Improper Word Usage Has Mose Out on a Ledge

Words should not be banned unless their use becomes a danger to society.

Or, if they violate Mose's delicate sensibilities.

One such word is the verb allege and its mutant offspring, alleged and allegedly.

On a morning “news” show today, one of the hosts talked about that Penn State graduate assistant who “allegedly saw” a coach molesting a young boy in a shower.

A newspaper reported this week about a troubled young man who walked into a school with a gun.

“He then allegedly put the gun under his chin,” the newspaper's website reported.

Another newspaper's headline said, Police looking for alleged shooter.

Those are examples of why Mose banned the word from his publications. People just cannot seem to put alleged in the right place – or use it properly.

Worse, the adjective and adverb forms often deny readers/listeners the knowledge of who did the alleging.

The denotative meaning of allege is to assert without proof; but the word connotes an illegality or impropriety.

There is nothing improper about seeing a coach molest a kid in a shower. The impropriety is the molesting, not the witnessing of it.

There is nothing illegal about putting a gun under one's chin.

And police don't look for an “alleged shooter.” They look for the actual shooter – perhaps a suspect who is alleged (by police) to have shot someone.

Writers serve their readers better by explaining who did the alleging – by attributing information to the source.

The grad assistant told the grand jury he saw the coach molest the kid.

Witnesses told police the boy put the gun under his chin.

Police are looking for the man who shot ... Or, if they think they know who did it, ... a man they suspect in the shooting of ...

If you do not use allege, you cannot use it, or place it, improperly.

And you give readers the benefit of knowing the alleger.

Which is not the same as an alligator.