Let's list often confused terms

[jackdavinci]

Let's list often confused terms. Terms that are spelled or sound the same, and are for that reason inadvertently confused.

Mine:

1) organic. Yeah... the CHEMICAL term means it has carbon in it's molecules. But the agricultural term means something different. Words have more than one definition. Get the fuck over it. A bottle of water CAN be "organic" even though H2O has no C.

[Greg Charles]

The possessive pronoun its and the contraction it's are confused to the point that its no longer seems to exist. My iPad autocorrects its to it's, regardless of context, and the smartest people in the world, i.e., Dopers, get it wrong most of the time. That includes the OP. :)

[Aspidistra]

Doesn't the agricultural term mean no pesticides were used in its production?

I should bloody well hope that's the case for ALL bottled water on the market

[uuaschbaer]

Let's list often confused terms. Terms that are spelled or sound the same, and are for that reason inadvertently confused.

Mine:

1) organic. Yeah... the CHEMICAL term means it has carbon in it's molecules. But the agricultural term means something different. Words have more than one definition. Get the fuck over it. A bottle of water CAN be "organic" even though H2O has no C.

You're right, words mean what the people who use them mean by it. I do have some difficulty seeing how a bottle of water can be organically grown, though, so I'm rather curious to find out what people actually mean when they say that a bottle of water is organic. I mean, the least organic thing about a bottle of water seems to me that it includes a bottle, which is hard to escape from in the business of water bottle production.

Edit: Like Aspidistra said. Didn't yet see his or her comment there.

[Súil Dubh]

Inflammable, and flammable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammability#Linguistics:_flammable_vs._inflammable

Does anyone know what's the straight dope with the incorrect spelling "rediculous"? I see this all the time now on the Internet instead of the correct "ridiculous".

Is this a meme, or some kind of ironic spelling? I can't understand why people would be making the same simple mistake so frequently, when spell-checking software is so common.

[uuaschbaer]

My contribution:

Reflection and refraction.

Reflection is the tiny spot of light on a water droplet as sun rays hit it and bounce off again into your eye. Refraction is the fact that the droplet deforms the image of what's behind it as light rays coming from behind change their course as they penetrate the water.

[Balthisar]

Insure and ensure.

[charmstr]

pore and pour, mute and moot... in fact any confused homonyms that find their way into supposedly professionally edited fiction drive me crazy. It's okay to me if the writer doesn't know the difference. His job is telling a story. It's wrong if the copy editor doesn't know, though. It's even worse if the copy editor is letting his spellcheck software do his job for him.

[CalMeacham]

The Penguin Dictionary of Confusibles by Adrian Room is chock-full of such things. I have a copy here at my desk that I'll sometimes pull down and flip through. Unfortunately, I think it's out of print.

[Agent Foxtrot]

Obligatory: there, their, and they're. There are two horses on their farm and they're both mares.

Use and utilize: When you use something, you are employing its intended function. When you utilize something, you are repurposing it for a function other than that which it was designed. For example, you use a desk calculator to add two numbers. You utilize a desk calculator to swat a fly.

[WhyNot]

Herbalism =/= Homeopathy

[Thudlow Boink]

My iPad autocorrects its to it's, regardless of context:eek: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I suggest you take your iPad in and exchange it for one that isn't defective.

Does anyone know what's the straight dope with the incorrect spelling "rediculous"? I see this all the time now on the Internet instead of the correct "ridiculous".

Is this a meme, or some kind of ironic spelling? I can't understand why people would be making the same simple mistake so frequently, when spell-checking software is so common.I suspect it's because "re-" is such a common prefix. But yeah, people who do this should be ridiculed; and if they do it again, they should be reridiculed.

[TreacherousCretin]

:eek: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I suggest you take your iPad in and exchange it for one that isn't defective.

I suspect it's because "re-" is such a common prefix. But yeah, people who do this should be ridiculed; and if they do it again, they should be reridiculed.

Definately.


Which often gets spell-checked into "defiantly" and makes me think I'm going to loose my mind.

[bibliophage]

carom - to ricochet
careen - to tilt
career - to move fast

[Siam Sam]

Shit and shinola.

[geneb]

Ironic and funny. Seems people are using "ironic" more and more for any situation that is amusing.

[Inthewater]

effect and affect.

[Max Torque]

Does anyone know what's the straight dope with the incorrect spelling "rediculous"? I see this all the time now on the Internet instead of the correct "ridiculous".

Is this a meme, or some kind of ironic spelling? I can't understand why people would be making the same simple mistake so frequently, when spell-checking software is so common.

It's a reference to the Red Iculous, a Brazillian reptilian marsupial from Indonesia.

Affect - a verb. To make a difference in something.
Effect - a noun. The consequence of some action.

Technically, "effect" is used as a verb sometimes, but I consider that business-speak and undesirable.

[Cub Mistress]

Definately.


Which often gets spell-checked into "defiantly" and makes me think I'm going to loose my mind.

loose and lose :D
breaks and brakes

[jackdavinci]

The possessive pronoun its and the contraction it's are confused to the point that its no longer seems to exist. My iPad autocorrects its to it's, regardless of context, and the smartest people in the world, i.e., Dopers, get it wrong most of the time. That includes the OP. :)

To be fair, I'm writing on an iPod and don't always notice when I'm incorrectly auto corrected :-)

[Toucanna]

Phase / faze = I went through a phase where egregious grammatical mistakes bugged the h3!! out of me. Now they don't faze me.

Jive / jibe = The author's use of jive in the otherwise scholarly article didn't jibe with his claim of punctilious academic writing.

Holistic =/= homeopathy. My pet's veterinarian incorporates holistic concepts in his practice, but draws the line at including junk sciences such as "homeopathy".

Lay/lie = oh, what's the use with trying to sort out this pair? It's a lost cause.

[Cub Mistress]

Definately.


Which often gets spell-checked into "defiantly" and makes me think I'm going to loose my mind.

you do know that is spelled "definitely", right?

flaunt/flout
flair/flare

[TreacherousCretin]

loose and lose

you do know that is spelled "definitely", right?


Well DUH, Eagle Eyes. I was being funny.

[TreacherousCretin]

Make that "Yes, Eagle Eyes." No need for me to be so pissy about it.

[Rick]

breaks and brakes
This. I am a lousy speller*, but this drives me up a wall.
Your brakes stop the car, if they break then they are broken.



*Hey if I can get it close enough that spell check can find I consider it a win

[Bayard]

carom - to ricochet
careen - to tilt
career - to move fast
Ah! Thanks for that! I always thought carom and careen were two versions of the same word (meaning "ricochet"). Thanks for the correction.

Lay/lie = oh, what's the use with trying to sort out this pair? It's a lost cause.
I can typically get this one right in writing when I have a second to think it through. But in speech, I probably pick the wrong one about half the time. I think of myself as a reasonably intelligent and articulate person, but lay/lie still trips me up sometimes.

Maybe this one isn't common, but a dear friend of mine, who may be the smartest person I know, says "weary" when he should say "wary". As in, "I am weary of the unintended consequences of that action." I think he's conflating "wary" and "leery" into one word. Dunno if others fall prey to the same thing.

[Miller]

Bit esoteric, but when software company Pixologic created their 3D rendering software, ZBrush, they needed a term for a new kind of pixel. A regular pixel has an X and Y coordinate, plus a color. Pixologic needed to store all that, plus a Z coordinate for depth. And so they invented:

The Pixol.

Say those two terms out loud a few times. Pixel. Pixol. Pixel. Pixol.

You fuckers couldn't have come up with something just slightly more original than that?

[Siam Sam]

Technically, "effect" is used as a verb sometimes, but I consider that business-speak and undesirable.

No, it's a fair verb, meanin to cause or bring about. I've heard it used often in medical terminology, as in "Smoking effects cancer."

[GuanoLad]

Arse / Elbow

[TreacherousCretin]

Originally Posted by bibliophage View Post

careen - to tilt
career - to move fast

I will NEVER be able to keep these two straight.

[california jobcase]

Nobody confuses affect and effect any more. Impact has been substituted for both!

[Chronos]

And while we're at it, "affect" can also be a noun, in similarly rare contexts.
XKCD (http://xkcd.com/326/)

[Siam Sam]

Inter / Intern

[Do Not Taunt]

Disinterested means impartial; uninterested means you ain't interested in the topic at hand.

[Miller]

Inter / Intern

Must be tough for the college kids where you work.

[Cub Mistress]

Make that "Yes, Eagle Eyes." No need for me to be so pissy about it.


Oh. That must explain the whooshing sound I heard last night.

[Shakester]

Quiet and quite are quite different words with quite different meanings. They shouldn't be that hard to tell apart.

[Mijin]

One I got caught out with the other day: continuous, contiguous and continual. But in this case, even knowing the definitions it's tricky to pick the right one in some situations.

And when people take "consciousness" in a philosophical debate to just mean alertness / activity i.e. the opposite of "unconscious".
(I'm not sure if this counts, as it *is* one definition of consciousness, but it's almost never the meaning intended in such debates).

[Pitchmeister]

IMHO, the auto-correcting of "its" to "it's" is actually really convenient - it saves two keystrokes on a word that is in about every other sentence, as opposed to its (heh) much less common pronoun brother. You just need to make sure to "x" the suggestion when you really do want to spell "its".

[Lare]

Nauseous and nauseated.

Came across the best definition in Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.


The first means "sickening to contemplate"; the second means "sick at the stomach." Do not, therefore, say "I feel nauseous," unless you are sure you have that effect on others.

Now I can't help but make the distinction when watching TV where I find that the overuse of nauseous is more accurate than the writers intended.

[Agent Foxtrot]

Literally vs. figuratively. People often use "literally" very liberally. "I literally shit my pants when I heard that!" means that you actually and factually evacuated your bowels into your pants.

Subjective vs. objective. You would much prefer that an objective jury preside over your embezzlement trial than a subjective one. Trust me.

Conscious vs. conscience. When you are conscious, you are awake and aware of your surroundings. When you have a conscience, you are able to distinguish between right and wrong either morally or ethically.

[Lare]

Rappelling and repelling.

Rappelling involves the use of fixed ropes to descend a vertical surface. Repelling indicates something causing distaste or aversion. When I instructed people in technical rock climbing I often had to correct them and explain that I would teach them the former and decide if they were the latter.

[Ximenean]

Lay/lie = oh, what's the use with trying to sort out this pair? It's a lost cause.
Yes, I think that battle is just about lost. Still doesn't stop me grinding my teeth when I see people talking about "laying on the couch", though. Probably a bit unfair, because you'd be hard pushed to invent a more confusing double usage that the two forms of "lay".

Another one that may be approaching lost cause status is "infer", when what they mean is "imply".

[fumster]

A bottle of water CAN be "organic" even though H2O has no C.No, it can't.

[tdn]

I am completely nonplussed by this thread.

[Leaffan]

Me / Myself

Bugs the fuck out of myself, it does.


ETA: Oh, and of course your and you're.

[Balthisar]

Came back to add: healthy and healthful.

[Leaffan]

Ooooo! Compliment and complement: I bet most people don't even know there are two separate words here.

Compliment - An expression of praise, admiration, or congratulation.

Complement - Something that completes, makes up a whole, or brings to perfection.

[WhyNot]

Ooooo! Compliment and complement: I bet most people don't even know there are two separate words here.

Compliment - An expression of praise, admiration, or congratulation.

Complement - Something that completes, makes up a whole, or brings to perfection.

Back when I was administrating a small private college teaching medicinal herbalism and massage therapy, we had one of those huge information boards printed up so I could go to college/career days and health fairs and pimp the school.

You see where this is going, right? We all missed it - the writer, the copy editor, the layout person, the printer...

I spent the day trying to make the best of it. "Hey there! I love your shoes! Don't you feel better now? That's complimentary medicine. If you'd like to learn more about COMPLEMENTARY medicine, have a brochure." :smack:

(Although I think you're right, probably no one would have noticed. I did, though, and it drove me nuts.)




I've given up on the nauseous/nauseated distinction. I think that's a "language is always changing" thing, not a true error anymore.

[BigT]

I think the deal with rediculous is that some people actually pronounce that first syllable as if it rhymed with me. This is particularly common when the word is emphasized.

One I encounter a lot is the difference between lack and like. "I like one more state quarter to having the full set."

At least in places where they are pronounced the same, it makes sense, like with sit and set. But for like to mean lack still drives me crazy.

[Thudlow Boink]

breath and breathe: When you breathe (rhymes with "seethe"; long e as in "keep," th as in "this"), you take a breath (rhymes with "death"; short e as in "bet," th as in "think").

loath and loathe: I was loath to bring this up without checking it first, because I loathe being wrong.
loath (without the e) is an adjective, meaning reluctant or unwilling, and is often used in the phrase "I am loath to..."
loathe is a verb, meaning to hate or detest.

[MacGyverInSeattle]

Use and utilize: When you use something, you are employing its intended function. When you utilize something, you are repurposing it for a function other than that which it was designed. For example, you use a desk calculator to add two numbers. You utilize a desk calculator to swat a fly.

This is the only one I didn't already know.:)

Bit esoteric, but when software company Pixologic created their 3D rendering software, ZBrush, they needed a term for a new kind of pixel. A regular pixel has an X and Y coordinate, plus a color. Pixologic needed to store all that, plus a Z coordinate for depth. And so they invented:

The Pixol.

Say those two terms out loud a few times. Pixel. Pixol. Pixel. Pixol.

You fuckers couldn't have come up with something just slightly more original than that?

The Pizel :D

[Lare]

I've given up on the nauseous/nauseated distinction. I think that's a "language is always changing" thing, not a true error anymore.

Possibly. But whenever I hear it, I evaluate the person saying it to see if I feel ill. :)

[VOW]

Prostate and Prostrate--too many people talk about "the prostrate gland." ACCKCKKK

between you and me/between you and I--folks think if they are talking formally, or officially, or properly, that you should say "between you and I." Those are the folks who fell asleep during sentence construction (or never learned sentence construction!) and don't know what a prepositional phrase is. "Between" is a preposition, and it takes the OBJECTIVE form. The SUBJECT of a sentence takes the SUBJECTIVE form.

I'm talking to the wind, I know. Kids just don't learn actual English structure any more. I bet nobody knows how do diagram a sentence!


~VOW

[TreacherousCretin]

loath and loathe: I was loath to bring this up without checking it first, because I loathe being wrong.
loath (without the e) is an adjective, meaning reluctant or unwilling, and is often used in the phrase "I am loath to..."
loathe is a verb, meaning to hate or detest.

I did not know that. Ignorance has been fought and bested.

[Siam Sam]

Niggard or niggardly and ... um ... well, never mind. :(

[DHMO]

As an amateur grammar Nazi, it seems to me that the world is being overrun by Humpty-Dumptys, as in Alice Through the Looking-Glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty):


'To be sure I was!' Humpty Dumpty said gaily as she turned it round for him. 'I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems to be done right — though I haven't time to look it over thoroughly just now — and that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents —'
'Certainly,' said Alice.
'And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!'
'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'

[Arrendajo]

I am still waiting for the OP to explain how water can be organic. It can be pure, maybe, or distilled, but grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizer?
I prefer the chemical definition of organic anyway. I have always wanted to stop in our local hippie co-op grocery store and ask for organic salt, then whatever form of NaCl they present me with, say "No, no, I want a carbon based salt."

[ecseas]

Sore / Soar.

[DHMO]

If something happens every day, it is an everyday occurrence.

I cringe when I see professionally-lettered signs with some variant of "Low Prices Everyday!"

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Nauseous and nauseated.

Came across the best definition in Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.



Now I can't help but make the distinction when watching TV where I find that the overuse of nauseous is more accurate than the writers intended.

This is very dated, IMO. People who know the distinction might use nauseated correctly, as in "I felt nauseated by the roller coaster." But when have you ever, ever heard someone use nauseous as "nausea inducing?"

"I found that meal quite nauseous. We shall have to execute the cook, dear," said Colonel Mustard, as he adjusted his monocle.

No, sorry. It's bullshit. That battle was lost long ago. Also, a lot of Strunk and White is crap, and not even grammarians of the time agreed on what went into their Elements of Style, from what I understand.

[Lare]

And what makes you think I don't wear a monocle?

It may be dated, but that doesn't make it wrong. And my reference to Strunk and White was my reflection of being amused by the way they differentiated between the two.

So, IYO it's dated and IMO it's a constant source of amusement.

I'm not too uptight about this one, but don't get me going about "rappel" and "repel" any further.

[Quercus]

I've tried to swear off being a grammar Nazi, and am doing OK, but for some reason my blood pressure still rises every time someone writes about a hoard of troops attacking (or, less often, a horde of treasure).


You would much prefer that an objective jury preside over your embezzlement trial than a subjective one. Well, now, that depends on a few things, doesn't it?

[Hermitian]

No, it can't.

Sure it can! Just don't use any fertilizers and pesticides on your water trees.

[Súil Dubh]

Belated thanks for the replies on "rediculuos".

One more I just thought of is "begs the question", with the actual meaning being:

...arguing for a conclusion that has already been assumed in the premise, [with] this fallacy [consisting] of "begging" the listener to accept the "question" (proposition) before the labor of logic is undertaken (from Wikipedia)

...but the more common, and incorrect usage being "that point raises an additional question".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beg_the_question

Unfortunately, I think that getting people to use this term correctly is also a lost cause. The correct usage can be a bit hard to grasp and difficult to remember, while the incorrect usage seems more like the literal meaning of the phrase.

[chiroptera]

Nobody's mentioned confrom v confirm, or (more commonly) conformation/confirmation.

Also discrete and discreet.

Healthy v healthful. Although that one's probably another lost cause.

[Greg Charles]

IMHO, the auto-correcting of "its" to "it's" is actually really convenient - it saves two keystrokes on a word that is in about every other sentence, as opposed to its (heh) much less common pronoun brother. You just need to make sure to "x" the suggestion when you really do want to spell "its".

Just one long one actually. Try holding down the comma key and see what you get.


Some more:

You home in on something, not hone in on it. JK Rowling made this mistake in "The Deathly Hallows".

An anxious person is on tenterhooks, not tenderhooks.

An oak tree grows from an acorn, not an eggcorn, though eggcorn is the proper term for the word "eggcorn" and many other examples from this thread. :)


Speaking of eggcorns, there was also a thread here a month or two ago about how catercorner had progressed to cattycorner and then kittycorner (playing on cat).

[Canadjun]

Looks like your government (probably ours too) is trying to change the meaning of the word narcotic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcotic) - "When used in a legal context in the US, a narcotic drug is simply one that is totally prohibited, or one that is used in violation of strict governmental regulation, such as PCP or marijuana." OK... Calling something like crystal meth (pretty sure that's "totally prohibited" isn't it?) a "narcotic" is about as far from the original definition as you can get.

I wonder how that works when police ask someone if they have any narcotics in their car. The owner wouldn't be lying (according to the traditional meaning) if they said "no" even if their trunk was packed solid with packages of coke.

[Canadjun]

Speaking of eggcorns, there was also a thread here a month or two ago about how catercorner had progressed to cattycorner and then kittycorner (playing on cat).

Not saying one or other is wrong, but I have only ever used kittycorner my entire life (I'm 57) and only occasionally heard the other variants (although I see that the Firefox spell check only likes catercorner). So, IMHO it's not a recent change.

[Greg Charles]

As far as I can tell, the "folk etymology" change of catercorner to cattycorner started almost as soon as catercorner took on the meaning of "diagonally across from" (i.e., way more than 57 years ago). I'm less sure about kittycorner. It seems to me that someone must have been making a joke on the "cat" part of the word, but it caught on and people gradually forgot about it being a joke. I don't have any evidence to support that theory though. :)

It seems sure that:

1. The original word was catercorner
2. This is still the primary spelling in most (all?) dictionaries
3. Cattycorner and kittycorner are more popular today

[Bannedit]

Material and materiel. No matter how many times I read the definitions I can't figure it out.

[EvilTOJ]

Viola and Voila! (<-- also known as Wallah!)

I hate it when spellcheck decides a word is 'preform' and not 'perform'.

Viscous and vicious. viscous is having a thick consistency, like oil, and vicious is like a dog gnawing on a bone.

[TreacherousCretin]

Wreck and Wreak.

"Wreck havoc" makes me want to strangle.

.

[TreacherousCretin]

Belated thanks for the replies on "rediculuos".

One more I just thought of is "begs the question", with the actual meaning being:



...but the more common, and incorrect usage being "that point raises an additional question".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beg_the_question

Unfortunately, I think that getting people to use this term correctly is also a lost cause. The correct usage can be a bit hard to grasp and difficult to remember, while the incorrect usage seems more like the literal meaning of the phrase.

Just the other night I saw someone in a news story, trying to sound reporter-ish, say "...it beggars the question..."

.

[notfrommensa]

Tact and Tacky.

Heinous and (your royal) Highness.

[Greg Charles]

Oh, how could I forget? Cache and cachet. I'm working with a product called Cache, but pronounced cachet. They spell it Caché to make it seem right.

[tenacious j]

Thanks for mentioning me and myself. Someone's teacher should have been fired for telling kids it is wrong to use "me" in any context. Leads to "myself" being misused way too much.

Personally I get exasperated when someone talks about exasperating a situation.

[Johanna]

How about rogue vs. rouge?

Rogue means somebody who is out of control.
Rouge (which is simply the French word for 'red') is reddish makeup.

Spy stuff conceals cameras, weapons, etc. in things like powder compacts and lipstick cases. So I guess that makes sense of those "rouge CIA agents" you always hear about.

IDoes anyone know what's the straight dope with the incorrect spelling "rediculous"? I see this all the time now on the Internet instead of the correct "ridiculous".

Is this a meme, or some kind of ironic spelling? I can't understand why people would be making the same simple mistake so frequently, when spell-checking software is so common.

Well, there was a transsexual who got a vaginoplasty operation, but later changed her mind and transitioned back to male and got a phalloplasty.

That was literally rediculous.

[buddha_david]

Fortuitous vs. fortunate.

[Johanna]

Chaise longue is French for 'long chair'. It has nothing to do with lounges. Trust me on this.

[Fly_Sparge]

One of my favorites is peak and pique.

You have piqued my interest, but my interest has not yet peaked.

[Ignatz]

Bit esoteric, but when software company Pixologic created their 3D rendering software, ZBrush, they needed a term for a new kind of pixel. A regular pixel has an X and Y coordinate, plus a color. Pixologic needed to store all that, plus a Z coordinate for depth. And so they invented:

The Pixol.

Say those two terms out loud a few times. Pixel. Pixol. Pixel. Pixol.

You fuckers couldn't have come up with something just slightly more original than that?

That reminded me of esoteric vs. erotic.

moot vs. mute

[Cub Mistress]

spayed vs spaded

We had our cat spayed, but when the operation went bad, we spaded a hole in the garden in which to bury her.

[BigT]

Bit esoteric, but when software company Pixologic created their 3D rendering software, ZBrush, they needed a term for a new kind of pixel. A regular pixel has an X and Y coordinate, plus a color. Pixologic needed to store all that, plus a Z coordinate for depth. And so they invented:

The Pixol.

Say those two terms out loud a few times. Pixel. Pixol. Pixel. Pixol.

You fuckers couldn't have come up with something just slightly more original than that?

FYI, the official term is now voxel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxel), which stands for "Volumetric picture element."

[Súil Dubh]

Just the other night I saw someone in a news story, trying to sound reporter-ish, say "...it beggars the question..."

.

How very beggardly of them.

*extends pinky whilst sipping from tea cup, oh so disdainfully*

[pancakes3]

spendthrift?

i'm not sure how often some of these terms are confused in real life. rogue and rouge? esoteric and erotic?