Some authorities offer differentiated meanings for farther and further, but the short answer to the question of which to use for what is that you can just take your choice. The word farther is a comparative of far. Your house is farther from the school than ours. The word further comes from an Old English … Read more
Pedantry or laxity? Upholding standards or lapsing into colloquialism? When it comes to using hopefully, these are the terms that are often thrown around. Here’s why. As an adverb, hopefully originally meant in a hopeful manner (example: the dog waited hopefully for a bone) and that is still the primary meaning given in most dictionaries. … Read more
The latest Mall Murderer left a note expressing the idea that “now” (i.e., after killing several inoffensive strangers at the local mall), he would be “famous.” It is to be hoped that writers won’t make the mistake of applying that particular adjective to doers of evil deeds. The adjective famous has the meaning “honored for … Read more
Assent and ascent are two more words with the same sound but different meanings. When you agree with an idea, you assent to it. When you climb a mountain, you ascend it. When you assent to an ascent, that means you’re willing to go mountain climbing. Assenting to something means giving your approval, at least … Read more
Have you ever heard someone say: I’ve experienced a couple of incidences like that now. The word wanted there is incidents, not incidences. Incidence is one of those words, like disinterested and percentile, that tends to crop up where it doesn’t belong. Both incident and incidence derive from a medieval Latin word with the sense … Read more
Persecute and prosecute are occasionally mixed up. Persecute means to torment or cause suffering, usually because of some perceived difference. School bullies persecute those whom they perceive to be weaker than they are. In the adult world, people may be persecuted because of their religious beliefs, political beliefs, ethnicity, sexual orientation or social grouping. Prosecution, … Read more
Sheridan’s 18th century play, The Rivals, featured a hilarious character called Mrs Malaprop, who was apt to drop a verbal clanger whenever she opened her mouth. That’s where we get the word malapropism from, though its real origin is in the French phrase mal à propos, meaning inopportune or not to the purpose. When someone … Read more
Some words just can’t be qualified, such as unique. Something either is or isn’t unique – that’s all there is to it. Here are a few more words of that type. Crucial Crucial derives from the Latin crux, meaning cross. The word originally meant cross shaped, but took on the meaning of deciding between opposing … Read more
The commonly misused words elude, allusion and illusion share a common root word (Latin ludere: to play), but their meanings aren’t similar at all. Fortunately, recognizing the prefixes can help keep these two words separate in your mind. The Latin prefix e means “out,” so elude originally suggested the end of a game or a … Read more
I just caught myself writing “the question is moot” meaning “the question is irrelevant or closed.” I immediately scrapped “moot” for a different adjective. Why? Because I remembered an occasion on which my son, a journalist, ruined the word for me by explaining that I was using it incorrectly. To me a “moot question” was … Read more
It’s easy to mix up fortuitous with fortunate. After all, they both have aspects of luck and chance in their meaning. Fortunate means lucky, derived from the word fortune, which means luck, either good or bad. The Romans thought of fortune as a goddess who could be for you or against you. Fortuitous, on the … Read more
Only one letter separates these two words, but there’s considerable difference in meaning. The word deprecate means to express disapproval of something. A synonym for deprecate in this context is to deplore. Example: He deprecated his sister’s actions. This means that he did not approve of his sister’s actions. The word depreciate means to belittle … Read more