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Friday, May 24, 2013

Confusion is spreading!

Alicia's lost her internet for today, so I'll confess something...

Defenestration. Excellent word, easy to say -- but why would you need a word specifically for removing windows? Does it really happen that often? You'll see old brick buildings with a patch of younger bricks where they've obviously been defenestrated...

Oh, wait... throwing people out of windows. Not the most common thing either, but hey.

What words trip you up? Which ones do you feel a need to double-check every time you use them?

6 comments:

Missed Periods said...

Today, I was emailing someone about a piece of my writing that she said needed to be "fleshed out." Then, I second guessed myself and wondered if it was "fleshed out" or "flushed out." I looked it up: it's "fleshed out."

Patchi said...

In Portuguese, the word explore means both "explore" and "exploit." I really pay attention now, as I got traumatized in college. I said "explore" when I asked a girl if she could take my cafeteria tray for me, loud enough for the surrounding tables to hear. She crossed her arms in front of her and said, "not here, later," and I had people laughing at me for a week.

Liz A. said...

Defenestration was a word I did not know. (I'll just add it to the list...)

Aldrea Alien said...

Defenestration. How I love that word. Ever since seeing David Eddings use it in one of the Tamuli books. It went along the lines of:
Woman: I defenestrated him.
Knight: That's a horrible thing to do to a man!
Woman: What? Throw him out the window?
Knight: Oh, is that what it means.

Me: ^_^


Then there's refenestration, which I believe is: the act of throwing something previously defenestrated back through said window.

I used defenestrated in my last wip, sadly, I've found no use for refenestration.

Liza said...

I've learned a new word today!

Huntress said...

The only way I remember the difference between 'conjunction' and contraction is by muttering an old joke. The woman is in labor and yelling, "Can't! Wouldn't! Don't!"

The hubby was shaken until the nurse said, "oh, don't worry. It's only her contractions."