The Write Way

7 December 2001

Words Often Confused

Greetings,

What a saga! 

Had I the time, I could make you weep and wail with this tale of broken promises, betrayal and shattered dreams ... Yes .... another renovation story!

I've just spent the morning at my daughter's home unit while the tiler finished the grouting - the final phase in her kitchen renovation.

While I was there, whiling away the time, I thought awhile about what to discuss this week ...

Bet you can't guess.

Brilliant! 

How do you do it?

Yep ... that cantankerous little critter "awhile" and its good mate, "while."

You often see these mixed up, so let's sort them out - with some help from dictionary.com:

Usage Note: Awhile, an adverb, is never preceded by a preposition such as for, but the two-word form a while may be preceded by a preposition. In writing, each of the following is acceptable: stay awhile; stay for a while; stay a while (but not stay for awhile).

Next we come to while - it's a talented little fellow and can be a noun, a conjunction and a verb!

1. A period of time: stay for a while; sang all the while
2. The time, effort, or trouble taken in doing something: The project wasn't worth my while

1. As long as; during the time that: It was lovely while it lasted
2. At the same time that; although: While the grandparents love the children, they are strict with them
3. Whereas; and: The soles are leather, while the uppers are canvas

While (vb)

To spend (time) idly or pleasantly: while the hours away

So there you have it - yet another case of easy-when-you-know-how.

The pleasant way I spent my time, was in composing letters to send to the various businesses that have disappointed my daughter.  It's very satisfying, choosing just the right turn of phrase to make these rotters squirm. (The tiler was not one of those who earned my wrath, I have to point out - he came when he promised, charged only what he quoted - and he did a terrific job).

I was enjoying the thought of being able to avenge these wrongs! 

Notice I didn't say I would take revenge ... that's something you do out of spite ... I was after vengeance - just and true!

Back to dictionary.com:

Avenge (vb)

• To inflict a punishment or penalty in return for: avenge a murder
• To take vengeance on behalf of

Revenge (n)

• The act of taking vengeance for injuries or wrongs; retaliation
• Something done in vengeance; a retaliatory measure
• A desire for revenge; spite or vindictiveness
• An opportunity to retaliate, as by a return sports match after a defeat

Revenge (vb)

• To inflict punishment in return for (injury or insult)

Usage: To avenge is to inflict punishment upon evil doers in behalf of ourselves, or others for whom we act; as, to avenge one's wrongs; to avenge the injuries of the suffering and innocent. It is to inflict pain for the sake of vindication, or retributive justice. To revenge is to inflict pain or injury for the indulgence of resentful and malicious feelings. The former may at times be a duty; the latter is one of the worst exhibitions of human character.

(Of course, I never actually sent any of these imaginary letters - but it sure made me feel better!)

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This week's quiz:

Back to normal this week - match up the words with their meanings: recondite, torpid, rubric, probity, gregarious, sinuous, recidivism, inherent, iconoclastic, profligate

If you're scratching your head, wondering what to get all those special people for Christmas, here are some ideas that you may not have considered: http://www.write101.com/gift.htm 

Last week's quiz:

Choose the antonym (opposite) for each of the following: taciturn, concerned, permanent, courageous, thorough, happy, improve, practical, lazy, inconspicuous 

1. perfunctory - THOROUGH

2. impair - IMPROVE

3. transient - PERMANENT

4. Quixotic - PRACTICAL

5. craven - COURAGEOUS

6. sedulous - LAZY

7. salient - INCONSPICUOUS

8. morose - HAPPY

9. insouciant - CONCERNED

10.loquacious - TACITURN

With the Silly Season well and truly here, this next item might offer a certain amount of comfort to those who are forced to attend numerous Christmas parties ... 

Excerpt from Forbes Magazine:

A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo, and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones that are killed first.

This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole because the general speed and health of the whole is maintained or even improved by the regular culling of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can operate only as fast as the slowest brain cells through which the electrical signals pass. Recent epidemiological studies have shown that, while excessive intake of alcohol kills off brain cells, it attacks the slowest and weakest first. Thus, regular consumption of beer helps eliminate the weaker cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

The result of this in-depth study verifies and validates the causal link between all weekend parties and job related performance.  It also explains why, after a few short years of leaving a university and getting married, most professionals cannot keep up with the performance of the new graduates.

Only those few who stick to the strict regime of voracious alcoholic consumption can maintain the intellectual levels that they achieve during their college years.

So, this is a call to arms.  As a country losing its technological edge, we must not surrender in our homes.  Get back into the bars.  Quaff that pint. Your company and your country need you to be at your peak, and you shouldn't deny yourself the career that you could have. Take life by the bottle, be all that you can be.

 SEE YOU AT THE BAR

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This came courtesy of my son ... I'm a bit concerned about his Christmas parties!

Since we're in a festive mood, here's that fruit cake recipe I printed way back in 1999 - you might like to try it again ... or not ...

Fruit Cake Recipe

You'll need the following: a cup of water, a cup of
sugar, four large brown eggs, two cups of dried fruit,
a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, lemon juice,
nut meats, a bottle of rum and a bottle of whiskey.

Sample the whiskey to check for quality.
Sample the rum to check for quality.

Take a large bowl. Check the whiskey again. To be sure
it's the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.
Do the same with the rum.

Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a
large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whiskey is still okay. Cry another tup.
Turn off the mixer. Check the rum.

Beat two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup
of dried fruit. Mix on the turner. If the fired druit gets
stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift
two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the rum.

Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one
table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.

Sample the whiskey and the rum. Again.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't
forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the
window.

Sample the rum again to ensure it's 'high' quality.
Check the whiskey again and go to bed.

Hoppy halidaze! Please share free to feel this Ruit fake receepee with others.

That still makes me laugh ... nothing like the old favourites at this time of year, is there?

Mondegreen of the week: This week's mondegreen comes from Brian in Toronto, Canada:

Almost ALL of my friends used to sing this particular song - of which I have no doubt you're familiar - using these words.  I should point out that none of us knew what a "quee" was although we assumed it was some kind of bovine and a "shusquee" was obviously a particular breed of it.  Also, many of us were aware that "Indians" ("Native Americans") used to do "rain dances" so praying for rain was not strange ...  You might point out to US people that this is sung to the tune of "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

God shave our grey shusquee
Long live our no-bull quee
God shave the quee.

Send her Vic Torious  (presumably not his brother Bob)
Happy                 (Snow White's friend)
And Gloria            (presumably Vic's girlfriend)

Long to rain over us
God shave the quee.

Chuckle ... love it! (This used to be the national anthem out here ... until Advance Australia Fair replaced it). I have a wonderful cartoon from the 60s that shows the queen pottering around the palace, singing to herself: "God save gracious me, God save ..."

Word of the week: Just in case you were more than a little bemused by the word when you met it earlier ...

Absquatulate (vb) Mock-Latinate formation, purporting to mean “to go off and squat elsewhere”.

Inflected forms: ab·squat·u·lat·ed, ab·squat·u·lat·ing, ab·squat·u·lates
1a. To depart in a hurry; abscond: “Your horse has absquatulated!” (Robert M. Bird). b. To die. 2. To argue.

In the 19th century, the vibrant energy of American English appeared in the use of Latin affixes to create jocular pseudo-Latin “learned” words. There is a precedent for this in the language of Shakespeare, whose plays contain scores of made-up Latinate words. 

Midwestern and Western U.S. absquatulate has a prefix ab–, “away from,” and a suffix –ate, “to act upon in a specified manner,” affixed to a nonexistent base form –squatul–, probably suggested by squat. Hence the whimsical absquatulate, “to squat away from.”  (Bartleby.com)

Here's a novel way to liven up your social gatherings: 

Tinniat Tintinnabulum No, it's not a nasty skin irritation - it's Latin for Jingle Bells!

Regards,

Jennifer

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