Words one can get confused

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…

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.

:laughing:
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.

Try this for size:

https://www.tiktok.com/@mirandahart.clipz/video/749011623461339469

I’m trying for “plangent” next.

Video isn’t available, for some reason.

Which is why “oral sex” and “phone sex” are two different things.

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?

Try this one. Hope it isn’t some rights issue.

Got my eye on - waiting for canthus.

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.

born: birthed
borne: carried

voracious: hungry
veracious: truthful

Absolution: the forgiveness or removal of sin in various religious traditions centered on guilt as a means of social control. :grin:

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.

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.