Doméstico no es lo mismo que nacional

Cada vez es más frecuente el uso incorrecto de la palabra “doméstico” con el sentido de nacional, interior o interno.

El uso de "doméstico" con el sentido de nacional o interno es muy habitual, sobre todo en informaciones relativas a cuestiones de tráfico aéreo, y es un claro anglicismo, además de una utilización incorrecta de este término que en español tiene el significado de "perteneciente o relativo a la casa u hogar".

El Diccionario de Anglicismos de Ricardo Alfaro indica que "en inglés el vocablo domestic tiene el significado de nacional, es decir de lo que pertenece a la vida interior de una nación, y por paronimia con nuestro adjetivo, frecuentemente se oye hablar de jurisdicción doméstica o incluso de asuntos domésticos y producción doméstica".

Así en ejemplos como "Los vuelos domésticos son más numerosos que los internacionales", "Le había pedido al FMI que se le diera una altísima prioridad al problema doméstico" debería haberse empleado en su lugar vuelos nacionales y problema interno.

Fundación del Español Urgente (www.fundeu.es).

Stuffy Words and Legalese

Just because you know what malum prohibitum means or what a habendum clause does is no reason to use such language at the dinner table. A lawyer should keep in mind that the purpose of communication is to communicate and this can’t be done if the reader or listener doesn’t understand the words used.

Some lawyers also tend to use words in peculiar ways, using same as a pronoun and said as an adjective . Some pepper contracts and resolutions with whereases and wherefores. Harsher critics suggest that the impenetrable language serves the same purpose as mumbo-jumbo always has: to keep the public in the dark and protect a trade monopoly. Less severe critics chalk it up to professional inertia.

Fortunately, the trend today is toward plain language and away from the stuffiness and jargon-laced prose that characterized so much legal writing in the past. It’s a welcome trend, and one that writing coaches universally encourage.

Gardner, Bryan, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style (2nd Ed.), Thompson West, 2006.

Spelling: General Principles

Always use your computer’s spell-checker, but never rely on it alone.
(a) Generally. Get to know your computer’s spell-checker, and especially how to add and edit its custom dictionaries. Words (and names) that your computer flags over and over again -but that you know are spelled correctly- you should add to your custom dicionary.
(b) Self-check. Make a habit of checking your spelling every time you enter new text or edit existing drafts. The best routine is to save the file one last time (having saved regularly while working on the document), then run the spell-check, and finally close the file, saving changes.
(c) Proofreaders. Don’t rely solely on the computer’s spell-checker, it can’t substitute for human eyes. Invariably, the more eyes that see a draft, the better. Your work product reflects your level of professionalism, and neglectful errors suggest less-than-rigorous work habits.
(d) Autocorrection. Be careful about letting your word processor make automatic corrections such as search-and-replace. There’s a failure rate with automatic substitutions, and the practice can introduce new errors.

Gardner, Bryan, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style (2nd Ed.), Thompson West, 2006.

above and over

1) “higher than”: above or over
Above and over can both mean “higher than”. Above is more common with this meaning.
The water came up above/over our knees.
Can you see the helicopter above/over the palace?

2) “not directly over”: above
We use above when one thing is not directly over another.
We’ve got a little house above the lake. (Not over the lake).

3) “covering": over
We prefer over when one thing covers and/or touches another.
There is cloud over the South of England.
He put on a coat over his pyjamas.
We use over or across when one thing crosses another.
The plane was flying over/across Denmark.
Electricity cables stretch over/across the fields.

4) measurements: above
Above is used in measurements of temperature and height, and in other cases where we think of a vertical scale.
The temperature is three degrees above zero.
The summit of Everest is about 5000 metres above sea level.
She's well above average in intelligence.

5) ages, speeds, “more than”: over
We usually use over, not above, to talk about ages and speeds, and to mean "more than".
You have to be over 18 to see this film.
The police said she was driving at over 110 mph.
There were over 100,000 people at the festival.

6) books and papers
In a book or paper, above means “written before”.
The above rules and regulations apply to all students.
For prices and delivery charges, see above.
See over means “look on the next page”.
There are cheap flights at weekends: see over.

Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Precision and Accuracy

Often either of two words will suffice in a sentence, but the shades of meaning differ. There is, for example, a difference between saying that a doctrine is old and saying that it is venerable, between calling a treatise compendious and calling it voluminous, and between characterizing a person as drunken as opposed to merely drunk on a specific occasion.

Careful writers make distinctions. They cultivate an awareness for words and their connotative differences. They would no more write incidental to when they mean incident to than a carpenter would try to nail with the handle of a screwdriver.

Gardner, Bryan, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style (2nd Ed.), Thompson West, 2006.