, Columnist
Hoping for an ‘Anodyne’ End to a Tough Year
This oft-misused word is exactly what we need right now.
It’s bland, but not anodyne.
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“It’s a safe bet that a sizable number of Republican senators and representatives won’t regard the Biden administration as legitimate,” writes Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect. “That doesn’t augur well for Republican receptivity to anything Biden proposes, no matter how bland and anodyne.”
Now, don’t worry. This isn’t a column about politics. It’s a column about words. Specifically, “anodyne.” Because all of a sudden, the once-moribund word is everywhere; and the Grammar Curmudgeon that slumbers within me is awake ... and worried.