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Ray Quintanilla’s front-page story “IEPA hardly gushing over troubled river” (July 8) included a commonly misused word: brackish.
Many of us use it to describe any stagnant or stale body of idle water. We think of swamps. But the adjective has a specific use. The word is meant to describe salty waters. Specifically, it is used most frequently–and correctly–to describe salt marshes and backwaters near the sea. It cannot be used to describe the murky Des Plaines River, however polluted that river might be–unless there’s a salt factory nearby.
