Fulsome prison blues
Image: Baptiste Heschung via Pixabay (cc)
Sometimes words betray us; they don’t necessarily mean what we think they mean. We can go for years misusing relatively common words or phrases, getting them ever so slightly (or totally) wrong. It can be quite embarrassing, especially once we find out we’ve been getting it wrong all our lives.
Here are a few common ones that crop up in print all the time. One reason we (and spellcheck) don’t pick them up is that they are often homophones; that is, 2 (or more) words that sound the same but are spelt differently:
A council decides whether or not you can build a turret on your roof. Counsel is advice you receive. Or your legal representation once you appeal council’s rejection of your turret-building application.
One is discreet about one’s illicit affairs. When one wishes to keep 2 elements separate, one insists they remain discrete.
Principals are people who lead, whether companies or schools. Principles are the rules by which we live.
Heroines, as a rule, do not take heroin.
Other errors, or solecisms, as we call them in the linguistics caper, come about through simple confusion:
Erstwhile means former, not steadfast.
You are not flattering someone by giving them fulsome praise. It means insincere.
Mischievous has only 2 ‘i’s in it. Often you will hear a third ‘i’, sometimes even from newsreaders.
