saw one of these today actually here. cherubim frame ... well I guess it did have a front brake.

Whether you care for it or not, the meaning is valid, and the usage is recognized by those of more flexible judgement. Prescriptivism is a bad habit, and is usually endemic in people who don't understand common linguistic principles, but who are comforted (and generally empowered) by being able to say "dem's da rules, pal!". Using 'concerted' to modify a singular noun is no more ridiculous than using 'majority' as a synonym for 'most' (as in, 'the majority of people don't care about this discussion'), but the usage has become common and is generally acccpeted. Careful writers will avoid these words, but c'mon, it's just a blog...his language is pretty sharp, and sniping at supposed usage errors is a pretty weak way of avoiding the Snob's critiques. But don't worry-- your language is safe! I'm sure that 'the ignorant' have been sufficiently warned, and won't make this error again....


...that guy on the NY'er cover must be a friend of that freak in SF who rides the brakeless freewheel pista. Let's hope that his document tube comes with an airbag.

Just an OED question--how did you find out it was correct usage according to the OED? This is all I could find in the 2nd ed. Are updates posted somewhere else?

1. Arranged by mutual agreement; agreed upon, pre-arranged; planned, contrived; done in concert.
1716 ADDISON Freeholder No. 6 (Seager) By concerted falsehoods. 1727 DE FOE Syst. Magic I. vi. 149 These people have certain concerted terms..upon repeating which he [the Devil] is to appear. 1814 SCOTT Wav. xxv, The whole was a concerted scheme to depress and degrade every member of the Waverley family. 1860 TYNDALL Glac. II. x. 276 A concerted signal was then made.

2. Mus. Arranged in parts for a number of voices or instruments.
1834 EARL OF MOUNT-EDGCUMBE Mus. Remin. (ed. 4) p. 124 The inferior singers never joined in any concerted piece. 1864 H. SPENCER Illustr. Univ. Progr. 433 Concerted pieces need interspersing with solos.

3. United in action or intention.
1897 MARQUIS OF SALISBURY in Times 16 Feb. 8/1 The concerted sympathy of the Powers remains complete. 1897 Daily News 25 May 8/1 Europe unfortunately, concerted or otherwise, is pretty well case-hardened to suffering.

Grammatical Smackdown!

Ah, that must be it. It can't be simply that I disagree with you; I must misunderstand something fundamental and be on a power trip. Got it. Hey, how do I get out of this room? I command you to show me how this doorknob works!

You can use the 'Oxford Reference Online,' and refer to the American supplement of the OED, (The New Oxford American Dictionary). I don't know if your local library offers this: some do, some don't. A few people might try to sharpshoot me here, and claim that they're technically separate dictionaries, but both are constructed by the same governing institution using the same basic principles. The entries in the American version are largely the same as those in the full OED, but are supplemented or modified to reflect peculiarly American usage, and the same is done with the Australian and Canadian versions. The original citation (bike snob) is in the US, so using the American variant seems appropriate.

From the site::

adjective
1 jointly arranged, planned, or carried out; coordinated : determined to begin a concerted action against them.
• strenuously carried out; done with great effort : it would take a concerted effort for a burglar to break into my home.
2 (of music) arranged in several parts of equal importance : concerted secular music for voices.

If you have a Mac, the Dictionary.app is based around the American version of the OED, and a query will give you results similar to those you'd find in the web app.

--I've subsequently checked several other online dictionary sources and found a divide in the results. Dictionary.com and M-W both omit the 'new' usage, but the Cambridge Online Dictionary includes it. Of course, lesser dictionary makers are notorious for lifting material from one-another, so these results don't necessarily indicate any significant trend. Some Google-mining has revealed a good mix of both new and traditional usages. In most examples of the new usage I've found, the idea seems to be that the speaker is 'pulling together all his various faculties' in order to fully concentrate them on the task at hand. The phrase is pretty common in college-level compositions, and I was genuinely surprised that anyone objected to it.

That said, I realize the foolishness of our using a formal lexical reference to adjudicate usage in informal speech. Webspeech is interesting for how it bridges between spoken and written language, which were generally distinct prior to instant electronic communication. Unless a site strives for journalistic or literary credibility (Slate, NYT, etc), I don't think that it should be held to strict rules, if such things exist. Most linguists recognize that usage is all about context and audience.

I honestly didn't mean to get so involved in this, as it's not really relevant and makes me look like a prick, but this happens to be sort of a hobby of mine, so y'know...

And I'm surprised the mods haven't spanked us, yet. This discussion is pretty far afield of anything bike related.

BSNYC is an entertainingly snarky writer; perhaps Ken Cox is reacting with just a tad too much vehemence. But am I the only person who thinks that there is something a *little* pathetic--something that bespeaks a deep loneliness--about mining the Craigslist "Missed Connections" section for acerbic commentary?

Here's something to get you started, but you shouldn't think that this is the only way. Keep after it-- you'll get it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door

Honestly, I have trouble buying this. It sounds like a rationalization to me. People use "concerted" to mean "strenuous" partly because they forget (if they ever knew) that to do things in concert is to do them with other people, and partly because it sounds a lot like "concentrated."

And, of course, partly because they have heard or read it being used properly to describe an effort by two or more people: Owing to a concerted effort by members of the community, the old church was saved from demolition. A person who doesn't know the etymology can easily, and wrongly, assume that concerted in this case means that the members of the community worked really hard, rather than that the members of the community pooled their efforts.

I think it can be generally agreed that "college-level" does not mean what it once did.

True enough. But I think part of the context here involves this guy setting himself up as some sort of authority and mercilessly skewering people who don't follow his rules. Even when it's done in good fun, as is obviously the case here, it's always considered part of the game for members of the audience to try to catch such a person committing errors.

it's funny -- and i do appreciate his harshing on hipsters, but then again, i also feel like he equates all fixed gear riding to being a fad

pretty funny guy, though