Interesting. There are several examples of word pairs that aren’t related etymologically, but it sure seems like they should be. English “day” and Spanish “día” is an example. Also “guitar” and “sitar.”
Also “miniature” and “minimum”. The source of “miniature” had nothing to do with the idea of being small; the OED says
Italian miniatura originally denoted the painting of small images to decorate the initial letters of chapters in manuscripts (compare the use of post-classical Latin miniare in the sense ‘to rubricate’). As these images were necessarily small, the term came to be used for small portraits, probably reinforced by an association by folk etymology with (ultimately classical Latin) min- in minore minor adj., etc., which has probably also affected the development of the extended senses in English and in other languages.
Huh. Also English “much” and Spanish “mucho”
(well, you have to go back to Proto-Indo-European to “m-“ words that have a vague sense of “big”… but it’s a coincidence they look so similar).
/hijack (subject deserves its own thread)
emulate: to imitate, behave in a similar manner, especially in an aspirational sense
simulate: to resemble, to mimic; or, to produce an effect that resembles or mimics a particular phenomenon
As in, “I will emulate the noted ecologist Thomas Ray by writing a new version of his Tierra computer software to simulate evolutionary and ecological development.”
And here I was thinking it was the scarlet pumpernickel. (I wish I was fully kidding.)
differ: to be different; or, to express an opposing opinion
defer: to be deferential, to yield to somebody else’s superior position or authority
(Yesterday I learned for the first time that some people pronounce those the same, as in “defer”. Huh.)
You and Daffy Duck both.
Ah ha ! That must be where I know it from!
In the world of medicine, people often confuse these drug effects:
Side Effects: effects observed during therapeutic doses of a drug. They can be harmful, or non-harmful. Good or bad.
Adverse Effects: undesired harmful effects or effects leading to undesired outcomes, from therapeutic doses, or overdosage. Always bad.
Contraindications: specific situations where a drug should not be prescribed. Patient condition, allergies, or drug interactions can have an effect. Always potentially bad.
Context matters.
moreish/morish: that makes one desire more
moorish: boggy, swampy, inhabiting a moor
Moorish: pertaining to the Moors
Not to be confused with the Moops.
2 posts were split to a new topic: Troll posts March 12, 2024
@What_Exit: I almost hate to mention it, but April is next month. 
Thanks, fixed.
People occasionally use crescendo: a growing, increasing or ascending of the volume of sound, particularly music; or, metaphorically, of tension or emotion,
when they mean climax: what a crescendo is often building towards: a resolution or completion of an issue or question, usually highly dramatic.
Case in point from my newspaper today:
One might have assumed from the millions of words devoted to the end of the world during the 1990s that the noise about it would reach a millennial crescendo, but instead it has grown and grown. (That’s what a crescendo does, chum).
theocracy: rule by a god or by a state religion
theocrasy: mingling of deities or divine attributes
Is this the same thing as syncretism?
I think theocrasy, for example identifying Dedun with Osiris, is a type of religious syncretism, but syncretism refers, more generally, to blending together different beliefs and schools of thought.
autocracy: rule by one person
autarky: national economic self-sufficiency with no foreign trade
autarchy: (1) synonym of autocracy; (2) synonym of autarky
Nuclear vs. thermonuclear weapons.
Nuclear = A-bomb (fission). Fueled by uranium-235 (235U) or plutonium-239 (239Pu).
Thermonuclear (a second-generation nuclear weapon) = H-bomb (fission + fusion). Fueled by heavy isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium).
While “nuclear” weapons include both atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, only H-bombs are thermonuclear.