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Grammar Girl here. I'm Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language.
Today, we're going to double your pleasure and double your fun.
First, we'll talk about double possessives, and then we'll talk about words that do double duty.
Way back in episode 449, we addressed a follower's question about the use of double possessives, sometimes called double genitives.
That's when we mark possession twice, usually with of and an apostrophe s, as in a friend of Squiggly's, or of and a possessive pronoun, as in a friend of mine.
But with the first example, is a friend of Squiggly acceptable without the apostrophe s at the end of Squiggly?
Well, in the previous episode, the bottom line was double possessive does have legitimate uses, but you might want to avoid it in formal writing and perhaps use only one possessive at a time if it sounds natural.
So your best bet would be just squiggly's friend.
The question of double possessives is complex, or at least it seems that way.
Phil from North Carolina recently submitted virtually the same question I received 10 years ago, asking, If Harry is Bruce's friend, is it correct to say he's a friend of Bruce, as opposed to he's a friend of Bruce's?
The former doesn't sound quite right, possibly because of the common usage of the alternative, which seems to be a double possessive.
Phil is correct on both counts. A friend of Bruce sounds awkward to some people, and the commonly used a friend of Bruce's is a double possessive and perfectly legal.
So let's break this down a little more and see what the most prevalent style guides have to say.
Of course, the normal way to form possessives in English is either with an apostrophe S or with the word of.
The example we gave in episode 449 is the UK's crown jewels or the crown jewels of the UK.
Both are grammatical. But what if we use a double possessive?
Is it the Grammar Girl podcast of Mignon or the Grammar Girl podcast of Mignon's with the apostrophe S?
Well, most native speakers of English would probably say the second one sounds more natural, even though some language purists will tell you it's ungrammatical.
But it's not. It's perfectly acceptable and sometimes useful and even necessary.
First, most of the major style guides agree that double possessives are okay, but—and there's always a but, isn't there?—only when it comes to animate objects, as in the Grammar Girl podcast of Mignon's example.
But the guides differ in how they describe what an animate object is and the other conditions they prescribe for using a double possessive.
Let's start with the AP Stylebook, which is the stylebook we primarily use for the podcast and happens to be the most restrictive on this topic.
It gives two conditions that must be met.
One, the word after of must refer to an animate object.
And two, the word before of must involve only a portion of the animate object's possessions.
So we can say, the favorite toy of Chaos Kitties, since he is beyond animate and has many, many toys.
We can also use of in a possessive pronoun, like that toy is a favorite of his.
Of course, we could simplify things even more by saying Chaos Kitty's favorite toy.
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, the choice between of and apostrophe s to express possession is a matter of style.
The guide also notes that the preposition of can be used, quote, to express relationship, agency or possession, unquote.
When it comes to double possessives, it does not mention animate versus inanimate objects, but does agree with the AP's stylebook that a possessive form may be preceded by of when one of many is implied, as in the Chaos Kitty example I just mentioned.
But it further states that where the meaning is not literally possessive, the double possessive form should not be used.
So we have a follower of Mignon's submitted a question, or Mignon's follower submitted a question, but Phil is a fan of baseball, which we write without an apostrophe S since it's not true possession.
Next, Merriam-Webster has a very interesting section on double possessives, which it calls perfectly grammatical.
According to this dictionary, the double possessive dates back to Chaucer's time and mostly gets used without being remarked upon by native speakers.
But it does mention the naysayers who will scold you for using it, offering that a simple rewrite will often solve the problem.
Similar to Chicago, Merriam-Webster distinguishes between association and possession.
While double possessives are sometimes unnecessary, they can be helpful for differentiating between when the possessive or genitive case is about association or about ownership.
As in, a portrait of my parents without an apostrophe versus a portrait of my parents with an apostrophe.
In the first example, my parents are the subject of the portrait, while in the second, they are the owners of the portrait.
Merriam-Webster affirms that, quote, unquote.
Next, Garner's modern English usage agrees that, quote, some people erroneously stigmatize a friend of mine or an acquaintance of John's and points out that double possessives have been used since the days of Middle English, unquote, and are widely approved.
Garner describes the usage of both the word of and the apostrophe s as idiomatic and somewhat informal.
But he states that, quote, the double possessive appears in good writing and typically causes no trouble, unquote.
And in some cases, like with of and a possessive pronoun, such as a podcast of hers, they are impossible to avoid, according to Garner.
Finally, let's look at Cambridge Dictionary for examples of double possessives in British English.
Cambridge does allow for the use of the word of and the apostrophe s, just as in American English, but it doesn't specifically call out the conditions I mentioned earlier, animate versus inanimate objects, or whether you're talking about just a portion of the possessions.
It's still perfectly fine to say the podcast of Mignon's So to get back to Phil's question, there's nothing wrong with a double possessive like Harry is a friend of Bruce's, especially since Bruce is animate.
But you also don't have to write it that way if you don't want to.
Harry is a friend of Bruce is equally fine, as is the simpler phrase, Harry is Bruce's friend.
Ultimately, it's a style choice, which means it's up to you.
That segment was by Susan Herman, a retired multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and instructor for the federal government.
Your body is brilliant. Nature's Bounty has a bounty of solutions to help you thrive, supporting your systems from your head to your heels.
Nature's Bounty high-absorption magnesium glycinate supports heart, bone, nerve, and muscle health, while just one hair growth capsule a day helps grow thicker, fuller hair.
Delicious new Nature's Bounty probiotic gummies contain prebiotics and postbiotics, supporting gut health, regularity, and immune health.
Nature's Bounty. It's in your nature. Learn more at naturesbounty.com.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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Some words in English can look perfectly ordinary on the surface, but when you look deeper, you find they're hiding surprising secret identities.
Have you ever wondered why swallow can be both a bug-catching bird and something you do with your food?
Or why we call gossip scuttlebutt? Welcome to the world of words that do unexpected double duty in our language.
Let's start with beetle. Most of us hear the word b-e-e-t-l-e and think of insects with hard outer shells, or maybe John Paul George and Ringo, although the beetles spelled it b-e-a-t-l-e-s, a play on the word beat, as in rhythm.
But woodworkers reach for a different kind of beetle.
It's a heavy mallet with a wooden head. This tool's name traces back to the Old English betel, meaning a hitting tool, which shares its roots with beet.
The connection? Both the insect and the tool are associated with repeated hitting or striking.
The insect, with its characteristic motions of beating its wings, and the mallet with its hammering action.
And now that I think about it, Rinko also struck a drum to keep the beat.
The Beatles were definitely onto something.
Moving on, just sit right back and you'll hear a tale about scuttlebutt.
This nautical term combines two separate words into a compound word.
Scuttle is a verb that means to put a hole in something.
Sailors would scuttle a ship, deliberately putting a hole in it to sink it.
But comes from the late Latin butis, meaning a cask or wineskin.
On ships, the scuttlebutt was literally a water cask with a hole cut in it for drinking.
But just as office workers gathered around water coolers to chat, sailors would congregate around the scuttlebutt to trade ship news and gossip.
By 1901, the word had officially taken on its modern meaning of rumor or gossip.
The word fathom is another one with a double life in modern English, and it also has a nautical past.
While most of us use it to mean understand deeply, maritime professionals still measure ocean depths in fathoms, exactly 6 feet or 1.8288 meters.
It comes from the Old English fathom, meaning the distance between outstretched arms.
But over time, this nautical unit for measuring ropes at sea gradually took on a metaphorical meaning.
So when we say we can't fathom an idea, we're unknowingly using sailor speak to say something is too deep to measure.
Modern ships still carry fathometers, although sailors often call them depth sounders.
Next, when you hear the term wabbit, you might instantly think of Elmer Fudd calling bugs a wascally wabbit.
But Elmer's mispronunciation aside, this word comes from a different linguistic warren altogether.
The term has been part of Scottish English since the early 1900s, and it's an adjective that means tired out or exhausted.
It's believed to be related to the verb to wab, to tire out, and shares connotations with wobble.
A Scottish person might say something like, and pardon the bad accent, "'Dinna bother me the now, I'm too wabbit to think straight.'"
Cleave is another interesting double agent.
It's an example of a contronym, a word with two distinct meanings that are the opposite of each other.
Cleave combines the Old English cleavon, to split, and cleavion, to stick.
So you can cleave something apart, maybe with a cleaver, a large knife with a broad rectangular blade, or you can cleave to something tightly, trying to form an unbreakable bond.
A few other examples of contronyms include sanction, which can mean to allow or to prohibit, clip, which can mean to attach or to separate, and alight, which can mean to settle onto or to dismount from.
Next, the word swallow has a couple of meanings.
One is a bird, and the other is something you do with your food.
While you might think the quick-flying bird got its name from the way it gobbles down up to 60 insects an hour in mid-flight, these two words probably grew up in completely different linguistic families.
The verb comes from Old English swelion, meaning to consume, while the bird's name appears to come from a different Old English word, swelwe. language scholars have debated where the bird's name originally came from.
Some suggest links to ancient Greek words for other birds, but that's speculative.
It's more likely these two swallows just happened to end up looking identical over time, even though they started as different words with different meanings.
So this look at word histories shows us that English is like an archaeological site.
Dig deep enough and you'll find layers of meaning that tell stories about how our language evolved.
That segment was written by Karen Lundy.
Karen's a career writer and editor who drifted into marketing, which turned out to be creative storytelling in business casual clothes.
These days, she helps solo business owners find the right words to talk about their work.
Finally, I have a familect story from Glenn.
Hi, my name is Glenn Gillen from Durham, North Carolina, and we have a familect.
So in our family, we say the monkeys aren't working or more fully buzz, the monkeys aren't working.
And that's from the first Toy Story movie when they were trying to connect monkeys from the barrel of monkeys to escape in his room.
And at one point, Rex says, Buzz, the monkeys aren't working.
So our family uses that whenever something goes wrong or doesn't turn out right.
And that's our family act. Have a good day.
Thanks so much, Glenn. I remember that scene.
If you want to share the story of your family act, a word or phrase that you use only with your friends or family, leave a message on the voicemail line at 83-321-4GIRL or leave a voice message on WhatsApp.
Be sure to call from a nice quiet place.
And if you want that number or link later, you can always find them in the show notes.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.
Thanks to Morgan Christensen in advertising, Holly Hutchings, director of podcasts, Nat Hoops in marketing, and Dan Feierabend in audio, who's teaching his son to drive.
And I remember when he was little. And I'm Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl and author of the tip of day book, The Grammar Daily.
That's all. Thanks for listening. When you open a Corona, you hear the sounds of wherever you are a little differently.
A little more Corona. And you think to yourself, why am I just listening?
Corona. La Playa awaits. Relax responsibly.
Corona Extra Beer. Imported by Crown Imports Chicago, Illinois.
