Each week The Old Editor will attempt to address your entreaties for information and advice on grammar and usage, writing, writer-editor etiquette, and related subjects.
The Old Editor does not address marital and relationship matters, dietary questions, or automobile mechanics.
The question: Tweeting today, @usewordsbetter asked: " 'Clinch' and 'cinch' can both mean 'make certain' in @MerriamWebster. Not compared in newest @ChicagoManual or @BryanAGarner's third. I'd like to see them discussed head-to-head somewhere because 'clinch' seems preferred over 'cinch' for 'make certain,' and I don't know why."
(The question did not come directly to The Old Editor. Rather, @CherylStephens replied to @usewordsbetter: "Ask the grumpy old editor @johnemcintyre."
The Old Editor answers:
To clinch is to confirm or settle a bargain or contract, or confirm a victory or other achievement. There is a literal "make certain" meaning: to fasten by bending over the protruding point of a nail or rivet. The related noun means a clinch knot, the struggle of boxers at close quarters, or an embrace.
To cinch is to make certain. The literal sense is to secure a garment with a belt or to fix a saddle securely with a girth. The related noun—an informal one—means an easy task or a sure thing.
A look at the Corpus of Contemporary American English indicates that the current usages of cinch are overwhelmingly the verb for securing a garment and the noun for a certainty, not the verb for making certain. The CCAE listings for clinch are overwhelmingly the senses for closing a deal or winning an athletic competition or award.
So while the lexicographers have found that both clinch and cinch have "make certain" meanings, @usewordsbetter's perception is accurate that clinch is the verb preferred for that meaning in common usage. The Old Editor is unable to explain why cinch is less popular in this sense. Perhaps the slang sense of the noun colors the verb unfavorably.
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