Q:I've often wondered why the title colonel is pronounced "kernel." That pro-nunciation reminds me of corn‑on‑the cob not a military title.

A:The noun colonel has an interesting etymology. Dictionaries give as its first definition: "an officer in the United States, Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that corresponds to the title of captain in the United States Navy." Thus a colonel ranks below a brigadier general and above a lieutenant colonel. But, during the 20th century, in Southern states, the title expanded to include some senior members of the bar. So the second definition of colonel is, as the reader noted: "an honorary title bestowed by some Southern states to members of the bar, usually senior members who have brought honor to the state."

The title soon expanded in Southern states to include the state's distinguished elderly male non‑lawyers and to honored male visitors to the state (often Northerners). For example, "The senator from Illinois visited recently and was made a Kentucky colonel."

Then British cartoonist David Low (1881‑1962) caricatured the title colonel. He created a comic strip in which the "hero" was one "Colonel Blimp," an elderly fat and pompous ex‑military officer who hated new ideas. The character spawned fad words like "blimpism" and "blimpery," which for a time were immensely popular, but now are seldom used.

Why do we pronounce the title as if it were "kernel"? That's because of the divergence between the word's orthographic development and its changing pronunciation. The title colonel was originally derived from the Latin word for a column of soldiers (colonus), but after being adopted into Middle French, the spelling and pronunciation became French (coronel) (the l sound changed to an r sound because it was easier to pronounce, and the spelling change followed).

However, when the word colonel was adopted into Middle English, English speakers copied the French pronunciation (with its r sound), but retained the Latin spelling (with the letter l), resulting in colonel (Latin orthography, French sound).

If English spelling is good for nothing else–and many argue that point–at least it has the virtue of indicating the etymology of words we pronounce one way and spell another, for example, words like through, enough, and bough.

Q: I sometimes see the phrase, "As grounds therefore..." spelled that way. Is that spelling correct?

A: No. The phrase should be, "As grounds therefor ...." The adverb therefor, which almost always occurs only in legal contexts, means "for that thing," "for it," or "for this." It is given those meanings in The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, in Black's Law Dictionary, and in The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), though the AHD labels it "archaic."

The typical usage occurs in Florida Statutes Annotated §672.2‑316 (5):

Q:I grind my teeth every time I see the sign posted at restaurants and other public places,"Not responsible for lost or stolen articles." In those places I leave articles that I own, not "lost or stolen" articles that I have brought with me. Shouldn't the sign state, "Not responsible for articles that are lost or stolen"?

A:Yes, and for perfect clarity, the words "while in our possession" should be added. Oh, the perils of expecting absolute clarity! The problem is that the submitted sign contains a deleted phrase of the verb "to be," but what is its tense? Is it have been or may be? If the former, the sign should be, "... articles that have been lost or stolen." If the latter, the sign should read, "... articles that may become lost or stolen."

Chicago lawyer David Lester had this to say about the phrase different from :

• My copy of the July ISBA Bar News arrived yesterday and as usual, being 77, I turned first to the obits. Not finding my name there, or any of my friends' names, I then turned to your column. Good, as usual, though I thought your comments on different from and different than were unnecessarily gentle. It's different from, dammit!

Some time ago, Jack Rosenthal of The New York Times, wrote about so‑called "Yogi‑isms," (remarks attributed to Yogi Berra, the master of mangled language). One anecdote was about a grandmotherly woman who, seeing Berra all dressed up after a spring training game in Florida, said, "My you look cool today." Berra's response: "Thank you ma'am; you don't look so hot yourself." And after Berra had signed on as a vice president of YooHoo Chocolate Beverage Co., a woman asked him, "Isn't that hyphenated?" Berra's response: "Lady, it ain't even carbonated."