I just saw the thread started by Mangosteen discussing “sneaked” vs “snuck” and it got me thinking of several other word choices. I thought it might be a good general topic if it was opened up to other word choices. But let me start with a few of my own favorites.
I am struck by the large number of people who choose to use “pleaded” as the past tense of “plead” instead of “pled”. The online dictionary cite below makes it look like they are both valid words. But I always thought the correct choice was “pled” as in … “The accused pled guilty”. Dang! Even the spell checker here flags “pled” as a misspelled word.
Another frequent word choice is the verb “contract” or “contracted” as in “The patients became sick after they contracted Measles”. I always thought this word was pronounced with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable. But I hear all kinds of variations of this word and almost no one ever uses the word “contracted” with the emphasis on “tract”. Instead, I hear people saying “contacted” or “contract” with the emphasis on the wrong syllable. I get the impression that most people don’t seem to know you can use this word both as a legal agreement as well as the form “to catch some disease”.
Another sad choice is “should of” instead of “should have”. Also “could of”, “would of”. Whenever I hear any of these three, it makes my skin crawl.
I find these particularly unfortunate because they are so clearly wrong. Is it a sign of a crumbling educational system? Or is it a sign that I am just too damn picky?
When writing anywhere on the net, it seems that if people mention incorrect word choices - no matter how delicately they try to make the point - they are roundly attacked for being a nit picking half wit (etc.) for being picky about spelling and grammar. This really saddens me and I have to try very hard to just keep my mouth shut.
But what do you think? Do you have some examples that irk you? Please feel free to post those word choices. I’d love to see some other examples.
As far as Mangosteen’s thread goes, I apologize if it appears that I am hijacking that thread.
Note to mods: Please feel free to merge this thread with his. I just thought it might be an interesting thread if it was opened up to more word choices.
The following is a Wiki entry that discusses several wods that end with “onym” - such as antonym, synonym, homonym, etc. I know there are more of these. But I just can’t think of any offhand.
antonym: a word with the exact opposite meaning of another word; an antithesis: often shown in opposite word pairs such as “high” and “low” (compare with “synonym”)
capitonym: a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized, such as March and march or Polish and polish.
contronym or antagonym or autoantonym: a word that may have opposite meanings in different contexts, such as cleave meaning “stick together” or “split apart”
heteronym: a word that is spelled in the same way as another but that has a different sound and meaning, for example “bow” as in “bow of a ship” or “bow and arrow” (compare “homonym”)
homonym: a word pronounced like another, but differing in meaning or derivation or spelling -
isonym: 1: a word having the same root or stem as another - also known as paronym. Compare exonym, heteronym, paronym, and synonym.synonym:
metonym: a word that substitutes a part for the whole it is associated with, for example “crown” for “monarch”; metonymy is the figure of speech incorporating a metonym
necronym: a reference to or name of a person who has died.
numeronym: is a number-based word.
paronym: a word that is related to another word and derives from the same root; a cognate word, such as dubious and doubtful
patronym or patronymic: a name adopted from the father’s or ancestor’s name, for example “Johnson” from “John,” “MacDonald” from “Donald,” “O’Brien” from “Brien,” or “Ivanovich” from “Ivan”
tautonym: a binomial or scientific name in the taxonomy of living things in which the generic and specific names are the same, such as Gorilla gorilla;