What a useful word! It so aptly describes — well, I won't go there, or this will become a discussion of religion and politics!

At first I wondered if there weren't maybe too many syllables in the word (and that perhaps it could be "grammolatry," but then I realized that the base is the Greek *plural*, which gives us the -ata ending. Although in English we refer to "the letter of the law," it is thoughtless attention to the *letters* strung together in a sentence that this word describes: Letters without spirit.

So Anu, does this make you a High Priest of Grammatolatry and we readers of Word A Day your congregation ;)?

Nah, High priests don't have this much fun playing with their idols.

ummm,

I hope.

well, idol play is the devil's handwork.


or something.

Not really. The nominative singular might be gramma but the root is grammat- and it shows up in all the other cases, singular and plural.

and it shows up in all the other cases

It's a neuter noun, so the nominative and accusative singular are both gramma, while the other cases use the stem grammat as Faldo says.