I know we’ve done these threads a million times, but here we go again…
I’m 52 years old. All my life I have been interested in language, and I now work as a writer and editor.
And yet somehow, it was only today that it dawned on me that “encourage” means “en-courage,” i.e. to give courage, as “empower” means to give power.
:smack:
What’s one of yours?
A year or so ago someone on this board used pan as slang for face. I read the thread and thought to myself, “Cool,” and went on about my day. A few weeks later I was describing deadpan to someone and realized, deadpan=deadface. When you say something deadpan, you say it with an expressionless, i.e. dead, face.
Fortnight is a contraction of ‘fourteen nights’
My daughter explained that breakfast is when you break your overnight fast and begin eating again.
Language is fun.
For years I thought “awry” was pronunced “aw ree” with the emphasis on the “aw.”
…
It’s not? 
Imagine my embarrassment the day I learned that not all the women who flirted with me were actively making passes at me. In fact, most of them were not. :smack:
Rysto, nope. It’s pronounced “aw RY” (as in rye bread). Her hair was awry, the bedclothes were awry. And I have been a reader for, oh, these 43 years and only learned that a few years ago.
Awry. Yes, a :smack: moment for me too.
I never knew that.
I am confused, guys. What did you think “empower” and “encourage” meant? Maybe I am missing something…
Carrie a/k/a Word Dork
It took me far too long to catch on that the football team “Buffalo Bills” were named after Buffalo Bill. Since they’re just called “the Bills” around here, it didn’t occur to me to take the city name into account.
I’ve lived in this house for 2 years and just 20 minutes ago I realized that one of my floor registers was closed, and has most likely been closed since I moved here and maybe I should go check the other ones.
My mother remembers that she was in graduate school when she had that “D’oh!” moment and realized that the pronunciation of the manufacturer’s name on the pencil sharpener in her elementary school classroom wasn’t Chick-a-go. 
We knew what they meant. We just didn’t perceive the words themselves correctly.
I always thought ‘encourage’ was a single word from the beginning. But it isn’t. It’s a modification of ‘courage’ using ‘en’. So that the resulting word means adding courage to someone.
Gotcha, Lobsang.
And Zipperjj, I can remember the first house I owned with my ex. We were setting up the kitchen and there was an oh-so-perfect place to put the microwave on its stand. I went to plug it in and the plug wouldn’t go it. It was a faux outlet. There was nothing behind the outlet cover. And we bought this house from an electrician.
This one’s pretty bad. I was about to graduate with an engineering degree when I realized specify and specification have the root word specific. :smack:
I posted this in another thread yesterday.
For the first twenty years of my adult life, I thought that “hoi polloi” meant the elite. It sure sounds like it does.
Good thing that I rarely had the opportunity to use it in conversation.
You must have had some interesting experiences in restaurants.
There is a “Windows Explorer.” And there is a “Windows Internet Explorer.” And they are different.
I learned this just last Wednesday, after 45 minutes on the phone with one of my company’s experts. Fortunately he already thought I was kind of dimwitted, so I didn’t really disgrace myself in his eyes.
Also, there is a difference between a “new window” and a “new tab.” I’m not sure what the difference is–and no, don’t explain it. I don’t want to know. I don’t need to know.
Just learned today that there is only one L in “balsamic” and that I’ve been pronouncing it wrong forever: “buh-SAUL-mic” :smack: