The Grammarnator has not written in a while, and people he meets around town are asking him about it. So it’s time to use a whopper of a public mistake to get back into it.
At the Oscars last week, Cate Blanchett grabbed her second statuette from Daniel-Day Lewis and immediately said that receiving it from his hands exacerbates the honor.
Sorry, Ms. Blanchett, but that Latinate word (from acer = sharp) means to make more violent, bitter, or severe. It refers to increased stress or irritation, describing what happens when a bad situation becomes worse, not when a good one is made better.
Cate selected a word diametrically opposed to the idea she wished to express. Enhances would have done the job.
If you’re thinking that her error sounds a caution about using big, esoteric words, remember that small, common ones can also cause problems. A meteorologist on WMUR last month waved his hand across the map of the central states while warning that “a shield of snow will move slowly to the east.” Since a shield provides protection by deflecting a dangerous object, I wondered what greater harm this foot of wet, sticky snow was going to save us from.
Speaking of saving, I have a nice half-dozen gaffs by football commentators from the season that recently ended, which I shall set aside for a future column.
