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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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The Write Way Friday 10 March 2000 Greetings, Last week's Glossary brought back plenty of memories for some :) and it seems I made a slip up - did you notice? It's Bunyan, not Bunyon (an example of didactic writing is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"). Thanks to Katherine Spivey for being the first to spot this. This leads rather nicely into this week's topic - which is homophones and homonyms. Now, if you're thinking that I deliberately did that last week, just so I could introduce this week's topic ... then I have a nice little bridge out here that you might be interested in buying ...
Homophone and homonym are used synonymously these days, but I've always liked to distinguish between them: both have the same prefix from the ancient Greek homos, meaning 'the same' but the root of each has a quite different meaning; phone comes from the Greek for 'sound, voice', while -nym is from the Greek word onyma meaning 'name.' So homophones are words which have the same sounds - but different meanings and different spelling, such as air (atmosphere) and heir (person who inherits your hard-earned wealth); marshal (an officer) and martial (warlike); ascetic (austere) and acetic (sour); bazaar (oriental market) and bizarre (very strange). Homonyms are not characters out of Gulliver's Travels, but are words which have the same spelling (or 'name') and the same sound but different meanings - a bat is a bit of wood used in a game, and a little furry critter; fawn can mean a baby deer, a colour or to be servile; mead is a drink made from honey, and a meadow; pile is a heap, the nap of velvet, or a haemorrhoid! You can see how tricky this gets ... Read about how many of our other words have changed over the years. This week's quiz: Last week's quiz was too easy, this week's needs a bit more effort - I know you know what all these words mean - but trying to come up with a working definition is harder than you think. Give a brief definition (make that TWO brief definitions) for each of the following words: bark dear down exact fine kind peak grave trip order wave bear Distinguish between the following pairs of words: ascent / assent allowed / aloud buy / by (and bye) coarse / course feat / feet passed / past scene / seen sight / site their / there (they're) wait / weight cereal / serial council / counsel foul / fowl hear / here you / ewe stationary / stationery threw / through whole / hole too / to (two) mare / mayor These are words which can really make you look silly if they're confused in writing. A sign in a business near me states boldly: STAFF ONLY PASSED THIS POINT. Every time I see it, I wince ... Last week's quiz: Abstract nouns are the names of qualities, states or feelings. Give the abstract nouns that correspond to the following: e.g. hot - HEAT 1. silent -SILENCE 2. good - GOODNESS 3. pure - PURITY 4. innocent - INNOCENCE 5. prudent - PRUDENCE 6. noble - NOBILITY 7. wise - WISDOM 8. deceive - DECEPTION 9. choose - CHOICE 10.judge - JUDGEMENT (NOTE - if you haven't yet read this, please do so now ... it'll save a great deal of teeth gnashing ... we'll wait ... take your time ...) OK? Does that shed some light on the spelling differences? :) If you share your home with ankle-biters, you'll enjoy these (thanks to
Nick): A stick. Nacho cheese. Subordinate clauses. Frostbite. A nervous wreck. ============= What do fish say when they hit a brick wall? Dam! ================ Unique up on it. Tame way, unique up on it. Tidying Up Spot How else can I describe these little bits and pieces of leftovers etc? (Phew - another triple play tautology!) Here's another example of an aphorism: Elegance excludes excess. (from Robert Dato http://www.datodevelopment.com )What a pity more people don't take note of this! A couple of weeks ago, we looked at some new collective nouns - here are some more: A "giggle of girls (from Leo) A Grimace of dentists Remember last week's punctuation exercise? Larry where Joe had had had had had had had had had had had the teacher's
approval. Here's the answer: Larry, where Joe had had "had" had had "had had." "Had had" had had the teacher's approval. Thanks to Brian for these. Tautology of the week: from a football commentator - "To their credit, Manly, progressively, as the game evolved, deeper into the second half, increasingly made inroads into the Saints defence." Hey ... what can I say? These blokes are champions! This week's Latin phrase is for those who appreciated the jokes (i.e. your children are at primary school - at that 'interesting' age): Bene, matrem tuam rogabimus. (All right, we'll ask your mother.) Regards, Jennifer
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