Posts filed under 'homonyms'
November 20th, 2009
My previous two offerings were about “pair.” Appropriately enough, it has two homonyms in English.
One is “pare,” which can mean “to cut or trim away; peel” — hence, “paring knife.”
It also can mean “to reduce or diminish gradually.” This definition includes the advisory that it’s often used with ”down,” as in, “The House has promised to pare down the cost of the program.” This seems unnecessary — “reduce” and “diminish” already say “down” to me, but that’s idiom for you.
“Pare” can be traced back to the Latin “parare,” for “to set in order, get ready” — essentially the same as “prepare.”
The other homonym is “pear,” a type of tree that always seems to have a partridge in it this time of year.
The “-ear” spelling for the “air” sound is fairly rare — “bear,” “swear” and “wear” spring to mind.
Another is “tear” (the ripping kind). But there’s also “tear” (the crying kind), which rhymes with “hear.”
Sometimes it’s enough to make you tear your hair out until you tear up.
September 11th, 2009
Here’s a group of words just begging to be mixed up.
The verb “censure” means “to express strong disapproval of,” while “censor” takes disapproval to another level by restricting or actually prohibiting the use of something.
As nouns, a “censure” is a condemnation, formal or otherwise, and a “censor” is a person in charge of limiting or shutting off access to information.
Both can be traced to the Latin verb “censere” for “to tax, value, judge.”
In ancient Rome, a “censor” was a magistrate in charge of taking the census and, later, overseeing public morals.
Also in this mix are “censer,” “an ornamented container in which incense is burned,” and “sensor,” a general term applied to various kinds of devices that detect, measure, record, transmit, etc.
Three of them are homonyms; only “censure” is pronounced differently, with a “sh” sound in the middle.
“Censure” is sort of a slap on the wrist for someone who has behaved badly. “Censorship” is generally an affront to all.
August 26th, 2009
“Gorilla” is pronounced the same as “guerrilla,” which I wrote about the day before. They have been known to be mistaken for each other in print, but they are two entirely different animals.
The gorilla is the largest of the great apes and, says Webster’s, “is generally shy, intelligent and vegetarian.”
Slang use of the word for “a person regarded as like a gorilla in appearance, strength, etc.” is generally an insult to the person and the ape. Even more so its use as slang for “a gangster; thug.”
The word comes from the Greek “gorillai,” a term concocted in translating the reports of a Carthaginian navigator traveling along the coast of Africa in the fifth century B.C. That voyager, named Hanno, thought the creatures he was seeing were members of “a tribe of hairy women,” which was the literal meaning for the Greek word.
Roy Blount Jr., in “Alphabet Juice,” suggests the translators’ task was made more challenging by the Phoenician alphabet, which lacked vowels, and that another factor may have been that Hanno “had been at sea for a long time.”
June 10th, 2009
There are “blocks,” and then there are “blocs.”
Most of the time, we need the one with the “k”: starting block, cellblock, concrete block, building block, city block, block grant, block letters, writer’s block, block and tackle, block that kick, and blockhead, for example.
But for references to political alliances, use “bloc” (without the “k”): voting bloc, the old Soviet bloc, and so on.
Although powerful blocs are able to block legislation, “bloc” isn’t a verb — not yet, anyway. Perhaps if the “bloc” bloc were to pressure dictionary editors. …
June 5th, 2009
“Pole” and “pull” aren’t exactly homonyms, but they sound similar enough to cause some confusion.
For example, the village of Cherry Valley has some old buildings it needs to do something with. They’re “pole barns,” not “pull barns.” If you conduct a Google search for “pull barn,” you will find some examples of this erroneous usage. But mostly you’ll get “pole barns.”
They are so named because traditionally their structure involves poles set in the ground.
I don’t have a clue what sort of “pull” would be needed to build a “pull barn.” It probably would have to be political.
May 8th, 2009
My previous blog entry ended with the word “see.” Not only is it a very irregular verb — see, saw, seen, seeing — but it’s also part of an unusually diverse family of homonyms.
For “see,” we have “sea” and the letter “C” (as well as the Spanish “si”).
For the third-person singular “sees,” we have the plurals “seas” and “C’s,” and we add the verb “seize.”
For the past participle “seen,” we lose the others but gain the noun “scene.”
Unlike children, homonyms should be seen and heard.
May 6th, 2009
Here’s another reason I prefer “lend” over “loan” as a verb: “Lender” is better than “loaner” for a person or institution that makes loans. So they seem to go together.
My first thought on hearing “loaner” is that it’s not the provider but the thing provided, like a car: “How long have you been driving a loaner?”
“Loaner” also can be confused with its homonym “loner” — someone or something that’s all by itself, also known as a “lone wolf.”
And while a lone wolf might arouse suspicion, you have much more to fear from a “loan shark.”
April 16th, 2009
In the 1967 animated Disney film “The Jungle Book,” the character Baloo the bear sings about “The Bare Necessities.” Thanks, Disney folks. As if “bear” and “bare” weren’t confusing enough already.
For example, we recently wrote about a town that “will have to bare” a financial burden.
Not so. That “bare” is usually an adjective meaning naked, empty (the cupboard is bare), simple (the bare facts) and without tools or weapons, obsolete except in the phrase “bare hands.”
It carries similar meanings when acting as a verb: an animal baring its teeth, a confessor baring his soul.
The verb “bear” is what’s needed above to handle that burden, or to bear a child or bear witness, and so on.
Idiomatically, it’s used in such phrases as “bear down,” “bear up” and “bring to bear upon.”
As a noun, a “bear” is an animal. It’s also slang for “a difficult task.”
English, for example, can be a bear.
April 15th, 2009
No less an authority on English than Groucho Marx made one of my favorite homonym jokes, in the 1933 movie “Duck Soup.”
Groucho’s character, Rufus T. Firefly, has just been made the leader of Freedonia. In a discussion with that nation’s officials, one of them asks that they take up the tax.
Firefly suggests they take up the carpet.
Official: I still insist we must take up the tax.
Firefly: He’s right. You’ve gotta take up the tacks before you can take up the carpet.
“Tack,” a short nail or pin, comes from “takke” in Middle English, which is from the Middle Dutch “tacke” for “twig, point.” Before that its path is a bit hazy.
“Tax” traces all the way back to the Latin verb “tangere,” meaning “to touch.” It also gave rise to “tact” and the related “tactful” and “tactile.”
This may explain why government officials seem to feel the need to reach out and tax someone. Probably not, though.
January 1st, 2009
A “role” is a part to be played, maybe by a role model.
For all other uses, you need the homonym “roll.”
Those include “crescent roll,” “egg roll,” “jellyroll,” “rock and roll,” “roll bar,” “roll call,” “roller coaster,” “roller derby,” “rolling pin,” “roll-on,” “roll-top,” even “Rolls-Royce.”
We “roll our eyes,” “roll out the barrel,” “get on a roll,” “roll with the punches,” “roll back,” “roll in,” “roll out,” “roll over,” “roll up” and “merrily we roll along.”
And that concludes my blogging role for today. Happy New Year!
Previous Posts
