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Don't know whether this will fly, but it might be fun to develop a list of words not to be confused. Not malapropisms, though they could be fun, too, but those words that are similar in appearance and different in meaning.
OK. Confused? I'll offer a few sets and see whether y'all can offer some more.
astronomy v. astrology
cosmologist v. cosmetologist
(and, of course) cosmology v. cosmetology
Now I'm not saying that any of us would get these confused, but it's fun to imagine situations in which people have misused one for the other.
Need to get to sleep now to awaken to a very bored reading of a book about brain studies for a class I'm taking.
Brief rest,
Wordwaning
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Good list, Bill, but I was thinking not so much of homonyms, but words that are almost homonyms, but not quite. Words that are definitely pronounced differently and spelled differently, but close enough--say, first cousins once or twice removed in the Homosimilar Family--for the less astute student of language to misuse.
Oh, I just thought of two that get misused all the time:
to hone v. to home in on
I hear "to hone in on" all the time.
Bone sore, That French is just for you, wwh!
Wordwasted
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How about solecism and solipsism? Totally different roots, but easy to confuse.
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I remember reading a big article years ago about people whose surnames are
Montgomery and Armstrong
having these two names confused for the other continually, though I don't remember why. I guess we need a Scotch view on this one...Jo?
The Only WO'N!
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old hand
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The funniest word confusion I can recall had to do with someone asking a TV news writer if he wrote about the entire speculum (instead of spectrum) of news stories, or just certain types. The mostly female audience roared with laughter - after the cold chills subsided. 
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for the less astute student of language to misuse.almost completely irrelevant (ah, how quickly I fall into my old habits...) but I was once asked to explain to non-native English speakers WHY there was such a difference in meaning between: He has few ideas. and He has a few ideas.  Help!
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"He has a few ideas" is a gentle understatement meaning "He has several (possibly valuable) ideas".
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A word not to be confused itself. To quote Sean Connery in The Presidio: "Scotch is a drink. A person from Scotland is a Scot."Oops, I know that...'twas late. Certainly, and unabashedly, I stand corrected: ...a Scot's view...sorry, Jo!  The Only WO'N!
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excellent vs excrement
stales
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naturalist vs naturist
stales
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Repetition, forgive please.
ferment vs. foment (a quarrel, for instance)
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WHY there was such a difference in meaning between:
He has few ideas.
and
He has a few ideas.
Mm, I can see the problem explaining that difference in an EFL context! My answer fwiw, Bridget, is that the first version naturally stresses the key word FEW whereas the rhythm of the longer second phrase tends to stress the idEAS - thus the first stresses the lexical item of poverty of ideas, whereas the second stresses the possession of ideas.
I like your old habits btw - exchange them for nun others ;)
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Well, Stales, I didn't know this one. In checking through numerous references, including a listing of the 1828 MW, it turns out that originally these naturists found all meaning in nature--nature was spirit and provider of all. Then it segued into meaning a person who received health benefits from nature. And now, in the latest edition of AHD, at least, there is only one single meaning and that is the single, bare, wind-whipped, sun-glowing figure of the nudist. The old 1828 meaning has disappeared altogether...
Bare regards,
Wordwrapped
PS: Is there any expression "in his altogether" meaning he's nude? Or have I gotten something mixed up?
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Two words that seem to confuse people in French are:
Podiatre and Pediatre
(podiatrist and pediatrician)
Because both prefexis Pod and Ped CAN refer to feet.
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PS: Is there any expression "in his altogether" meaning he's nude? Or have I gotten something mixed up?
My M-W lists nudity as a definition of altogether.
The phrase, ackchally, is "in the altogether. Makes no difference if it's his or hers.
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gourmet / gourmand
 I have to admit to botching that one up! Ooops! Although sometimes I *am* a gourmand gourmet! [burp-e]
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a gourmande gourmet more like Madame Hev
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Scotch is a drink. A person from Scotland is a Scot.
Jus gis us a cubla more hours and I'll, hic, gis ya the Scotch view.
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or you could say someone is wearing their birthday suit
funny how these expressions didn't come up when we discussed the differences between naked and nude.. or in the euphamism thread.. quess we don't want to think about it!
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The difference between r*** and romance is just a question of salesmanship.
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Cross-threading to lyrics... in the film Hans Christian Andersen (I [heart] Danny Kaye!), the lyrics to The Emperor's New Clothes play on that very theme:
First, when everyone is going along with the emperor:
The King's new clothes are altogether, but altogether, they're altogether,
The most remarkable suit of clothes that I have ever seen!
Then later, after he's been (ahem) exposed:
The King is in the altogether, but altogether, the altogether,
The King he is as naked as the day that he was born
...
It's altogether the very least the King has ever worn!
And back to the topic:
Another one I thought of... sanitorium vs. sanitarium
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...but all too often are:
wreak/wreck
moot/mute
mitigate/militate
()
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Dear Fiberbabe: I used to work in a TB san.
"Sanitorium" comes from the Latin word "sanare", which means to cure or heal. It took on its special meaning as a place for the treatment of invalids, particularly consumptives, in the late 1800s.
"Sanitarium" comes from the Latin word "sanitas", which means health. Its most common meaning is "health resort." Because of its close etymologic link with the word for "sanity", sanitarium is most easily remembered as the designation for institutions designed to treat mental disorders.
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bel writes:
Two words that seem to confuse people in French are:
Podiatre and Pediatre
(podiatrist and pediatrician)
We had a case in the UK a short while ago where someone was viciously attacked by self-appointed vigilantes (don't recall if it was fatal - could have been) who thought that a paediatrician was a paedophile.
dxb
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We once had a receptionist at our office who expressed concern about her pregnant daughter-in-law who was suffering from a "detached placebo."
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viciously attacked by self-appointed vigilantes (don't recall if it was fatal - could have been) who thought that a paediatrician was a paedophile. - dxb
No wonder dxb, you english keep on confusing your self-appointed vigilantes by putting all those unnecessary 'e',s in your words. Self-appointed vigilantes aren't real smart.
Even here in the educated states some of our best appointed self-appointed vigilantes still think that pedants are pedophiles.
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Please tell me that is an urban legend dxb. I can't imagine anybody was dumb enough to think a paedophile would put up a sign advertising it.
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Some of the entries are getting so wild, I'll post an old joke about the guy who asked to be castrated, and the next day learned he should asked to be circumcised.
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What about thespian and lesbian? In fact, I seem to remember from history class that there was a famous smear campaign in the '30's in which one candidate accused another of being a practicing homo sapiens and having a sister who was a thespian.
Also, as a child I always used to get fetus and thesis confused (What can I say, I grew up in a college town.....)
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Um, wasn't the paediatrician in question a woman?
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We used to have podiatrist and paediatrician, but podiatrists decided it was all too confusing, and changed to being known as chiropodists.As synchronicity would have it, I was on the site of the NSW Podiatry Association the other day. I quote: "The word "podiatry" changed from "chiropody" in the late 70s, and helped overcome the confusion with chiropractic. The word "podiatry" stems from the Greek podis (foot) and iatria (healing/physician)." http://www.podiatry.asn.au/Foot_Health_Page.htm Seems foot doctors are fated to confusion...
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Podiatrists treat feet.
Chiropodists treat feet and hands, says my dictionary.
And if you are really gullible, see a chiropractor:
5< CHIRO3 + Gr praktikos, practical: see PRACTICE6 the science and art of restoring or maintaining health, practiced by a licensed professional, based on the theory that disease is caused by interference with nerve function, and employing manipulation of the body joints, esp. of the spine, to restore normal nerve function
chi4ro[prac#tor
n.
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bel,
The link is too long for me to give here, so I have copied the piece:
"More victims of press hysteria
The news of the World's naming and shaming campaign over paedophiles last month is continuing to bring vigilante attacks against innocent people. The hysterical climate created by Rupert Murdoch's rag lay behind last week's attack on Yvette Cloete, a 42 year old doctor in Newport, South Wales.
She is a PAEDIATRICIAN at the Royal Gwent Hospital. Her home was attacked by people who had read that as a PAEDOPHILE. Days later a father and his three children escaped an arson attack on their home in Norwich in an incident the local police say is linked to the News of the World campaign.
The family was living in a flat which used to be occupied by a convicted sex offender. BBC radio also reported an attack on a young man in Nottingham who has learning difficulties. There was no apology from News of the World editor Rebekah Wade on Sunday for the mayhem she has helped to unleash."
dxb
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dxb, Try Max's great discovery, http://makeashorterlink.com/. Plug in your long link there, and it will give you a shorter one that you can post here. I'd love to see the original article. thanks!
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slydexic standards that was astonishingly inetp
Sweet Maxie, you are so funny! Confused or not, you are one super guy! That was also a good one, slipping in "Misery"--the leg cut-off story, right?--on a pod-...ped-...chiro-...oh heck, foot thread!
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that was an oblique welcome to the new member, based on her nameOops! Merci, she said humbly.
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Omigosh, it's another new person ... how fantastic this is - all this new talent! WELCOME !
Glad you're with us, katybug - cute name!
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Pooh-Bah
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I have seen these terms confused:
magenta/placenta
parody/parity
And in a more technical area, take care to distinguish:
prison/jail
parole/probation
prosecution/civil claim
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Pooh-Bah
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The logo for the Michigan Podiatrists' Association is a caduceus superimposed on a foot. The image always made me laugh, which was not a good thing when I was in private practice and the association was a client.
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I got the others, Sparteye, but what distinction are you making between prison and jail?
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I regularly got my mouth twisted around on 'conSERVation' and conVERSation' a few years ago - caused no end of laughter...
al
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I don't know about Michigan, Bingley, but in NY jail is local (i.e., Riker's Island in NYC) and is used for terms under one year.
If you are sentenced to a term over one year, you go to a state prison. (Sing Sing is the well known one, but it a very high security one.. the more common prison is somewhere else.. way, way up state.) i am lucky, and don't have any familiarity with prisons.. and only know about jail from civic's class.
time servered in jail (awaiting/during the trial) can be applied to your prison term.
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Pooh-Bah
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Like of troy said, Bingley. "Jail" is a facility run by a local authority to incarcerate someone for a short term. In Michigan, a jail is owned by a city or county, and a sentence of a year or less may be served in a jail. Jails also serve to hold persons before sentencing, whether pending trial without bail or after conviction but before imposition of the sentence. "Prison" refers to a state-run facility, and is used for prisoners sentenced to longer terms.
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"Prison" refers to a state* -run facility, and is used for prisoners sentenced to longer terms.
* Or federal gov't.
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Pooh-Bah
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Interesting. I wasn't aware of a distinction between the words gaol and prison here.
Gaol is rarely used, googling the term only gives historic sites.
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In Canada, penitentiary is the word for federal institutions (sentences longer than 2 years)
With a sentence of 2 years less a day, you end up in the provincial system
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The only other names that I can find are- young offender institutions, special hospitals, regional secure units and prison psychiatric units - so we don;t seem to have a word that separates those on short sentences from those on long sentences, although there are various shades of prisons. Mybe it is just because we don't have a separate state and federal legal system. Whilst looking around for information, I found the following comments which I had not appreciated before. “The U.S. has both the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration in the world, including China and Russia. The U.S. incarcerates people at a rate more than 15 times that of Japan, and its prison population is more than eight times that of Italy, France, the UK, Spain, and Australia combined."
“No other democracy besides the US. disenfranchises convicted offenders for life. Many democratic nations, including Denmark, France, Israel and Poland, permit prisoners to vote as well.”http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/Prison_System.html
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and NYS is one of the worst offenders! back in the 60's the rockerfeller drug laws, with mandated sentencing time, has resulted in horror stories.. Yesterday's NYTimes had the story of a 78 year woman, sentence to a 20 year term in her 60's.. for a first offences. she was poor, and didn't have an education. an accident broke her hip.. she had no health coverage.. unable to get work, with out enought money to live on, she became, at age 60, a drug dealer.. she was convicted on her first offence, but since she had more than 1 ounce of drugs, 20 years, no appeals, no early release, nothing..
I not saying we should go easy on drug dealers, and in many ways, its been good for her, better food, housing and medical care, eduaction, and other activites. but in 3 years, she'll be 81, homeless, no social security, no health care (she'll have to get welfare and medicade) in terms of punitive effect, one or two years would have been just as effective.
NYS prisions are welfare for the middle class. built in rural areas, they are a source of jobs, and keep small towns viable..
a prison needs guards, and kitchen staff, and mechanics, and cars/transport, it need administrative staff, and doctors, and all sorts of folk. and all these folks need houses, and doctors, and dentist, and car dealers, contractors, schools, etc.) so there is no ground swell to change the law! It is embarassing to thinking people.
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To raze and to raise, two homonyms that are antonyms.
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