TRICKY WORDS
Perfectly good words go unused in writing and speaking.
Their meaning isn't clear and the eye is 'tricked' by similarity to other words OR sounds.
1. Spoken words like SUCCOR (sounds like 'sucker' but means"furnishing relief".)
It does complicate the matter if you're referring to a blowjob, however.
2. Another tricky word is APPOSITE (looks like "opposite") which means "appropriate."
You might remark that you love somebody and are met with an "apposite" response.
Does that mean the one responding feels hatred or dislike?
Nope.
So we don't use the word. It's too tricky.
3. "Feckless" can be tricky. We aren't quite sure.
If we read: "General Flipdiggit was a feckless warrior."
What are we to think? Is he "reckless?" Does he have "freckles"?
Feckless means "weak" or "irresponsible" or "worthless."
That's why you probably don't use the word. (Or do you?)
I love vocabulary words but - NOT - if I have to stop and explain them. It makes me sound like I think the listener is stupid.
I don't wish to be misunderstood - so - I just avoid tricky words unless I'm simply indulging myself.
4. CAVALRY is a tricky word. Churchgoers accidentally pronounce it as CALVARY
(the place Jesus was executed.) I hear it all the time in movies and TV shows.
5. Another tricky word is "LITERALLY" which only means "exactly as WRITTEN."
Most folks really mean something else. What do they intend?
They're exaggerating: "I literally died on the spot."
If not exaggerating, they mean "actually" but "literally" is wrong.
6. Excetera is NOT a word (dammit.)
People who use Excetera don't read books or they'd know it is a Latin phrase: et cetera and that phrase means "and other things similar to these."
The abbreviation is etc. not exc. Duh.
7. Supposably is NOT a word.
Once again, these people don't read or they'd know it is "supposedly". ABLY is not EDLY.
8. Preemptory is NOT a word.
The real word has PER not PRE. "Peremptory".
Sloppy reading skills or they just don't read. Your guess is as good as mine.
9. Realator. Lots of dopes put in the "UH" where it doesn't belong.
The real word is REAL-TOR which is 2 syllables and not 3 syllables.
10. Expresso has nothing to do with coffee. It is simply wrong.
Monty Norman's only hit musical was EXPRESSO BONGO.
Norman is a mountebank. (Look it up.)
The genuine word is ESPRESSO.
However, brothers and sisters, I have a sad announcement. So many idiots used the wrong word for so many years the lexicographers shrugged and gave in.
You'll now see the EX in the dictionary. Advice: Treat it as you do your own EX.
11. Australia. This may shock you but - it isn't Austria.
12. Heighth. No such word. Cut it out this minute!
The tricky part is as follows. There is Depth, there is Width, and there is - no no no - not Heighth! It is HEIGHT. Let go of the "h", knucklehead!
14. PRIMER. This one chaps my butt.
A tricky word that is mostly used improperly. Here is how you break it down...
A. If you are referring to the first coat of paint, it is pronounced as PRY-MURR.
B. If you mean any book of basic elements, it rhymes with DIM MURR. (such as him or). Shape up!
15. Pernounce. No such word!
It is "Pro-nounce" like pronouns.
The proper pro-nun-ci-ation has no "purr" which is for cats only.
Be a PRO and do not PURR.
There are plenty more tricky words but I'm bored with this.
If you don't own a physical dictionary by the age of 16, you are a lost soul for the rest of your life.
If you don't read books and only learn the English language by listening to peckerwoods - you are likely going to lapse into bad habits of speaking.
You may say "AX" instead of "ASK" for instance.
You will say "John Druh" for genre instead of "zhon-ruh".
I have a dear friend who refers to an art mural as a MEW REE ULL.
I dare not correct him. It is rude.
When I was much younger I was the terror of my teachers at school; correcting their speech with Torquemada's relentless pursuit of witches and evil in speaking and writing.
I'm more laid back now. But those teachers went to their grave thinking I was an asshole.
p.s. They were right.
If it weren't for my 8th Grade English teacher, Ms. Green, I'd never have known how awful my grammar was and how profound my southern accent was! I had stood and given an oral book report. Afterward, Mr. Green pointed out all of my egregious mistakes. I was shocked but it sent me on a self-improvement journey that changed the rest of my life. I bought the best dictionary I could afford. I learned 16 new vocabulary words each day and the "proper" pro-nun-ci-ation.
And THAT is when I became a pedantic pain in the ass :)
If it weren't for my 8th Grade English teacher, Ms. Green, I'd never have known how awful my grammar was and how profound my southern accent was! I had stood and given an oral book report. Afterward, Mr. Green pointed out all of my egregious mistakes. I was shocked but it sent me on a self-improvement journey that changed the rest of my life. I bought the best dictionary I could afford. I learned 16 new vocabulary words each day and the "proper" pro-nun-ci-ation.
And THAT is when I became a pedantic pain in the ass :)