I try not to be all grammar police because goodness knows, I don’t usually edit what I post unless I find some glaring error. You’ll find verb-tense disagreements, all sorts of basic crap that if I was writing professionally or even scholarly, I’d be editing out. But you know what you won’t find in this blog? Me using phrases or words I don’t understand or I mis-use. Because the most important thing about language is communicating meaning - and while comma splices don’t always screw up your meaning, misusing a word or phrase will always distort meaning.
I thought it was “intensive purposes” for a long time (well, until late junior high school) — which DOES make sense to me. Though it’s a little different than “intents and purposes.” “emphasized purposes”
I guess what doesn’t make sense to me about “intensive purposes” is that it doesn’t really fit into the context of a sentence like, “but for all intensive purposes, I’m a woman.” In that context, it makes no sense to me. Well it could make sense if you prefaced it with something like, I don’t have breasts but for all intensive purposes, I’m a woman. For example, I still get my period.” I don’t know, first thing that came to mind.
RIGHT ON!
“Intents and/intensive purposes” is one of those things that now that you’ve mentioned it, I can’t remember how i’ve been doing it. Both seem familiar. Nonetheless, it should be avoided in formal writing, because it’s a cliche. Thank you, though, for making sure that I will not make this mistake again. If I ever did.
One common one is “premiere” and “premier,” which I saw a couple of days ago at the Behnke Nurseries in Potomac (evidently they supplied the “premier of Extreme Makeover” with their new landscaping, the lucky devil). When I worked at the PR office in St. Mary’s, we were forever finding this mix-up in the local papers.
I have been burned so many times on the picking-up-new-words-in-a-book-and-not-checking-it thing (or so it feels like, since it is so humiliating). Studying for the GREs last fall showed me what a yutz I have been all along.