Another way or no way

4 comments August 14th, 2008

Here’s another example of easily confused near homonyms: “detour” and “deter.”

The former means “to go around” or “to bypass,” and the latter means “to keep or discourage from doing something.”

We’ve all seen detour signs, especially this time of year at the height of road construction season. This connection with traffic makes “detour” an enticing choice when referring to trying to “deter” someone from hazardous driving pratices, but “deter” is the correct choice.

Noun forms are “deterrent” and “deterrence,” the latter also having a specific use as “the policy or practice of stockpiling nuclear weapons to deter another nation from making a nuclear attack.”

So “detour” is to alter the route and “deter” is to head off the journey.