Isn’t it funny how very frequently we don’t notice that a new word has been born — nor, in this case, that an old word is being abominably abused — until someone points it out, and then we suddenly start seeing it everywhere?

Thanks to readers Shelley Childs and Lenina Hassim, who both remarked on how “damages” is constantly and erroneously being used in place of “damage” in South African media outlets, I have a whole new fault line on my radar...