# The last three books I read used discrete instead of discreet **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243 "2014-05-25T19:54:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/41 "2014-05-26T21:01:25Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > And remember, language and writing are for communication. If it impedes communication it will be dropped or modified until it is not an obstacle. In the meantime, though, the communication impediments caused by ignorance of standard written language conventions can be [pretty freaking hilarious](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/most-unforgivable-spellings-of-the-year). > [@](#): > > I love it when you can still smell your boyfriends colon on you. […] > > Twitter is my alter eagle. > > Time heals all wombs. > > I got a sky full of angles watching over me. > > I dont have any drama, so I must live bicuriously through yours > > I hate hippocrates but I just might be one of the biggest ones > > why do women fake organisms? > [@Inner Stickler](#): > > If people are communicating in a format that you don’t understand, it is you who are lacking, not them. I think it’s rather optimistic to assume that people who write idiosyncratically nonstandard English are always communicating successfully with their intended audiences, and it’s just the mean old grammar-nazi nitpickers who “don’t understand” them. I understand perfectly well what they’re trying to say, I just think that their confusion about how to say it makes them sound a bit ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![abderian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@abderian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abderian)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/42 "2014-05-26T22:51:28Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I recently read a high-end biography of a major American figure by a well-known biographer from a top-drawer publisher… and filled a page with notes about spelling, grammar and factual errors without even trying too hard. > > In a nutshell, I don’t think editors exist any more. Books go directly from the author’s copy of Word to press. True. Just like every other branch of print media, book publishing revenues are plunging and costs (read: editorial staff) are being cut to the bone. I suspect we’ll see more and more errors in print as time goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/43 "2014-05-26T22:54:38Z")
I’m pretty chill about spelling mistakes, but the one that gets me is lose/loose. The thing is, the scenarios in which the distinction matters are extremely rare (loose the houds/lose the hounds and the like is pretty contrived), but it still makes me roll my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/44 "2014-05-26T23:03:05Z")
Since we seem to have moved into a general collective grumblefest about misuse of written language, might I share my personal peeve? “Of” for the contraction “'ve”. So you get “would of, could of, should of” instead of “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.” Drives me simply batty. There’s a pro wrestling fansite that I frequent that has an otherwise intelligent and literate commentariat, except for this particular error–it’s rampant. I fear that I’m going to get so used to seeing it I’ll start doing it myself… ---
**Author:** ![norvalnormal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@norvalnormal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norvalnormal)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/45 "2014-05-26T23:46:37Z")
Thirty-plus-year FT proofreader weighing in here: Copyeditors’ incompetence nowadays is frequently astounding (I have seen “a nervous tick” easily 10 times over the last 12 months), largely ‘cause of publishers’ belt tightening (hence, mostly disastrous design and editorial shortcuts in the book publishing process) and the relatively new technology of “electronic editing” (result: dozens of sentences in page proofs missing the word “to,” say, or sans any end punctuation whatsoever). Plus frequently punishing “rush” schedules demanding entire books be edited in a week or two, and that the sloppy “first-pass” proof pages that result then be proofread, and sent back to the folks who are the (increasingly in-house: read “inexperienced”/“incompetent”) de facto typesetters, within a matter of days. I’ve encountered page proofs where “formatting error” resulted in not a single word in a 350-page novel being set italic (Not a big deal, you say? Well, it is when it’s a friggin Star Trek novel), and ones where paragraph indentations have miraculously disappeared for pages at a time. And “Barak” Obama. And books with two "Chapter Four"s. And copyeditors who are used for years and years, despite not comprehending the difference between “taut” and “taught” (i.e., the former is the correct spelling to describe a woman’s nipples in a state of arousal), or that “gambit” and “gamut” are _not_ synonymous. And this is for the NYC “majors” … P.S. And it’s not merely grammar and spelling: fact-checking has largely gone the way of the dodo … Can you say “60 Minutes/Benghazi”?? ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/46 "2014-05-27T10:32:08Z")
> [@susan](#): > > You’re on the wrong tact. And don’t get me started on duck tape. Did you know that duct tape was originally called “duck tape”? And of course, now anyone can use the “genericized trademark” defence. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/47 "2014-05-27T11:05:08Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I recently read a high-end biography of a major American figure by a well-known biographer from a top-drawer publisher… and filled a page with notes about spelling, grammar and factual errors without even trying too hard. Cracked: [6 distuurbing things I leaned writing your textbooks](http://www.cracked.com/article_21131_6-disturbing-things-i-learned-writing-your-textbooks.html) : … #4. The Proofreaders Don’t Speak English, Add Errors … #2. The Names on the Textbook Mean Nothing ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/48 "2014-05-27T14:09:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Jragon** : > > I’m pretty chill about spelling mistakes, but the one that gets me is lose/loose. Amen to that one. I know what’s meant, of course, but when I see people saying, for instance, that such-and-such politician might loose Massachusetts, my first mental image is always of a colossal bow with the state nocked on it, about to let fly. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/49 "2014-05-27T14:32:07Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > If people are communicating in a format that you don’t understand, it is you who are lacking, not them. To begin with, I think it’s “not _they_.” Secondly, it’s not a question of my not being able to understand; it’s the pebble-in-the-shoe effect that the mis-usage has on my brain. As an example, I recently spent a couple of weeks reading a pretty compellingly good story on a wordpress site; the author’s consistent use of “_[something happened to] x and I_” where proper usage would have been “_[something happened to] x and **me** _” caused me to have to suppress a tic of annoyance at her. So did her use of “alright,” and her apparent belief that “grit” is an irregular verb like “hit” (\*“I grit my teeth, hit the floor and scrambled out of the way”\*\*). This sentence does not appear in the story; it is merely included as an example of the form author’s misuse took. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/50 "2014-05-27T15:06:14Z")
Alan Turing was a homogeneous. But he chose not to be discrete, Then chose not to be continuous. - Anonymous ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/51 "2014-05-27T16:11:34Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > Did you know that duct tape was originally called “duck tape”? Did you know that the noise it makes when you tear it off the roll doesn’t echo? ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/52 "2014-05-28T01:59:55Z")
One word: barbeque. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243/53 "2014-05-28T02:16:38Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > Meh. > > I recently read a book that used “palatable” instead of “palpable”. Most of the attorneys I work with don’t know the difference between palpation and palpitation. This comes up when reviewing medical reports – No, the patient did not have pain when his or her heart went pitter-pat, he had pain when the doctor pressed on, or palpated, a body part, usually the low back. And don’t even get me started on amenable and amendable! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-three-books-i-read-used-discrete-instead-of-discreet/689243.md?page=2)