The end of summer is drawing near, but there's still time for some warm weather camping before fall sets in. If you've already spent some time around a campfire this year, you may have noticed this interesting quirk our listener Delmar Bachert recently brought to our attention.
"All over the state of Michigan ... there are hand-crafted signs that say, 'Camp fire wood for sale,' 'Campfire wood for sale,' [or] 'Camp firewood for sale.' Which of the three is most correct?"
What we're dealing with here is a pair of compounds: campfire and firewood. Using them together, with "fire" repeated, feels clunky: "We need more firewood for the campfire."
From what we can tell, the most popular of the options our listener found is "campfire wood." This is also the generic term used by Walmart and other retailers.
"Camp firewood" can work, but it's worth noting that campfires can happen at places that aren't camps. Also, some would argue that "camp firewood" is wood used at a camp in stoves and fireplaces.
In this week's lightning round, we also talked about the past tense of "troubleshoot" and "affect" vs. "effect." To hear our discussion, listen to the audio above.
