Interesting word of the day: pique, as in to pique someone's curiosity

[Halftime Hope]

The word "pique" is often misspelled peek or peak (homonyms) for this meaning:

 

transitive verb; to arouse somebody's interest: to cause a feeling of interest, curiosity, or excitement in somebody

piqued my curiosity

 

other meanings:

 

bad mood: a bad mood or feeling of resentment, especially when brought on by an insult, hurt pride, or loss of face. When her mother did not seem to appreciate the homemade Valentine's card, the kindergardener crumpled it in a fit of pique. (Webster has another good definition for this meaning: a transient feeling of wounded vanity.)

 

piqué /peeKAY/ noun: firm fabric woven in a ribbed or raised pattern.

 

Thanks for listening and for not throwing stones when you find my mistakes, for they are frequent!

[Kathleen in VA]

Yes, I've seen this word misspelled often.:)

 

Just curious, is this sentence from a dictionary?

 

When her mother did not seem to appreciate the homemade Valentine's card, the kindergardener crumpled it in a fit of pique.

 

Kindergartner (also spelled kindergartener in some dictionaries) is spelled with a "t."

 

I am a copy editor for a weekly newsletter so I see that word misspelled often as well.:D

[LittleIzumi]

I used that last night on here :lol: (correctly). I feel cool now, LOL.

[Halftime Hope]

Nope, that misspelling is all mine! :lol: I reworked an example sentence so that the pronoun-antecedent relationship was clear, and I butchered 'kindergarden' in the process. But I'm all about learning, so this day is turning out to be profitable! :D

 

Do you have other common misused words that you'd like to bring to our attention for consideration? (Then/than is a bit easy, but I've seen it frequently.) I ask because I'm not sure I had ever thought about kindergarden/kindergartner.

 

TIA!

 

 

Yes, I've seen this word misspelled often.:)

 

Just curious, is this sentence from a dictionary?

 

When her mother did not seem to appreciate the homemade Valentine's card, the kindergardener crumpled it in a fit of pique.

 

Kindergartner (also spelled kindergartener in some dictionaries) is spelled with a "t."

 

I am a copy editor for a weekly newsletter so I see that word misspelled often as well.:D

[Kathleen in VA]

The worst I've ever seen is "Kidney garden" for kindergarten.:lol:

 

I think most people type homonyms for the words they are really trying to spell because their minds are preoccupied. It isn't that they don't know how to spell the correct word - they are just typing fast and thinking about a million other things.

 

Some common errors I see are:

 

Using the phrase "try and ________(insert verb)" for "try to _________(insert verb). Example: "Try and see if this works for you" as opposed to "Try to see if this works for you."

 

Supposably instead of supposedly

 

calender for calendar

 

loose for lose

 

your for you're

 

their or there for they're

 

dinning room for dining room (I see this in a lot of real estate blurbs when searching for houses - I can dream can't I?)

 

rod iron instead of wrought iron

 

lightening for lightning

 

dalmations for dalmatians (100 and 1 Dalmatians)

 

 

One of the main things I have noticed recently in many printed works is the shocking lack of adverbs. Folks commonly use adjectives instead of adverbs. "She worked quick" instead of "She worked quickly." AACCKK!!!

 

Of course, there are many more - these just came to mind.

[LittleIzumi]

Orientated instead of oriented. :glare:

 

And "I had an appointment at 9am in the morning." :001_huh: What other 9am is there?

[Kathleen in VA]

Orientated instead of oriented. :glare:

 

And "I had an appointment at 9am in the morning." :001_huh: What other 9am is there?

 

You mean there's only one?:lol:

[Halftime Hope]

I've heard all kinds of misuses of "in lieu of", including people using it to replace "in view of" :001_huh: That's got to take my prize in the "Most Ways to Misuse" category.

 

One I've heard several times recently is "leaving out," as in, "We'll be leaving out to come pick up your son soon." And that one was from a homeschooler!

 

Don't even get me started on regional use of whenever to replace when. :banghead: "Whenever he has his 9 a.m. appointment on Friday, I'll go with him." :ack2: I don't know exactly *why* it's wrong, but it makes me want to scream! (The most recent one of those was from a junior year elementary ed. major. It took all my self-restraint to keep from correcting her--she's going to be student teaching next year!!)

 

Slinking back into the corner to do some deep breathing....

[LizzyBee]

Orientated instead of oriented. :glare:

 

 

 

I've heard a new one lately - conversate for converse. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

 

My dyslexic dd's speech therapist has spelling issues, e.g. tale for tail. I'm kind of concerned since my dd is going to have enough trouble learning to spell, but I don't want to correct the SLP in front of my dd.

[LauraGB]

Good and well. Real and very.

 

As in:

"How are you doing today?"

"I'm doing good, thanks. And you?"

"Oh, I'm real good! Real good!"

 

:banghead:

[Mrs Mungo]

Orientated is my husband's personal pet peeve.

 

I've heard a new one lately - conversate for converse. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

 

I blame W. for this one. He used it all the time.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Mrs Mungo
curse you, typos!

[LauraGB]

Well, since you bring up W,

Nuclear vs Nucular

 

AARRRGGGHHH!!!!

[Matryoshka]

Yep, all those bug me. :D

 

Kindergarten is German for "children's garden" - but it's never spelled with a "D", even in English.

 

Another obscure one the bugs me is when people write "wah lah" or some similar thing for voilà.

 

Unless it's a peeve thread like this, though, I try to just bite my tongue... :tongue_smilie:

[elise1mds]

I think this thread is my new home. I'm going to settle in here for a while. Thank you for making my inner grammarian and former spelling bee champion self happy. :)

[Ellie]

Slinking back into the corner to do some deep breathing....

::slinks back into the same corner and breathes deeply too::

[Ellie]

And then there's "supposably" instead of "supposedly.":001_huh:

[Tam101]

My peeve is tow-the-line instead of toe-the-line. I'm sure I've made many of the above mistakes and humble apologize! ;)

[LauraGB]

I'm sure I've made many of the above mistakes and humble apologize! ;)

 

Everyone makes grammar mistakes. It happens. I think much of it is due to locale. I was raised by country folk (or rednecks, if you will :rolleyes:) and I was always embarrassed by thier grammar. Dh's family are children of German farmers. Imagine the pain of listening to all the double negatives and the "ain't"s when everyone gets together! It really makes me check my own, that's for sure. And I'm sure I miss some here and there.

 

(But we love them anyway ;))

[LND1218]

My peeve is tow-the-line instead of toe-the-line. I'm sure I've made many of the above mistakes and humble apologize! ;)

 

Oh yes... Unless they are towing that line somewhere. __________:auto:

[Mama Bear]

of vs. have (would of vs would have)

mute vs. moot (Mute point -- WtHeck is that?) :001_huh:

 

And the "pique" one makes me cah-razy.

 

It's often rude to correct these in casual settings, IMO, but I feel better having "said it out loud" here. :D

[Halftime Hope]

category to think about--how many intransitive or transitive verbs do you hear misused?

 

Here's one of my favorites: "Man, I'm here to represent!" (said by an ex-football-star-now-turned-celebrity-dancer)

 

represent whom? :001_smile:

Edited November 10, 2009 by Valerie(TX)
yes, I remember, it's kindergarTen... :)

[Scarlett]

category to think about--how many intransitive or transitive verbs do you hear misused?

 

Here's one of my favorites: "Man, I'm here to represent!" (said by an ex-football-star-now-turned-celebrity-dancer)

 

represent whom? :001_smile:

 

Ok, Valerie, your edit made me LOL.

 

How about I tell you all the ones I have trouble with. Or is that How about I tell you all the ones with which I have trouble?

 

I can't spell congradulations. Is it a T or d? I never know. I often say 'Congrats!' instead. So now you all know.

 

I'm sure there are more. The one that bugs me is bring and take, brought and took. My SIL and now my niece and nephew use those words incorrectly All. The. Time. And then I get myself confused. Does a third person of which I speak bring or take cake to that party? Shrugs. Better to change sentence structure.

[Kathleen in VA]

I just learned yesterday that it's "tenterhooks" not "tenderhooks." I don't really know what they are, but ok, it's tenterhooks, as in, "He was on tenterhooks waiting for the package to arrive." Who knew? :)

[Mrs Mungo]

category to think about--how many intransitive or transitive verbs do you hear misused?

 

Here's one of my favorites: "Man, I'm here to represent!" (said by an ex-football-star-now-turned-celebrity-dancer)

 

represent whom? :001_smile:

 

But I think it's understood they are here to "represent" their community. It's sort of the opposite of an understood "you." :lol:

 

Ok, Valerie, your edit made me LOL.

 

How about I tell you all the ones I have trouble with. Or is that How about I tell you all the ones with which I have trouble?

 

I can't spell congradulations. Is it a T or d? I never know. I often say 'Congrats!' instead. So now you all know.

 

It's T, that's why we say "congrats" instead of "congrads," :confused:.

 

I just learned yesterday that it's "tenterhooks" not "tenderhooks." I don't really know what they are, but ok, it's tenterhooks, as in, "He was on tenterhooks waiting for the package to arrive." Who knew? :)

 

Ohhh, a research topic! From wiki:

 

Tenterhooks were used as far back as the fourteenth century in the process of making woollen cloth. After the cloth was woven it still contained oil from the fleece and some dirt. A fuller (also called a tucker or walker) cleaned the woolen cloth in a fulling mill, and then had to dry it carefully or the wool would shrink. To prevent this shrinkage, the fuller would place the wet cloth on a large wooden frame, a "tenter", and leave it to dry outside. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter (from the Latin "tendere", to stretch) using hooks (nails driven through the wood) all around the perimeter of the frame to which the cloth's edges (selvages) were fixed so that as it dried the cloth would retain its shape and size.[1] At one time it would have been common in manufacturing areas to see tenter-fields full of these frames.

By the mid-eighteenth century the phrase "on tenterhooks" came into use to mean being in a state of uneasiness, anxiety, or suspense, stretched like the cloth on the tenter.

[Halftime Hope]

of vs. have (would of vs would have)

mute vs. moot (Mute point -- WtHeck is that?) :001_huh:

 

And the "pique" one makes me cah-razy.

 

It's often rude to correct these in casual settings, IMO, but I feel better having "said it out loud" here. :D

 

Agreed, it's rare that I point them out when someone other than my children use one incorrectly. In fact, if dh uses one incorrectly I almost never correct it, and never in front of him. There are words that he consistently mispronounces a la Texan, words such as "pitch-ur frame."

 

There are words that I cannot remember how to spell correctly; I especially have trouble with -cede and -sede words, although I can't think of the one that gives me fits right now. (It'll come to me at 2 a.m.)

 

I correct my dc because I don't want them to feel stoopid and blame me some day.

[Halftime Hope]

re. tenterhooks: in Spanish, to hang something--hanging up clothes, for example--is tender. (tehnDER)

 

It's got to be the same Romance root or morpheme. :)

 

Thanks, Mrs. Mungo!

 

And yeah, I understand the "understood community", but still, it's a new form, object-less use of a (formerly?) transitive verb, and I don't like it. It's incorrect. For now. Sigh! (Looks around for an as-of-yet-unidentified species that is dying off every time the verb goes without its object.)

 

I earned tonight's curmudgeon award, didn't I?!!

Edited November 10, 2009 by Valerie(TX)

[Kathleen in VA]

Re: tenterhooks

 

Thanks, Mrs. Mungo! Now I know and it makes sense. Ahhhhhh......:)

[Mrs Mungo]

Thanks, Mrs. Mungo!

 

And yeah, I understand the "understood community", but still, it's a new form, object-less use of a (formerly?) transitive verb, and I don't like it. It's incorrect. For now. Sigh! (Looks around for an as-of-yet-unidentified species that is dying off every time the verb goes without its object.)

 

I earned tonight's curmudgeon award, didn't I?!!

 

Are you asking the girl accusing people of killing kittens every time they misuse an apostrophe? :lol::smilielol5:

[LittleIzumi]

I've heard a new one lately - conversate for converse. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

 

Really??? Aaaaaaaah :ack2:

 

I do say "I'm doing good" in passing to people I'm not actually talking to, just walking by in the hall or whatnot. And part of me cries inside when I do. :lol:

 

What always drove me nuts (not as much as orientated--I yell at the TV when I hear that on all the survival shows) singular subject, plural verb, or switching from a single subject to "their" in the predicate. But now I can't think of a proper example because I'm too tired. :glare:

[KidsHappen]

mute vs. moot (Mute point -- WtHeck is that?) :001_huh:

 

Why, a very quiet one, of course.

 

 

This reminds me of a funy story. Halloween night as we were crossing a street, I heard a sound and asked my hubby what sounded like a metronome. He told me it was crosswalk sound signal for deaf people. It didn't take the family two seconds to bust out laughing.

[KidsHappen]

I think most people type homonyms for the words they are really trying to spell because their minds are preoccupied. It isn't that they don't know how to spell the correct word - they are just typing fast and thinking about a million other things.

 

Well, this would at least make sense. I sometimes think of one word and then type another one entirely. I can't really blame my typing though as I do the same thing when talking. I have noticed that the older I get, the worse the problem becomes. I have reached the point where I now suffer from NDD (noun deficit disorder) in which words fail me entirely and I end up asking for things like the container that you cook food in, on the stovetop, that starts with a "P". :001_smile:

Edited November 10, 2009 by KidsHappen

[LizzyBee]

...I'm sure there are more. The one that bugs me is bring and take, brought and took. My SIL and now my niece and nephew use those words incorrectly All. The. Time. And then I get myself confused. Does a third person of which I speak bring or take cake to that party? Shrugs. Better to change sentence structure.

 

This has been discussed a few times, so I thought I'd post what I received in my email today from http://www.dailywritingtips.com

 

Bring and Take

 

Posted: 12 Nov 2009 04:23 AM PST

 

Writers tend to get confused about when to use bring and take. Many think that the two words can be used interchangeably, but they do have two distinctly different uses. Which one you use depends entirely on your perspective for the action.

 

Bring indicates action coming toward the speaker; take means action taken away from the speaker. So from your perspective, your kids will bring their homework to you to check, and then they’ll take it to school tomorrow. From your kids’ perspective, they’ll take their homework to you and then bring it with them when they go to school tomorrow.

 

The trick is to think about your location. Something coming your way is brought to you. Something going away is taken from you.

 

It can get confusing occasionally, and when it does you have to depend on the surrounding context to help you determine the point of reference. Check out these examples:

 

Be sure to bring a jacket with you in case it gets cold.

 

Be sure to take a jacket with you in case it gets cold.

 

Both can be correct. In the former example, the meaning is to carry the jacket with you to where you are going. It’s likely that this would be something the person you’re joining would say to you. In the latter example, the meaning is to take it away from your starting point. It sounds a lot like something Mom would say as you’re running out of the house.

 

To simplify the concept even more, think of it like this: you bring things here and take them there. It’s not an infallible method, but it works most of the time.

[KidsHappen]

By the way, this would be a good Scrabble word epsecially if you are playing the challenger edition and you could line it up on a quad word score.

[LizzyBee]

 

Originally Posted by LizzyBee

I've heard a new one lately - conversate for converse. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

 

I blame W. for this one. He used it all the time.

 

According to Merriam-Webster, conversate has actually been around since 1973. (Where have I been?!) According to dictionary.com, it's slang. But I still don't have to like it. :D

 

Last week I went to a CPE course taught by a middle-aged lawyer, and he kept saying basises as the plural of basis. Um, at his age and level of education, shouldn't he know that the plural of basis is bases? Then a few days later, I heard someone say crisises instead of crises. Man, that hurts my ears!

[KathyBC]

This is funny in light of the You might have been on the WTM boards too long if....... thread. When Peek a Boo was in fine form she would often sign herself Pique-A-Boo. :lol:

 

 

The word "pique" is often misspelled peek or peak (homonyms) for this meaning:

 

transitive verb; to arouse somebody's interest: to cause a feeling of interest, curiosity, or excitement in somebody

piqued my curiosity

 

other meanings:

 

bad mood: a bad mood or feeling of resentment, especially when brought on by an insult, hurt pride, or loss of face. When her mother did not seem to appreciate the homemade Valentine's card, the kindergardener crumpled it in a fit of pique. (Webster has another good definition for this meaning: a transient feeling of wounded vanity.)

 

piqué /peeKAY/ noun: firm fabric woven in a ribbed or raised pattern.

 

Thanks for listening and for not throwing stones when you find my mistakes, for they are frequent!

[Laura Corin]

Orientated instead of oriented. :glare:

 

 

My current Chambers 11th edition dictionary has both, as did my Chambers from the 1980s and my mother's from the 1960s.

 

Laura

[melissel]

I do say "I'm doing good" in passing to people I'm not actually talking to, just walking by in the hall or whatnot. And part of me cries inside when I do. :lol:

 

:lol::lol::lol: I do the same thing and feel the same way about it. In my head, there's always a voice screaming, "Well, well, WEEEELLLLL!"

 

Halloween night as we were crossing a street, I heard a sound and asked my hubby what sounded like a metronome. He told me it was crosswalk sound signal for deaf people. It didn't take the family two seconds to bust out laughing.

 

OK, it took me a minute for that one! I was all up in arms because I thought they were laughing at YOU :lol:

 

I have reached the point where I now suffer from NDD (noun deficit disorder) in which words fail me entirely and I end up asking for things like the container that you cook food in, on the stovetop, that starts with a "P". :001_smile:

 

Isn't this a terrible place to be? I find myself asking DH for things like this: "I'm looking for the thing...you know, the thing! For cooking! With the handle? For the cooking?" Thank goodness that man knows me well and can usually supply the necessary item with a minimum of sarcasm. Usually :glare: