Which Word When, Part III

About six months ago I wrote about a half dozen pairs of words I see regularly misused (some would say abused) and then followed up quickly with Part II, since I received so many additional suggestions. Since then I’ve continued to receive e-mails from across the world (really!) that have more or less said, “here’s my pet peeve, when people use X when they mean Y. Heeeelp!” Some misuse is due more to negligence, I think (like you/you’re, it’s/its), than ignorance, but in any case, we owe it to ourselves and to our employers and to our clients to use the right words at the right time to affect the right effect. “discrete” / “discreet” When something is "discreet," like what you do behind closed doors and on your own time, it’s "marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint." But when things are "discrete," they’re separate and distinct, like the branches of government, your summer and winter wardrobes, and your doors, behind which, well, you know, you’re being discreet. “then” / “than” Use "then" when one thing follows or results from another. Romeo to Friar Laurence: Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set/On the fair daughter of rich Capulet: As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine. Use "than" when comparing and contrasting. As the prince says at the conclusion of “Romeo and Juliet”: For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. “home” / “hone” We all live in homes (some nicer than others), but "home" is a verb, as well, that means “to proceed or direct attention toward an objective.” "Hone," on the other hand, means “to make sharper or more focused,” as we do with our skills. We don’t hone in on something, we home in on it. “champ” / “chomp” If you’re "champing" at the bit, even if you’re not a horse, you’re displaying impatience; if you’re "chomping" on hay, you’re chewing it, often noisily and, hopefully in this case, you are a horse because, frankly, you’re acting like an animal. “entitled” / “titled” "Entitled" means to have a right to something; "titled" refers to the name of something. Hotelier Leona Helmsley thought she was entitled to forgo taxes. “Only the little people pay taxes,” she said. The television movie about her life was titled “The Queen of Mean.” “compose” / “comprise”  "Compose" means to create or put together. "Comprise" means to be made up of. "Comprised of" is redundant (you wouldn’t say “included of,” would you?). A cosmopolitan, which I could use about now, is composed of vodka, Cointreau or triple sec, cranberry juice, and lime juice; a cosmopolitan comprises these four ingredients.

Comments

[Lisa Braithwaite]

Ahhh, compose/comprise, one of my major pet peeves. Thanks for setting everyone straight!

[Nancy Friedman]

Thank you for providing a much-needed service! One quibble: To be strictly correct, I believe one would say "A cosmopolitan comprises these four ingredients." (The whole comprises the parts.)

[Dan Santow]

Nancy, thank you for your close reading. I've made that correction.

[b. collins]

and my own personal fave (forgive if you've already noted this pair): reluctant/reticent

crimminy!

[Ragdoll]

Oh, I was good up until "comprise/compose."

[Carol Diggs]

thank you (again) - can you possibly strike a blow against my hugest pet peeve, using "snuck" instead of the ACTUAL past tense of sneak, "sneaked" (DOH!)? And if you could kill "impact" as a verb (unless we're talking wisdom teeth), I'd appreciate that. Also, using "diffuse" when you really mean "de-fuse" (as in "defuse the issue")...

[Loren Santow]

I think the most grating misuses are by those who ought to know better. Driving me nuts lately? Quash and squash!

[Diane]

Wow, I get kind of smug sometimes about word usage but I had no idea “discrete” abd “discreet” had, er, discrete meanings. I thought they were variant spellings. You've desmugified me (nothing wrong with making up words, right?)

[Margeux Clemmons]

I rather disagree with one aspect of this otherwise helpful piece. Concerning the colloqialisms "champing at the bit" and "home in on," I think it is important to keep in mind how these phrases are actually used by speakers of the English language. I am sure that plenty of people do say "champing" and "home," but I myself have never, to my knowledge, heard anyone say these phrases with the "correct" words. Instead, I regularly hear people say "chomping at the bit" and "hone in on." While I'm sure the phrases began with the correct word, it's obvious that the influence of dialectal differences and phonological similarities between the correct/incorrect words during the diffusion of this phrase changed the way many, if not most, people use these phrases. Nowadays, I think people in some areas of the United States would find "champing" and "home" sounded incorrect, and there is something to be said for saying a phrase so correctly (in the historically accurate sense) that it sounds wrong to people who aren't informed of the phrase's origin. I suppose my conclusion is that since these things are normally spoken or only used in informal writing, perhaps the correct version is more subjective than simply how the phrase began long ago.

[Margeux Clemmons]

Additionally, I noticed that one dictionary, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hone, listed "hone in" as a phrasal verb that means "to direct one's attention; focus," a similar meaning to the verb meaning of "home."

[Nikki Nelson]

The one that always catches me, despite the fact that I do know the difference, is appraise/apprise. For some reason apprise just never looks right!