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Wakephan's Modern English Usage: OFFICIAL Tunnels Guide to terms, words, and idioms

Relevant:

 
Gonna need some commentary on this from wakephan09.

 
Millennial parents for the LMNOPe.
 
NB: I can no longer edit the original post with new entries, so I'll just add them below:

re

ANONYMOUS poster with a very common usage error. I've previously held my tongue but today was too much

the faithful but not slavish attention to detail re: the games is pretty incredible.
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why, why "re:" ?

Are you sending an email? Why have you added a colon? Be like diggler and excise the colon

The word you want, dear anonymous poster and two emailers from this morning is

re

Just re. It's a preposition meaning "concerning" or "about" or "in the matter of"
 
wakephan09 said:
NB: I can no longer edit the original post with new entries, so I'll just add them below:

re

ANONYMOUS poster with a very common usage error. I've previously held my tongue but today was too much



why, why "re:" ?

Are you sending an email? Why have you added a colon? Be like diggler and excise the colon

The word you want, dear anonymous poster and two emailers from this morning is

re

Just re. It's a preposition meaning "concerning" or "about" or "in the matter of"
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
Kory said:
what is NB and why are you putting a colon after it
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it's an abbreviation for "nota bene" and means something like "take special notice"

If you're asking to try to draw a parallel between it and "Re:" in the subject heading of a reply email, I'm not sure why the convention is not to use periods (like P.S. after the subscription and signature in a letter) and to use a colon instead.
 
IamThunderbolt said:
Is this here because all language is political and the ability to define what “correct” usage or syntax is inherently begs the question of power dynamics?

Help me out, @Kory
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defining correct language would certainly seem to be an attempt to structure the world in a specific way
 
wakephan09 said:
it's an abbreviation for "nota bene" and means something like "take special notice"

If you're asking to try to draw a parallel between it and "Re:" in the subject heading of a reply email, I'm not sure why the convention is not to use periods (like P.S. after the subscription and signature in a letter) and to use a colon instead.
Click to expand...
my understanding is that re is an abbreviation of "regards" or "regarding" so it would follow that you'd follow it with the typical full stop as in assoc.

but in the language game we're playing the same essential meaning is transmitted whether I use "re:" or "re" because the punctuation here serves no purpose besides a normative one
 
another normative function of the colon is to introduce something specific as in "The one thing Kory has never owned: a quarter zip." so it makes sense why it'd be positioned there

American English has funny norms about two forms of punctuation so that probably plays a role in the dropping of the full stop that indicates an abbreviation in favor of just the color which introduces
 
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