# What does the word "deceptively" mean to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 21, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163 "2012-08-21T14:16:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/1 "2012-08-21T14:16:56Z")
If I said a pool of water was “deceptively shallow” would you think I was saying it was more shallow than it appears or less? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/2 "2012-08-21T14:25:40Z")
More shallow than it appears. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/3 "2012-08-21T14:27:02Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > More shallow than it appears. Agreed. “Deceptively” is a modifier on “shallow” - the water is shallow, but deceptively so because it looks like it’s deeper. I think we’ve had this question before, but using a task being “deceptively easy”. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/4 "2012-08-21T14:39:32Z")
Ah, but “deceptively calm” means “appears calm, but is actually very angry indeed”. So in this case, deceptively means “not as [adjective] as appears”. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/5 "2012-08-21T14:48:22Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/6 "2012-08-21T14:56:58Z")
I would think it looked shallow but was actually deep. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/7 "2012-08-21T15:05:56Z")
I think it makes no sense as a whole, it sounds like a fragment. It sounds like it actually is shallow but there is some other kind of danger being hidden by the shallowness - only, that second fragment of information is missing. If you referred to a person rather than to water, I would think it’s someone who plays shallow but actually isn’t. Think MM’s character in “Gentlemen prefer blondes” (she gets her rich fiancé’s outraged father to accept her after proving to him that she’s actually smart: she plays dumb because that’s what she must do in order to get what she wants). ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/8 "2012-08-21T15:34:29Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > Ah, but “deceptively calm” means “appears calm, but is actually very angry indeed”. So in this case, deceptively means “not as [adjective] as appears”. Because [deceptively \_\_\_\_](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3500) can be interpreted either way. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/9 "2012-08-21T15:34:41Z")
[Thefreedictionary.com](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deceptively) states, “When deceptively is used to modify an adjective, the meaning is often unclear.” The question of “deceptively shallow” is addressed: > [@](#): > > When the Usage Panel was asked to decide, 50 percent thought the pool shallower than it appears, 32 percent thought it deeper than it appears, and 18 percent said it was impossible to judge. Google gave a lot of results for “deceptively delicious”, referring to healthy food that tastes good. The food would indeed be delicious, but the purpose of the deliciousness is to deceive children into heating healthy food. Interesting question, **Quimby**. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/10 "2012-08-21T16:33:26Z")
It reminds me of this Language Log post on [reverse sarcasm](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000070.html), in the sense that it seems more likely that “deceptively X” is interpreted in whichever sense is more negative. For instance, if I heard that a swimming pool was “deceptively shallow”, I would think that it’s dangerous to dive there because it’s so shallow, whereas if I heard that a mud puddle was “deceptively shallow”, I would think that it’s dangerous to step into because it’s deeper than it appears. Of course, that doesn’t explain “deceptively delicious”, which just sounds weird to me. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-deceptively-mean-to-you/632163/11 "2012-08-21T17:22:51Z")
I would think you were using the word “deceptively” inappropriately. To me, that word applies to appearances. So, for example, if you said “The water _appeared_ deceptively shallow” I would assume that it was in fact deeper than it appeared to be. The sentence “The water _was_ deceptively shallow” just sounds wrong to me… as though you were trying to say it actually was shallower than it actually was. I guess it would suggest to me that the shallowness of the water might deceive people into thinking it was less \*dangerous \*than it actually was.