Nitpicker's Delight

Picayune, any yune at all.

   A prime characteristic of good writers -- and editors -- is that they are good nitpickers. That is, they pay attention to details of fact as well as of spelling, grammar and punctuation.  They know, for example, the origin of the word "nitpicker." And they know there's a difference between "crash" and "collision," unlike whoever wrote a press release for a Pennsylvania politician. The announcement dealt with construction of a highway median to prevent "head-on crashes." Note: A collision requires two moving vehicles. A single vehicle can only crash.
   
   A movie promo had the announcer speaking of "femme fatales," meaning there would be more than one. More than one what? More than one "fatale" or more than one "femme"? The secret is to pluralize the noun, in this case the French word "femme," meaning "woman." Whether the descriptive word (adjective) should also be pluralized is an issue for fluent speakers of French to decide. In English, only the noun is pluralized.

   In that vein, consider the term "attorney general." Normally, the adjective comes before the noun. This, however, is an exception, refers to an attorney who is in charge. To say "attorney generals" suggests a bunch of military lawyers, and to say "general attorney" implies a non-specialist lawyer. The correct plural is "attorneys general."

   Here's an easy way to decide whether to use "who" or "whom." Without getting into the instructions from your elementary school grammarian, who spoke of subjects and objects, just consider the letter "m." If you can substitute the word "him" for "whom," you have the answer. Example: Who did it? Who did it to whom? He did it to him.

   By the way, a nit is not just any very small thingy. A nit, specifically, is the egg of a louse. And that is, indeed, very small.