This post is an excuse to use a cute photo. The delightful creatures you see when walking your dog are fawns; the mythological creatures you read about are fauns.
Fawn
Faun
Temerarious is a word that is only really at home in literary texts. It means ‘reckless’, ‘rash’ or ‘unreasonably adventurous’.
If you try to give a tiger a cuddle, you are being temerarious.
You may find in some historical texts that temerarious has been used to mean ‘haphazard’ or ‘happening at random’, but this usage is now obsolete.
The OED gives the first recorded usage as in 1532. But I think this is a good example of temerarious used well:
“The King was one of the first that entred [the breach], choosing rather to be thought temerarious then timorous.”
– John Speed, The history of Great Britaine under the conquests of ye Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. 1611
The word comes from the Latin temerarius , where temere means ‘rashly’. (The word temerity, meaning ‘excessive confidence’ or ‘audacity’, also has its roots in temere.) The suffix -ous denotes ‘full of’ or ‘characterised by’. The noun is temerariousness.
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Foodies, gardeners and musicians are probably well aware of the difference between a tuba and a tuber.
Tuba
Tuber
Accidentally writing about someone ‘playing a tuber’ would be unfortunate. My suggestion is to try to remember that a tuber grows underground.
The weather where I live has been lovely this week. It has inspired me to choose noonlight as this week’s interesting word.
Words such as daylight, twilight and moonlight are common, but noonlight is fairly rare.
Noonlight is the light of the sun at noon. It is usually the brightest and clearest light of the day.
Noonlight’s origins are simple (‘noon’ plus ‘light’). The OED gives its first use as in 1598, but this usage resonated when I looked out of my window today:
“Through the blue dazzling distance of noon-light“
– James Montgomery, Bolehill Trees in The West Indies, and other poems. 1810
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The abbreviation cf. means ‘compare’. It is an abbreviation of the Latin word confer. Because cf. is a shortening of a single word, it requires one full point at the end and shouldn’t have a full point between the c and f.
Cf. should be used when you would like the reader to compare one piece of writing with another.
“Ekivrid’s shield … lacked the ‘umbo’, the metal-boss of Waltharius’s. (Cf. lines 772 and 776.)”
– K. J. Leyser, Medieval Germany and its Neighbours. 1982
There is a widespread tendency to use cf. to mean ‘see’ or ‘see also’. This usage is usually frowned upon (see New Hart’s, The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Penguin Guide to Punctuation).
I recommend using cf. only when you are directing the reader to look at something else in order to make a comparison; you should use see or see also when you are simply inviting them to read something else for more information. If you stick to this distinction, it should be clear to the reader why you have suggested they seek out the other work.
Coal and kohl are homophones. Coal is sometimes used when the writer actually means kohl, but I have never come across a ‘kohl mine’ or a ‘kohl fire’.
Coal
a black or brown rock consisting largely of carbonised vegetationKohl
I regularly see break and brake used incorrectly. They are homophones and it’s very easy to type the right letters in the wrong order.
Break has lots of meanings but I am going to list the core ones (I have also omitted brake’s rarer ones). If you would like a more extensive breakdown, you should visit Oxford Dictionaries online.
Brake
Break
Unfortunately, I don’t have a simple tip to help anyone who may struggle with using break and brake. If you have a suggestion, please share it in the comments!
Thank you to James J Harris for suggesting this post.
Popple has a number of meanings. It can be used to mean the poplar tree, cornfield weeds, or to make a constant popping sound.
The meaning I particularly like is ‘to flow in a tumbling or rippling manner’ or ‘to heave or bubble’ (both of water). A connected meaning is ‘to bob up and down on the surface of rippling water’.
It can also be used as a noun for ‘a rolling or rippling of water’ or ‘a choppy body of water’.
Popple is considered imitative – it reproduces the sound of the thing it is describing.
“The sound of waters dropping, poppling, splashing, trickling.”
– C. J. Cornish, The Naturalist on the Thames. 1902
It is thought to originate from the Middle Dutch word popelen, meaning ‘to murmur’ or ‘to mumble’. The OED also gives comparisons with the West Frisian word popelje, meaning ‘to throb’ or ‘to bubble up’, and the regional German word poppeln, meaning ‘to bubble’.
The earliest usage recorded by the OED was c1400. And it isn’t just used for descriptions of the natural world.
“His brains came poppling out like water.”
– Charles Cotton, Burlesque upon burlesque. 1675
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The use of dependant and dependent is a very good example of the constant changes taking place in the English language. Fellow users of British English are probably aware of the traditional distinction.
Dependant
Dependent
However, you might be surprised to learn that you can also use the spelling dependent for the noun. Dependent has recently muscled its way to the status of a standard variant spelling of dependant; dependent is now as common as dependant in the Oxford English Corpus (according to Fowler’s and the Oxford Dictionary online).
Dependent was already the standard spelling in American English. And dependent is the only standard spelling for the adjective.
This week’s interesting word may be familiar to Greek mythology and ancient history enthusiasts. It is usually applied to figures such as Charon, Hecate, Hermes, Apollo and Anubis.
A psychopomp is a mythical guide of souls to the place of the dead. It can also be a spiritual guide of a living person’s soul.
Psychopomp is pronounced just as you would expect (you can listen to it here). The word is derived from the Greek word psukhopompos meaning ‘conductor or guide of souls’ – psukhē means ‘soul’ and pompos means ‘conductor’. According to the OED, the first recorded usage was in 1603.
Psychopompal and psychopompous can be used as adjectives and psychopompically is the adverb:
“I, Hermes-like, am coming to fetch you psychopompically to Hell.”
– Rupert Brooke, The letters of Rupert Brooke (1968). 1908
If you have an interest in psychology, you might recognise psychopomp as the term Jung used for the anima or animus (the link between the true inner self and the unconscious).
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Writer & Researcher
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Since 2012
Hannah McCall 