Grimmer Girl here, I'm Minion Foggedy and this week I have a quick and dirty tip about

the word, etc. A tidbit about the phrase short shrift and a meaty middle about why you

can't take prepositions literally. Yes, I'm mixing up the order and putting the meaty

middle last. It's like dogs and cats living together. I don't know what's come over me,

but you've been warned. And now onto the quick and dirty tip about the word, etc. First,

as you already heard, it's pronounced, etc. with a T sound, not, etc. with an x sound.

In fact, it comes from Latin and was originally written as two words, etc., which translates

to, and the others. These days, it's abbreviated ETC. But what made me think of this topic

is that in the old days, it was abbreviated with an ampersand followed by a C, with an ampersand

representing the AND part of AND the others, or the ETC part. That's how it was written

on the title page of the book, The Doctor, etc. that I mentioned in last week's show because

it has the original Goldilocks story. I have a screenshot of it on the transcript of this

show at quickandirtytips.com, so you can see it if you want to. So your quick and dirty

tip is to remember to pronounce it with a T, etc. And when you see it written as ampersand

C, you know you're looking at a document that's probably at least 100 years old, or a

document that's trying to use old fashioned language. Next, I have a tidbit about the phrase

short shrift. Has anyone ever given you the short shrift? If so, it probably didn't

feel good. When you get the short shrift, you're treated unsympathetically. You get cursory

attention and little time. Say you want to impress the judges at the science fair, but

they walk right past your display. You just got the short shrift. Or say you're talking

to your boss about your new ideas, but she cuts you off mid-sentence and walks away.

You got the short shrift, too. But what's the shrift? And why is it short? The answer

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