Definition and Examples of Abbreviations in English

Definition and Examples of Abbreviations in English An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, such as Jan. for January. The abbreviated form of the word abbreviation is  abbr. - or, less commonly, abbrv. or abbrev. In American English, many abbreviations are followed by a period (Dr., Ms.). In contrast, British usage generally favors omitting the period (or full stop) in abbreviations that include the first and last letters of a single word (Dr, Ms). When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, a single period serves both to mark the abbreviation and to close the sentence. Linguist David Crystal notes that abbreviations are a major component of the English writing system, not a marginal feature. The largest dictionaries of abbreviations contain well over half a million entries, and their number is increasing all the time (Spell It Out, 2014). Here are some common examples of variousl types of abbreviations: AcronymBackronymCommonly Confused Latin Abbreviations in EnglishCommon Revision Symbols and AbbreviationsCommon Scholarly AbbreviationsE.g. and I.e.Etc. and Et al.InitialeseInitialismLogograph Etymology Abbreviation comes from the Latin word brevis meaning short. Examples and Observations In general, spell out the names of government bureaus and agencies, well-known organizations, companies, etc., on first reference. In later references, use short forms like the agency or the company when possible because handfuls of initials make for mottled typography and choppy prose.Abbreviations may be ironic, humorous, or whimsical: for example, the rail link between the town of Bedford and the London station of St. Pancras is locally known as the Bedpan Line; a comparable link for Boston, New York, and Washington is the Bosnywash circuit. Comments on life may be telescoped into such sardonic packages as: BOGSAT a Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around a Table (making decisions about other people); GOMER Get Out of My Emergency Room (said by physicians to hypochondriacs); MMMBA Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa (an in-group term among people who have to travel those miles); TGIF Thank God Its Friday (after a particularly hard working week).AbbrevesToday, the fave (for favorite’) abb reves are obvi (a shortening of Thank you, Captain Obvious’) and belig (a clipping of belligerent, retaining the soft g). Nobody in the young-barflies crowd orders the usual’; it’s the yoozh. My grandnephew Jesse concludes sentences with whatev, which is probs (for probably’) whatever. In this cacophony of abbreves, word endings are scattered all over the floor. Go fig. Totes include for at,  Ã‚ £ for pound, % for per cent, and for plus. The ampersand, , is one of the oldest. It is a collapsed version of the Latin word et, and: the bottom circle is whats left of the e, and the rising tail on the right is whats left of the t. Numerals are another kind that we read as 1, 2, 3, etc. as one, two, three... And it is part of the business of learning to read and write to know when we should write words in their logographic form and when to spell them out. Sources A. Siegal,  The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 1999 Tom McArthur,  The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992 William Safire, Abbreve  That Template.  The New York Times Magazine, May 21, 2009 Jeff Guo, The Totes  Amazesh  Way Millennials Are Changing the English Language.  The Washington Post, January 13, 2016 David Crystal,  Spell It Out. Picador, 2014

Taken Aback

Taken Aback Taken Aback Taken Aback By Maeve Maddox A reader encountering the expression â€Å"taken aback† looked it up in the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, where he found this example of usage: â€Å"I was a little taken aback at the directness of the question.† However, he also found â€Å"taken aback by† and â€Å"taken aback that† in other printed sources. He wants to know what rule, if any, determines what word should follow the expression. â€Å"Taken aback† is used as an adjective meaning â€Å"shocked, amazed, astounded.† In modern usage, it is frequently followed by an adjective complement. Note: An adjective complement is a clause or phrase that adds to the meaning of an adjective or modifies it. The adjective complement always follows the adjective it complements and is a noun clause or a prepositional phrase. A web search yields numerous examples of â€Å"taken aback† followed by a noun clause beginning with that: New Jersey imam â€Å"taken aback† that his mosque was under surveillance Which actress thinks you’re taken aback that she’s ‘easygoing but not necessarily stupid’? Im a little taken aback that you have reg priced a Hasbro F/X star wars lightsaber at 48.00 then put it at 50% off. I was taken aback that this kind of diatribe could actually make [its] way to the general public. When â€Å"taken aback† is followed by a prepositional phrase, the usual preposition used is by, although both with and at are seen. The adverb aback has been in the language since Old English times. Two of its meanings are â€Å"in a backward direction† and â€Å"behind.† As an adverb with the figurative meaning of â€Å"in the past,† aback still occurs in regional dialect: â€Å"Werent it you I saw ride that grey mare over on Wondala a couple of years aback?†(OED example: A. Agar Queensland Ringer (2008) v. 40).â€Å"   Ã‚   The earliest OED example of â€Å"taken aback† to mean â€Å"surprised,† â€Å"shocked,† or â€Å"disconcerted† is dated 1751. This sense arose from a sailing term: taken aback: (transitive verb in the passive) Of a sail: to be suddenly pressed back against the mast, preventing forward progress, either through bad steering or a change in the wind. Of a ship, etc.: to be caught in this way. A person who is â€Å"taken aback† is momentarily â€Å"thrown off course† by some event or remark. Of the 18 examples offered in the OED for both the literal and figurative use of the expression, only four are followed by a prepositional phrase, two of which are governed by with and two of which begin with by. Other dictionaries offer usage examples with the preposition at, but a search on the Google Ngram Viewer suggests that by is by far the most common choice. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Farther vs. FurtherEnglish Grammar 101: Verb MoodWriting a Thank You Note

LAW 2112 EUROPEAN SINGLE MARKET Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

LAW 2112 EUROPEAN SINGLE MARKET - Essay Example This is citizenship in two countries. B) This will allow you to make your family members temporary citizens with you and you will be able to live abroad in the UA nation. 2) To become a citizen, the spouse automatically has their nationality. 3) Children may also take their parents nationality. 4) Extended family can become naturalized. In this process, Citizenship is up to the Home Secretary. They will make a decision about whether a person qualifies. The Secretary will make a decision as it sees fit. There are a number of official requirements for naturalization. The Secretary may wave some of the requirements under certain circumstances. The requirements are as follows: 1) Indefinite right to keep immigration status for a person who does not hold right to adobe in the UA. This person can be admitted to the UA without any time limit to stay. The right of adobe is Irish Citizenship. 2) Must be 18 years of age or older. 3) Must be of sound mind. 4) Must intend to continue to live in the UA or to have Crown service, or a company is established in the UA. 5) Must speak English, Welsh, or Gaelic reasonably well. 6) Must have an understanding of life in UA. 7) Must have good character. 8) Residential requirements must be met. Residential requirements are as follows: 1) Must have been a resident in the UA for at least 5 years (also know as the residential qualifying period), and 2) Must have been present in the UA prior to the date of application, and Must not have spent more than 450 days outside the UA during the 5 year period, and 3) Must not spend more than 90 days not in the UA during a 12 month period, and 4) Must not have breached the Immigration Rules at any time during the 5 years. 5) A child that is born in the UA, where the parents are non British citizens, the child does not receive British status. Spouses and civil partners must do as follows: 1) Must have been a resident in the UA for 3 years prior to the date of the application, and 2) Must have been present in the UA 3 years prior to the application date, and 3) Must not have spent more than 270 days outside of the UA in the past 12 months, of the 3 year period, and 4) In the last 12 months, cannot have spent more than 90 days outside of the UA, and 5) There has been no breach of the immigration rules, during a 3 year period. 6) Before July 1983, only a birth of a legitimate child (born to a married couple) was considered a citizen automatically from the father. At the time of the birth the child is able to have citizenship if the father is able to have indefinite leave or another settled status. The child had automatic British citizenship derived from the father, until July 2006. However, in the instance that the parents are not married at the time of the birth in the United Kingdom and then got married, then the marriage legitimates the child through the father. Although, if the father was a settled British citizen and considered settled in the United Kingdom when the child w as born, the child becomes a citizen starting from the time of the marriage. If a child is born to unmarried parents, the Home Office will usually register the child as a British citizen. . Q) What happens if a marriage breaks up, the spouse is the holder of the British citizenship and the employee is from a country that does not allow dual citizenship? Can the employee travel out of the UA and get back into the country frequently? A) 1)When a marriage or civil partnership permanently dissolves while the partner that retains

The Development and Acceptance of Labor Arbitration Essay

The Development and Acceptance of Labor Arbitration - Essay Example The regulations set in this case do not allow for concessions, therefore it sets clear guidelines to ensure that the bargain is done in good faith and to the benefit of both parties. Arbitration process involves the appointment of a third neutral party (an Arbiter) who will be charged with the duty of holding formal and informal hearings concerning the differences. The Arbiter will then from the facts drawn from the hearings make a conclusion that binds the two warring factions. His decision must be respected as it is enforceable by the law (Coleman, 1997, pp.36-38). This research paper will look into the historical context of the development and acceptance of the arbitration process in the labor field, particularly during the period and prior to WW II and through the war. The paper will also look at one significant case (Morse's Leadership) which resulted into a great impact on the management of labor relations in the past. Arbitration is as old as humanity and has been used in the world over to settle disputes between people and even among nations at war. This paper will zero in on industrial labor arbitration between employers and employees prior and during World War Two. The concept of arbitration was used to prevent the differences between the parties from escalating into chaos and turning tragic due to workers' strikes. The concept became a vital requirement in the 20th Century with the rapid industrialization and formation of labor unions (Hinchcliff, 1991, p.231). In the United States, it started in1935 with the passage of NLR (National Labor Relations) Act and proceeded into and during the WWII. President Roosevelt Franklin saw the need to help iron out the differences in industries that produced steel and other war materials so that the ensuing labor differences may not escalate and lead to shortage war paraphernalia (Hinchcliff, 1991, p.251). Far much more than the World War One, the World Wa r Two involved aggressive commitment of all nations in the globe. The whole human resources as well as the economic resources were directed to combat the vice. Both combatants and the non-combatants were affected and the expansion of the battle field to cover the enemies' boarders dealt a big blow to the world economy. The ability of a country to survive the war was therefore determined by its capacity to handle industrial and personnel requirement during the Great War. These two sectors which were already strained the war only aggravated the situation. There was a need to keep the human capital under control and at the same time produce enough to run the demands of the war. At its infancy, the law was never at all friendly with arbitration of any form. It was viewed by many as a means of overshadowing and usurpation of the judiciary. The courts were very hostile with it establishment. Their view was that the system was geared to drive them from the office and be rendered jobless through complete ousting of the jurisdiction process (McKelvey, 1957, p.14). To counter the new development, the courts declined to order specific performances of an executor for arbitration and also refused to allow for anything over the nominal damages for a breach of an

Geography Summary :: Papers

Geography Summary A very long time ago, in outer space. There was an atom, invisible to the naked eye. No one knows how the atom was created, it was just there. This atom was very concentrated and very dense. Approximately 30 billion years ago, that atom exploded and out came the material used to create the entire universe. Of course, back then. The universe was very different from today. This is the big bang theory, it wa sproposed by George Gamow a Russian American. According to the theory, the force of the explosion is still making us drift and then will pull us back bringing our existence to an end. When the earth was first created, there was only one continent. It was called Pangea. The Pangea then split up into two smaller continents named respectively Laurasia and Gondowanaland. Finally, both Laurasia and Gondowanaland split up into yet smaller continents, resulting in a final count of 7 continents. This theory is called Continental Drift and it was suggested by Alfred Wegener in 1912. Convection currents is how heat moves in liquids. We find convection currents inside the moho but we can also find convection currents in a pot of boilling water. Convection currents are circles of heat side by side moving in opposite directions. When these happen inside the moho, many things can happen. At some points on the earth parts of the crust can be sucked underground make cracks on the ground. At other places on earth, the currents can push up the crust, thus making a hill. Convection currents are what causes tectonic plates to move. With out convection currents, there probably wouldn`t be any continental drift. As you learnt in the previous paragraph, convection currents take place in the Moho. The Mohorovicic discontinuity is the boundary between the crust and the mantle. The material inside the moho are smi molten rocks.

Child Called It Paper Essay

Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model does a great job of helping to display that child abuse is not an issue that is isolated to the home, but rather a problem that can be confronted on multiple levels. Through his use of a â€Å"target-like† diagram, he is able to show that each systems builds on each other and are interrelated. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model consists of five, linked systems, the Chronosystem, the Macrosystem, the Exosystem, the  Mesosystem, and the Microsystem. To better understand Bronfenbrenner’s model, a walk through each layer of the model using explanations and examples from Dave Pelzer’s memoir, A Child Called â€Å"It†(Pelzer, 1995) is necessary. With the Chronosystem, Bronfenbrenner introduces the idea and understanding that a child’s development would be effected by any major life event that happens to or around the victim that would effect their livelihood and well-being long-term. For an example of this in A Child Called â€Å"It† (Pelzer, 1995), a Chronosystem would be when Dave’s Father no longer stood as Dave’s protector, this is most blatantly seen around the time that Dave’s Mother stabbed him. Dave’s Father had grown â€Å"blind† and desensitized to the actions his wife was taking on their child. Around this same time, Dave’s Father began to not only back away from the issues and problems associated with Dave, but Dave’s Father began to bow out of the issues concerning the entire family. Dave’s Father spent more nights and days away from the house, packing â€Å"overnight† bags, even when Dave knew his Father wasn’t working that nigh t. The actions that his Father took at this crucial time would set Dave up for unending beating and lashings from his Mother. He would no longer be able to find a safe haven in his Father’s arms or ease in the fact that his Father was just down the hallway. Dave’s protector was gone and Dave’s Mother had lost her love and idea of harboring a perfect family. In the Macrosystem, Bronfenbrenner displays a community’s overarching beliefs, attitudes, and values toward the growth and development of a child. In Pelzer’s memoir, this system can best be seen through Dave’s Mother’s own beliefs and attitude toward family. In the chapter, Good Times, from the book (Pelzer, 1995), Dave recalled once living in an extremely loving household with a loving Mother and a terrific Father. Dave’s Mother would often cry, stating how happy she was that she finally had a real family. From this information, it can be inferred that Dave’s Mother came from an unloving household. She may have grown up not truly knowing the meaning of unconditional love and family. She wanted so much for her own family to be perfect, that one negative â€Å"slip-up† would send her on a violent rage.  Perhaps, if Dave’s Mother had grown up under and around a healthy family relationship, Dave’s early, elementary life c ould have been much different. Through the Exosystem, Bronfenbrenner includes the economic system, political system, education system, government system, religious system, neighbors, social services, and mass media into the mix of systems that can influence a child’s development and can be held responsible for a child’s upbringing. In Dave’s memoir, there are many examples of this part of Bronfenbrenner’s model, one example of a neighbor that could have offered aide to Dave would have been Dave’s Boy Scout Den Mother. It would have been clear to the Den Mother that Dave was in utter distress and torment when he ran up to her door to explain why he could not make it to the troop meeting. However, the Den Mother did not seem phased by Dave’s appearance and simply told him she would see him at the next meeting. Another example of this part of the model can be demonstrated through the educators and teachers of Dave’s elementary school when Dave’s mother comes to meet with the professionals of the school to talk about Dave’s wounds and bruises. Dave’s Mother explains to them that Dave had made up these stories with his imagination and was hurting himself because he was trying to gain his parents attention after Dave’s Mother gave birth to her most recent child, making Dave no longer the â€Å"baby† of the family. Instead of sending Dave’s Mother for further questioning, the education professionals took Dave’s Mother’s word for it and dropped the case. In the second to last portion of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model, Bronfenbrenner forms a link between the Exosystem and the Microsystem; linking of religion, school, and/or healthcare with the family home life. This all occurs in the Mesosystem. An example of this system is demonstrated by the fact that Dave’s principal does not confront Dave’s mother about his concerns and Dave’s injuries anymore. In his memoir, Dave recalls a time that his principal did, in fact, confront Dave’s mother about Daveà ¢â‚¬â„¢s injuries, however after doing so, Dave went home and came back to school the next day with wounds and bruises that were even worse than the ones that the principal had originally called to confront Dave’s Mother about. Ever since then, Dave’s principal did not try to contact Dave’s mother about his increasing amount of injuries. Last, but not least, is Bronfenbrenner’s section on the Microsystem, he works to  involve the family, peers, school, workplace, church, and/or health services in the development and assessment of child abuse outside the home. For this, there are many examples within Dave’s memoir, such as, when Dave’s peers at school reject and ridicule him based on the way he dresses, looks, and smells, instead of sensing that something was terribly wrong. Of course, the children in Dave’s class were young, like him, and may not have fully understood Dave’s situation, however, a substitute teacher, one day, in one of Dave’s classrooms, joined the other children in the humiliation of Dave. She fanned her nose and held out his assignment at arms length. The teacher should have known better and should have been trained to spot the warning signs of abuse. Another good example of a Microsystem working in Dave’s story would be when Dave’s brothers walked past Dave standing and staring at himself in the mirror, reciting, â€Å"I’m a bad boy!† over and over again. Instead of saying something to their Father or Mother, they shrugged off the action and continued to play as normal. As the brothers grew, they continued not to intervene when Dave’s Mother would beat Dave. In fact, there were some instances when they would even make the situation worse for Dave. Dave understood that they were probably just trying to save their own skin from their Mother’s wrath, but as the children grew, they should have known better. Together they would have been able to team up and get the help to their Mother that she truly needed. All in all, Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model does a wonderful job of displaying the systems of child abuse in a way that helps one to understand that child abuse is not just isolated to the home, but is instead a problem that can effect and needs to be confronted on many different levels. His model does so by having each larger system build on and link to the systems below. This shows that every link is interrelated and each issue/problem builds on one another. When a community works together to notice and bring attention to a child that is suffering abuse, that is when true progress can be made to get that child and family the help that they need. Reference: Pelzer, D. (1995). A Child Called â€Å"It†. Health Communications, Incorporated.

Definition and Examples of Irony (Figure of Speech)

Irony is the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. Similarly, irony may be a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. Adjective: ironic or ironical. Also known as  eironeia, illusio, and the dry mock. Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized: Verbal irony is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.Situational irony involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs.Dramatic irony is an effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about the present or future circumstances than a character in the story. In light of these different varieties of irony, Jonathan Tittler has concluded that irony has meant and means so many different things to different people that rarely is there a meeting of minds as to its particular sense on a given occasion (quoted by Frank Stringfellow in The Meaning of Irony, 1994). Etymology From the Greek, feigned ignorance Examples and Observations EarthA planet doesnt explode of itself, said drilyThe Martian astronomer, gazing off into the air—That they were able to do it is proof that highlyIntelligent beings must have been living there.(John Hall Wheelock, Earth)Kampenfeldt: This is a grave matter, a very grave matter. It has just been reported to me that youve been expressing sentiments hostile to the Fatherland.Schwab: What, me sir?Kampenfeldt: I warn you, Schwab, such treasonable conduct will lead you to a concentration camp.Schwab: But sir, what did I say?Kampenfeldt: You were distinctly heard to remark, This is a fine country to live in.Schwab: Oh, no, sir. Theres some mistake. No, what I said was, This is a fine country to live in.Kampenfeldt: Huh? You sure?Schwab: Yes sir.Kampenfeldt: I see. Well, in future dont make remarks that can be taken two ways.(Raymond Huntley and Eliot Makeham in Night Train to Munich, 1940)Gentlemen, you cant fight in here! This is the War Room.(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffl ey in Dr. Strangelove, 1964)It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a dirty word.(William Zinsser)Irony in Mark Twains Novel Puddnhead WilsonDavid Wilson, the title character of Puddnhead Wilson, is a master of irony. In fact, his use of irony permanently marks him. When he first arrives in Dawsons Landing in 1830, he makes an ironic remark that the villagers cannot understand. Distracted by the annoying yelping of an unseen dog, he says, I wished I owned half of that dog. When asked why, he replies, Because I would kill my half. He does not really want to own half the dog, and he probably does not really want to kill it; he merely wants to silence it and knows killing half the dog would kill the whole animal and achieve the desired effect. His remark is a simple example of irony, and the failure of the villagers to understand it causes them immediately to brand Wilson a fool and nickname him puddnhead. The very title of the novel is, therefore, based on irony , and that irony is compounded by the fact that Wilson is anything but a fool.(R. Kent Rasmussen, Blooms How to Write About Mark Twain. Infobase, 2008)Irony in Shakespeares Play Julius CaesarA classic example of irony is Mark Antonys speech in Shakespeares Julius Caesar. Although Antony declares, I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him, and declares that the assassins are honorable men, he means just the opposite.(Bryan Garner, Garners Modern American Usage. Oxford University Press, 2009)Uses and Characteristics of IronyIrony may be used as a rhetorical device to enforce ones meaning. It may be used . . . as a satiric device to attack a point of view or to expose folly, hypocrisy, or vanity. It may be used as a heuristic device to lead ones readers to see that things are not so simple or certain as they seem, or perhaps not so complex or doubtful as they seem. It is probable that most irony is rhetorical, satirical, or heuristic. . . .In the first place irony is a double-layered or two-story phenomenon. . . . In the second place, there is always some kind of opposition that may take the form of contradiction, incongruity, or incompatibility. . . . In the third place, there is in irony an element of innocence.(D.C. Muecke, The Compass of Irony. Methuen, 1969)An Age of IronyIt is sometimes said that we live in an age of irony. Irony in this sense may be found, for example, all throughout The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Suppose you hear a political candidate give a terribly long speech, one that rambles on and on without end. Afterward, you might turn to a friend sitting next to you, roll your eyes, and say, Well, that was short and to the point, wasnt it? You are being ironic. You are counting on your friend to turn the literal meaning of your expression, to read it as exactly the opposite of what your words actually mean. . . .When irony works, it helps to cement social bonds and mutual understanding because the speaker and hearer of irony both know to turn t he utterance, and they know that the other one knows they will turn the utterance. . . .Irony is a kind of winking at each other, as we all understand the game of meaning reversal that is being played.(Barry Brummett, Techniques of Close Reading. Sage, 2010)Irony as Mass TherapyIrony has always been a primary tool the under-powered use to tear at the over-powered in our culture. But now irony has become the bait that media corporations use to appeal to educated consumers. . . . Its almost an ultimate irony that those who say they dont like TV will sit and watch TV as long as the hosts of their favorite shows act like they dont like TV, either. Somewhere in this swirl of droll poses and pseudo-insights, irony itself becomes a kind of mass therapy for a politically confused culture. It offers a comfortable space where complicity doesnt feel like complicity. It makes you feel like you are counter-cultural while never requiring you to leave the mainstream culture it has so much fun teas ing. We are happy enough with this therapy that we feel no need to enact social change.(Dan French, review of The Daily Show, 2001)Alanis Morissettes IronicAlanis Morissettes Ironic, in which situations purporting to be ironic are merely sad, random, or annoying (a traffic jam when youre late, a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break) perpetuates widespread misuse of the word and outrages irony prescriptivists. It is, of course, ironic that Ironic is an unironic song about irony. Bonus irony: Ironic is widely cited as an example of how Americans dont get irony, despite the fact that Alanis Morissette is Canadian.(Jon Winokur, The Big Book of Irony. St. Martins, 2007)Direct expression, with no tricks, gimmickry, or irony, has come to be interpreted ironically because the default interpretive apparatus says, He cant really mean THAT! When a culture becomes ironic about itself en masse, simple statements of brutal fact, simple judgments of hate or dislike become humorous because they unveil the absurdity, friendliness, and caution of normal public expression. Its funny because its true. Honestly. Were all upside down now.(R. Jay Magill, Jr., Chic Ironic Bitterness. University of Michigan Press, 2007)Alan Bennett on IronyWere conceived in irony. We float in it from the womb. Its the amniotic fluid. Its the silver sea. Its the waters at their priest-like task, washing away guilt and purpose and responsibility. Joking but not joking. Caring but not caring. Serious but not serious.(Hilary in The Old Country by Alan Bennett, 1977)Thomas Carlyle on IronyAn ironic man, with his sly stillness, and ambuscading ways, more especially an ironic young man, from whom it is least expected, may be viewed as a pest to society.(Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh, 1833-34)Irony DeficiencyIrony deficiency  is an  informal term for the inability to recognize, comprehend, and/or utilize  irony--that is,  a tendency to interpret  fig urative language  in a  literal  way.-  Mobsters are reputedly huge fans of  The Godfather. They don’t see it as a tale of individual moral corruption. They see it as a nostalgia trip to better days for the mob.(Jonah Goldberg, The Irony of Irony.  National Review, April 28, 1999)-  Irony deficiency  is directly proportional to the strength of the political commitment or religious fervor. True believers of all persuasions are irony deficient. . . .Brutal dictators are irony deficient--take Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong-il, and Saddam Hussein, a world-class vulgarian whose art collection consisted of kitsch paintings displayed unironically.(Jon Winokur,  The Big Book of Irony. Macmillan, 2007)-  Here is something ironic: We live at a time when our diets are richer in irony than ever before in human history, yet millions of us suffer from that silent crippler,  irony deficiency  . . . not so much a deficiency in irony itself, but an inability to utilize the a bundance of irony all around us.(Swami Beyondananda,  Duck Soup for the Soul. Hysteria, 1999)-  Will people who detect a lack of irony in other cultures never stop to consider that this may be a sign of their own  irony deficiency? Maybe its defensible when the apes detect a lack of irony in Charlton Heston in  Planet of the Apes, but not when, say, Brits detect it in, say, Americans as a race . . .. The point of irony, after all, is to say things behind peoples backs to their faces. If you look around the poker table and cant tell who the pigeon is, its you.(Roy Blount, Jr., How to Talk Southern.  The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2004)The Lighter Side of IronyRachel Berry: Mr. Schuester, do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to give the lead solo in Sit Down, Youre Rocking the Boat to a boy in a wheelchair?Artie Abrams: I think Mr. Schue is using irony to enhance the performance.Rachel Berry: Theres nothing ironic about show choir!(Pilot episode of Glee, 2009)​Woma n: I started riding these trains in the forties. Those days a man would give up his seat for a woman. Now were liberated and we have to stand.Elaine: Its ironic.Woman: Whats ironic?Elaine: This, that weve come all this way, we have made all this progress, but you know weve lost the little things, the niceties.Woman: No, I mean what does ironic mean?Elaine: Oh.​(The Subway, Seinfeld, Jan. 8 1992)Im aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it.(Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons)Math was my worst subject because I could never persuade the teacher that my answers were meant ironically.(Calvin Trillin)Lyn Cassady: Its okay, you can attack me.Bob Wilton: Whats with the quotation fingers? Its like saying Im only capable of ironic attacking or something.​(The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2009) Pronunciation: I-ruh-nee