Explanation:
Unless we see the press as being naive and easily duped, they’re disingenuous in this context.

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about ingenious vs. ingenuous and mentioned that a lot of people don’t seem to realize there are two different words. I came across one mention of a Microsoft Word correction error, in which some typoed version of ingenious is corrected to ingenuous.

One thing I hadn’t anticipated was that other people seem to use ingenuous when they mean disingenuous.

Here’s the first definition of ingenuous that pops up in a Google search:

in·gen·u·ous/inˈjenyo͞oəs/
Adjective:
(of a person or action) Innocent and unsuspecting.
Synonyms:
artless – naive – candid – frank – simple – guileless

Someone is disingenuous if they are insincere but pretend to have those qualities. I suspect the use of ingenuous to mean disingenuous comes from thinking the word is linked to genuine, so ingenuous might mean not genuine.

And then there are people throwing ingenuine into the mix. Darren Barefoot, seeking support, found 19,100 Google hits for it — but none in dictionaries. That was in 2007. Let’s see… Today we’re up to 98,800. That means that, although ingenuine is still not a word, it may well be some day. Adding a new category for posts now: Non-words.

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To prevent a crippling worm attack, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urged that all users _______ application of the patch.

a. expedite

b. expediate

Answer: a.

Explanation:

Expedite is by far the better choice here.

Although I hate to have to report this, expediate is gaining acceptance as a word — although I’m happy to report that it’s not in very many dictionaries. It means expedite, which means to do something promptly or to speed up a process. I expect this is another word created because it was being used. People probably made it up as a verb form of expedient. What next — expediation instead of expedition? I’m too scared to look.

Expediate comes to me via my husband, who works at an IT firm (which shall remain nameless to prevent me from having drinks tossed in my face at the summer mixer). A coworker used it in a construction similar to the one I used above. The hub’s workplace is a fruitful source of blog fodder — his boss inspired the mute point post.

Expediate was featured in the Worthless Word for the Day list.

What horrific grammatical errors are you hearing in the wilds of  IT and business? Let me know!

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