# Words one can get confused **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772 "2022-09-18T20:10:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 53
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1044 "2025-08-16T13:26:18Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > A couple of dogs- 2 canines > A couple dogs- 2 people have sex in public. Along those lines, a commentor on public discourse, and quondam writer of a syndicated column on grammar and usage needs to keep abreast of current slang. You “get off **of** ” a horse, or “dismount” a horse. You do not get off a horse. Well, unless… ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1045 "2025-08-16T13:37:59Z")
For persons of a youthful persuasion, perhaps. If I ever rode a horse, I would indeed get off it. However, getting the horse off might see me in court. I would also dismount from a horse. Just to dismount it suggests it’s on a plinth. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1046 "2025-08-16T13:51:50Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Just to dismount it suggests it’s on a plinth. 😆 Mazel tov for working the word plinth into a post. It’s been on my list of words to work into conversation for several years, but I haven’t managed it. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1047 "2025-08-16T14:17:58Z")
Try this for size: [https://www.tiktok.com/@mirandahart.clipz/video/749011623461339469](https://www.tiktok.com/@mirandahart.clipz/video/749011623461339469) I’m trying for “plangent” next. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1048 "2025-08-16T14:40:16Z")
Video isn’t available, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1049 "2025-08-16T16:36:41Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Isn’t **oral** more broadly anything to do with the mouth? Which is why “oral sex” and “phone sex” are two different things. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1050 "2025-08-16T17:11:31Z")
This one just occurred to me-- and maybe it was mentioned in an earlier part of an old thread, but I used to hear it in the military a lot. Physical for Fiscal I’d hear a lot of First Sergeants and company clerks talk about the “physical year.” I wonder if they ever wondered why it was called that? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1051 "2025-08-16T17:30:43Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Video isn’t available, for some reason. Try this one. Hope it isn’t some rights issue. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HgGcwbtQTss/hqdefault.jpg "Moist Plinth") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgGcwbtQTss) ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1052 "2025-08-17T16:37:01Z")
Got my eye on - waiting for canthus. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1053 "2025-09-03T22:35:25Z")
**Ablution:** the act of washing oneself, **Ablation:** 1. the removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosive processes, or by other means. 2. the surgical removal of body tissue. **Oblation:** a thing presented or offered to God or a god. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1054 "2025-09-03T22:55:28Z")
**born** : birthed **borne** : carried **voracious** : hungry **veracious** : truthful ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1055 "2025-09-04T00:22:54Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > **Ablution:** the act of washing oneself, > > **Ablation:** 1. the removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosive processes, or by other means. 2. the surgical removal of body tissue. > > **Oblation:** a thing presented or offered to God or a god. **Absolution:** the forgiveness or removal of sin in various religious traditions centered on guilt as a means of social control. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1056 "2025-09-11T23:14:48Z")
**mist** : tiny water droplets suspended in the air, similar to fog but less obscuring **midst:** a place in or near the middle The mist obscured visibility when we were in the midst of the forest. **time immemorial** or **time out of mind** refer to a time long in the past, especially (1) so long ago that nobody alive can remember or (2) as a term of art in English Common Law, before AD 1189. the **crack of doom, trump of doom, end of the world, end of time, end days, last judgment, judgment day** , etc., refer to a time in the (presumably distant) future when according to the eschatology of Christianity and some other religions, all the people who ever lived will judged and punished or rewarded. Hence the phrases “since time immemorial” and “until the trump of doom” make sense. But “from now until time immemorial” makes no sense, even if it has occasionally appeared in otherwise respectable publications. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1057 "2025-09-11T23:42:25Z")
**Prescribe:** advise and authorize the use of a medicine or treatment; recommend as something beneficial; state authoritatively or as a rule that an action or procedure should be carried out; **Proscribe:** Forbid, especially by law; denounce or condemn. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1058 "2025-10-22T16:52:28Z")
**Affection** : a gentle feeling of fondness or liking **Affectation** : behavior, speech, or writing that is artificial and designed to impress ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1059 "2025-10-24T23:16:08Z")
**Vicious:** deliberately cruel or violent. **Viscous:** having a thick, sticky consistency between solid and liquid; having a high viscosity. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1060 "2025-10-25T02:18:43Z")
See also posts #[260](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/260) and #[923](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/923)-928. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1061 "2025-10-25T14:16:44Z")
And I **searched** for those words, and got zero matches, before posting. 😡 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1062 "2025-10-25T18:26:25Z")
There’s also visious. Which is the viciously infuriated sensation that follows a search that failed to visualize something that was really there. 😉 It wasn’t an English word until a couple minutes ago, but it is now. Published even. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/1063 "2025-10-31T07:52:09Z")
Careful now. You don’t want to be invidious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772.md?page=52) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772.md?page=54)