# Words that sound like very different things **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338 "2014-04-04T13:59:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/41 "2014-04-06T14:31:33Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > “Prescriptive” and “descriptive” are extremes along a continuum – there is a big gray area in the middle. Most dictionaries will include definitions that are gaining in popular usage such that they may soon not even be considered “wrong” by the “experts.” Almost every word I’m writing in this post once meant a different set of things than it means today. That’s how language works. That’s one way languages work; another is that definitions may vary among dialects. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/42 "2014-04-06T15:30:06Z")
“Snow flurries” sound like there should be a lot of snow. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/43 "2014-04-06T17:55:33Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Indeed, especially as they have\*\* pulchritude\*\*, and yet are accessible to the hoi polloi. Bolded for emphasis, that word evaded me for ages, I’m sure I was well into my 30s before I realized it meant beauty, I think it sounds to much like various synonyms for rotting like putrefaction. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/44 "2014-04-06T21:34:37Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Bolded for emphasis, that word [pulchritude] evaded me for ages, I’m sure I was well into my 30s before I realized it meant beauty, I think it sounds to much like various synonyms for rotting like putrefaction. Ditto and more. It was only within recent memory that I ever even heard the word, let alone found out what it means. It sounded, to me, like some specific kind of _attitude_ and something very bad. How about the word _represent_ – Does it mean to present again? The ambassador presented his credentials to the King. The King said: “That document doesn’t have all it’s i’s dotted and t’s crossed. Get that fixed, then represent it.” ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/45 "2014-04-08T08:55:56Z")
Are the ambulatory lying on the ground wounded, or walking/driving themselves into hospital ? The ambulatory do not need an ambulance, they are walking wounded. the later… Just like a foreign power can allow activity X by using threat of sanctions (such as boycotts)… So activity X is sanctioned… by sanctions. Which inspires one more… If a girl refuses to buy brand X, is it a girlcott ? ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/46 "2014-04-08T09:30:32Z")
Ruddy means red, but I used to think it meant big and fat. Misconstrued association with _cheeks_, I suppose. Grizzled (as in grizzly bear) means “having hair that is grey or becoming grey,” but, probably because of _grisly_, I thought it meant something like “ferociously bad tempered.” I’ve only just noticed that “to grizzle” means “(especially of a young child) to cry continuously but not very loudly, or to complain all the time.” ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/47 "2014-04-08T10:02:38Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > No way should a fortnight be two weeks long. How long should a Fort(een)night be? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/48 "2014-04-08T10:05:47Z")
People always say “You’re fucked” like it’s a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/49 "2014-04-08T11:52:10Z")
Ferrous and non-ferrous metals sound reversed to me. I grew up thinking ferrous was similar to “fire”, and thus bright and shiny, such as gold, copper, silver, etc. Had it exactly backwards for years. ---
**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/50 "2014-04-09T06:54:54Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > Whoops, should have looked more closely before posting. Interesting that it seems to share the same root as that of formic acid. Not really surprising. Formic acid (“Ameisensäure” in german, literally translated to “ant acid”) is produced by ants (family formicidae) ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/51 "2014-04-09T12:08:47Z")
Terrific sound like a mix between terrible and horrific, so should be real bad, no? I always have to stop and think whenever _terrific_ comes up in a text or conversation. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/52 "2014-04-09T12:27:38Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > “Sanction” – how many other words have two pretty much opposite meanings? Cleave … to adhere firmly or to split apart. Well, which one is it? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/53 "2014-04-09T17:22:39Z")
> [@VanillaGorilla](#): > > Terrific sound like a mix between terrible and horrific, so should be real bad, no? I always have to stop and think whenever _terrific_ comes up in a text or conversation. Terrific used to mean “terrifying” but sort of shifted meaning over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/54 "2014-04-09T19:30:28Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Ferrous and non-ferrous metals sound reversed to me. I grew up thinking ferrous was similar to “fire”, and thus bright and shiny, such as gold, copper, silver, etc. > > Had it exactly backwards for years. And non-Hodgkin lymphoma sounds like it should have a higher cure rate than Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Whenever I see the Britishism “slap-up,” I have to remind myself that it means “first-rate” and not “hastily cobbled together.” (It should help to know that the American equivalent is “bang-up,” but you rarely see that outside the expression “doing a bang-up job.”) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/55 "2014-04-10T01:34:45Z")
Hoi Polloi always sounds like it should mean Upper Class, I guess because of Hoity Toity. And sempiternal should mean something like semi-paternal. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > And an even longer word for something even less remarkable: antepenultimate. > > Third from last. Before that, we come to [preantepenultimate](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/preantepenultimate). Fourth from last. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/56 "2014-04-10T02:21:38Z")
The slang term “Long hair” as in a music type always confused me as a child of the 70s rock bands…and I’ll honestly state I’m not certain I’ve it right even now. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/57 "2014-04-11T12:53:56Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > Grizzled (as in grizzly bear) means “having hair that is grey or becoming grey,” but, probably because of _grisly_, I thought it meant something like “ferociously bad tempered.” I’ve only just noticed that “to grizzle” means “(especially of a young child) to cry continuously but not very loudly, or to complain all the time.” No way! :eek: I always thought that “grizzly” meant rugged, coarse hair. Like, a prospector in the old west would have a big grizzly beard. Also, like someone else up-thread, I thought a flurry was like a blizzard. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338/58 "2014-04-12T14:38:37Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > If a girl refuses to buy brand X, is it a girlcott ? Tha’s entering into the corridor of uncertainty there, lad… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-like-very-different-things/685338.md?page=2)