To the point

I’m on another punctuation rant. “Punk chu a shun.” What a weird word. It must be originally from Latin. There are not a lot of words that begin with “punc,” which is good because it doesn’t look or sound pretty. Punctual, punctuation, punctilious. What a perfectly silly word! “Punctilious,” is one of those words that just makes you laugh for the absurdity of it.

punc til i ous n. 1. attentive to the finer points of etiquette and formal conduct. 2. precise; scrupulous. See synonyms at meticulous. From New Latin, punctum, point.
punc tu al adj. Prompt, arriving at the time appointed; exact, precise.
punc tu ate v. 1. to provide a test with punctuation marks. 2. to interrupt periodically. 3. to stress, emphasize.

I realize I may be one of the few people in the world who knows how to use punctuation. I know what a semicolon is for. I don’t much care for them. I prefer exclamation points! I’m quite liberal with periods and question marks. On the other hand I’m very conservative with quotation marks. I think a paragraph filled with them is quite annoying and unattractive. I prefer using a name or title and a colon on each line of a conversation (see Sexist Terms for an example). I like parentheses for the most part. I really enjoy ellipses… those are the three dots which indicate a pregnant pause… or a missing word or phrase.

I told my son that “ain’t” wasn’t a proper word. Then of course a song came on the radio with double negatives and the aforementioned term, “ain’t.” It is much more common here than it was in New York.

I pride myself on knowing the rules. But they keep changing them! I feel like an anachronism.

anachronism n. anything out of its proper time. From Greek, ana, backward, chronos, time.

Okay, here's the conclusion. There must be some relationship between the top of this article and the bottom. I'll try to tie in punctuation with anachronism: You never hear much about punctiliousness these days. I guess it's anachronistic to be concerned with propriety or punctuation in today's informal society.