Today, some random dispatches from the Word Front . . .

— In a not so good way — The hottest phrase these days is "in a good way" — and I don't mean that that in a good way. It surfaced twice, for example, on the same page of a recent issue of Time magazine.

Describing Dara Torres' training regimen, Alice Park wrote, "I'm lying on my stomach as Steve Sierra concentrates his entire 160 pounds (75 kg) on my glutes and hamstrings. It hurts, but in a good way."

Just below, in a short blurb on Hasbro's forced shutdown of the Facebook game Scrabulous, Josh Quittner wrote, "Fans of Scrabulous, which had 500,000 daily users, went wild — and not in a good way."

In their use of "a good way," writers Park and Quittner were on the same page, literally and figuratively.

What's next? A revised version of the Lord's Prayer? — "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come — and I mean that in a good way."

— Pivotal decision — Writing in The Weekly Standard, Andrew Furguson alerts us to another trendy buzzword — "pivot." Newspapers and magazines no longer describe John McCain and Barack Obama as "changing their opinions" or "waffling," he explains. Instead, they're "pivoting." Ferguson himself confesses to writing that Obama was "executing a rhetorical pivot."

— Boning Up on Bona Fides — Everyone is familiar with the thoroughly Anglicized Latin term "bona fide," an adjective meaning "authentic, legitimate." And now more and more people are using its noun form, "bona fides" ("BOH-nuh-FY-deez," not "BOH-nuh-FYDS") to mean "good faith, authenticity, credibility."

Problem is, they're treating "bona fides" as a plural ("bona fides are strong"), when in fact it's singular. A writer for the Washington Times wrote, for instance, "Ickes' liberal bona fides are questioned by none."

Tom Suits (whose bona fides as a Latin scholar is impeccable) writes from Storrs, Conn., "'Fides' is inescapably singular. Only a handful of Latin fifth-declension nouns have plural forms, and 'fides' is not one of them. Even if it could be plural (like 'dies' and 'res'), the singular 'bona' would brand it as singular."

Because "bona fides" is overused, misused and pretentious to boot, most authorities advise avoiding it altogether. "Bona fides," they say, has no bona fides.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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