Pet peeve
Pet peeves; I probably have a hundred of them. As you get older, you get more of them at a rate proportional to how much more and more things start…
Pet peeves; I probably have a hundred of them. As you get older, you get more of them at a rate proportional to how much more and more things start to annoy you. These days a lot of things annoy me. When I was younger I was Dennis; now Im Mr. Wilson.
But a pet peeve becomes even peevier when it crosses over into my woodworking time. Todays example, class, is the prefix pre, which is entirely misused in standard conversation today. In correct usage, the prefix modifies a word that is paired with a second word to denote that the action described by the second word is preceded by the action described by the first word. For example, if you hold a hearing before a trial, it is a pre-trial hearing. A woodworking example might be pre-planing adjustment. The adjustment comes first, the planing second.
Common usage today doesnt correctly use a second word, and instead incorrectly makes the action of the modified word come first. For example, if youre going to bake a cake you pre-heat the oven. Thats wrong. You dont pre-heat the oven, you just heat it. Period. Cooking directions that state, Place the chicken in a pre-heated 300-degree oven are stupid. Nope, just put the bird into a 300-degree oven the oven cant be 300 degrees if it wasnt already heated, so the whole use of the prefix is unnecessary. In fact, since correct usage of the prefix pre is to indicate what happens before the action of the word, then ANY action you perform before you heat the oven is, in fact, pre-heating. Its about 9:00 on a Thursday right now, but I plan to make Italian chicken with tomatoes and freshly grated parmesan cheese tomorrow night for dinner. Since I wont heat the oven till tomorrow, technically speaking Im pre-heating that oven right now.
Woodworking has a ton of these pre words. Before driving the screw, pre-drill a hole No! You dont pre-drill a hole, you just drill the @%#&$ thing! Pre-stain, pre-finish, pre-glue, pre-fit, pre-cut, pre-assemble wrong! Stain, finish, glue, fit, cut, assemble right!
So, now that Ive explained this, I wont be hearing any more of those annoying pre words out of you, will I?
Thank you for your attention. Class dismissed.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
