LifetimeBillsFan
04-26-2009, 10:20 AM
I know that I am going to sound like a real nudge and a nerd posting this, but this has been absolutely driving me CRAZY!
I know that some may not have paid attention in English class, so let me point something out that you may have missed that can help to make your posts about football more intelligible and more precise:
grater: from "to grate", which means to shred. A grater is an object used to shred, as in a "cheese-grater"
grader: from "to grade", which can mean to give a grade (or performance evaluation) or to change the shape or slope of the terrain. In this latter sense, a grader is an object that is used to alter the terrain, as in a bulldozer or "road-grader"
core: means center around which something is built or grows. The molten center of the Earth is its core; an apple has a core; etc.
corps: means "a body", group or unit, as in the US Marine Corps or a "corps of angels", etc.
When a team drafts a player who is a good run blocker, he may be compared to a bull-dozer by refering to him as a "road-grader".
If there is such a thing as a "road-grater", it would be the thing that chews up the surface of a road before it gets re-surfaced. I'm not exactly sure what a comparision to a "grater" or "road-grater" in football would refer to.
A football team may have both a "core" and several "corps", but the words refer to things that are very different!
A coach may say that "we have a solid "core" of young players that we are building around" to refer to the fact that the team has assembled a group of young players that they see as leaders and/or essential to future success.
A coach may also refer to his linebacking "corps" when talking about the team's starting linebackers, linebacking unit or group of linebackers.
The "core" players/leaders of a team may also be considered a "corps", but just as an apple does not have a "corps", refering to the "core of a team" by using the word "corps" is incorrect.
Similarly, while the "core" players of a team may constitute a "corps", refering to a team's linebacking unit as its linebacking "core" is improper English and can cause confusion because the linebacking "core" does not necessarily have to include all of the members of the linebacking "corps".
I know that I shouldn't let the improper use of these terms bother me, but it does, especially when I see reporters who work for the Buffalo News, who should know better, doing it--as I did in the last couple of days. So, I just had to get this off of my chest. And, who better to share it with than my good friends on the BillsZone messageboard--some of whom can, hopefully, benefit from this little English refresher.
Thanks for bearing with me!
I know that some may not have paid attention in English class, so let me point something out that you may have missed that can help to make your posts about football more intelligible and more precise:
grater: from "to grate", which means to shred. A grater is an object used to shred, as in a "cheese-grater"
grader: from "to grade", which can mean to give a grade (or performance evaluation) or to change the shape or slope of the terrain. In this latter sense, a grader is an object that is used to alter the terrain, as in a bulldozer or "road-grader"
core: means center around which something is built or grows. The molten center of the Earth is its core; an apple has a core; etc.
corps: means "a body", group or unit, as in the US Marine Corps or a "corps of angels", etc.
When a team drafts a player who is a good run blocker, he may be compared to a bull-dozer by refering to him as a "road-grader".
If there is such a thing as a "road-grater", it would be the thing that chews up the surface of a road before it gets re-surfaced. I'm not exactly sure what a comparision to a "grater" or "road-grater" in football would refer to.
A football team may have both a "core" and several "corps", but the words refer to things that are very different!
A coach may say that "we have a solid "core" of young players that we are building around" to refer to the fact that the team has assembled a group of young players that they see as leaders and/or essential to future success.
A coach may also refer to his linebacking "corps" when talking about the team's starting linebackers, linebacking unit or group of linebackers.
The "core" players/leaders of a team may also be considered a "corps", but just as an apple does not have a "corps", refering to the "core of a team" by using the word "corps" is incorrect.
Similarly, while the "core" players of a team may constitute a "corps", refering to a team's linebacking unit as its linebacking "core" is improper English and can cause confusion because the linebacking "core" does not necessarily have to include all of the members of the linebacking "corps".
I know that I shouldn't let the improper use of these terms bother me, but it does, especially when I see reporters who work for the Buffalo News, who should know better, doing it--as I did in the last couple of days. So, I just had to get this off of my chest. And, who better to share it with than my good friends on the BillsZone messageboard--some of whom can, hopefully, benefit from this little English refresher.
Thanks for bearing with me!