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Aug 02
2007
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100 Words Almost Everyone ConfusesPosted by stevenl in Grammar, Copyediting |
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When people confuse the following, it makes me nauseated. If you're nauseated, it means you're feeling sick. If you're nauseous, it means you're making others sick (causing nausea in others).
I hear people say "I'm feeling nauseous," and I think to myself "please stay away from me, I don't want to become nauseated."
Check out the list of my pet peeves:
- adverse / averse
- affect / effect
- aggravate
- alleged
- all right
- altogether
- among / between
- assure / ensure / insure
- auger / augur
- average / median
- blatant / flagrant
- capital / capitol
- complement / compliment
- comprise
- consul / council / counsel
- convince / persuade
- discreet / discrete
- disinterested / uninterested
- enervate
- enormity / enormousness
- factoid
- fewer/ less
- flammable / inflammable
- flaunt / flout
- forte
- gender / sex
- hopefully
- impact
- impeach
- imply / infer
- incredible / incredulous
- irony
- irregardless
- its / it's
- kudos
- lay / lie
- leave / let
- literally
- mass / weight
- mean
- mischievous
- nuclear
- parameter
- penultimate
- peruse
- phenomenon
- plus
- precipitate / precipitous
- prescribe / proscribe
- presently
- principal / principle
- renown
- reticent
- sacrilegious
- seasonable / seasonal
- sensual / sensuous
- set / sit
- that / which
- unexceptionable / unexceptional
- unique
- utilize / use
- wherefore
- wreak / wreck
- zoology
Reminds me of the Al Yankovic song:
Except she was always using the word "infer"
When she obviously meant "imply"
And I know that somw guys can put up with that kinda thing
But frankly, I can't imagine why
And I told her, I said "Hey"
Are we playin' horseshoes, honey?
No I don't think we are
You're close (close) but no cigar
Anyway, anybody here have any pet peeves regarding commonly confused words?
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dsendecki
said:
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A few months ago, I discovered an interesting malapropism in a report I was helping out with at work and then blogged about it??augers well? for ?augurs well.? Interestingly, ?augers well? has entered the lexicon. Augur (the verb?ie to foretell) is from Middle English, derived from Latin and has Indo-European roots. Auger (the noun?ie a drill) is also from Middle English, but is an alteration of the word ?nauger?, which is derived from Old English rather than latin?see nafog?r, auger. Anyway -- check out the post, with links, etc, here. |
johnhardy
said:
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The list forgot the word decimate. Decimate means to reduce by ten percent. It has, as of late, been used to mean something more such as obliterate. Decimation was a common disciplinary act used in the Roman Empire to punish soldiers for retreating prematurely or otherwise bringing about failure in a battle. They would randomly pick one out of every ten soldiers and have them publicly killed so as to set an example for the group's behavior. If decimation meant to completely obliterate, then the Roman Empire certainly wouldn't have had enough soldiers to perpetuate their military power in ancient times. So, when you feel the urge to say "decimate" when you mean "obliterate", smack yourself upside the head and use the latter. |
