words

‘Cymbal’ and ‘symbol’

Hannah McCall 3 Comments

Cymbal and symbol are homophones. It tends to be symbol that is used when cymbal would be appropriate rather than the other way round; I suspect that is because symbol is simply more familiar. I also find cymbal is sometimes misspelt as cymbol (I haven’t been able to find any sources that accept cymbol as a legitimate alternative spelling, but I would be interested to hear from anyone who has such a source).

DrumsCymbal

  • a slightly concave, round brass plate which is struck against another or with a stick to produce a sound

Symbol

  • a mark, shape, sign, figure or character used as a conventional representation of an object, quantity, function, process or organisation
  • a thing that stands for or represents something else

My tip: cymbals are used when producing music.

Moonball

Hannah McCall Leave a comment

It’s Wimbledon season at the moment so this week’s interesting word is tennis related. (I was lucky enough to go to Wimbledon this week – it was amazing!)

TennisA moonball is a high lob made when playing tennis. It is often recognisable as a stroke that causes the ball to arc high into the air, often out of camera shot, and slows the pace of the game.

Its origin is simply the combination of ‘moon’ and ‘ball’. The OED lists the first use of moonball as taking place in 1975.

“Inside, on the first Monday of Wimbledon, hopes were as high as a moonball, as green as the immaculate grass.”

– The Independent, 27 June 1995

Source: The Oxford English Dictionary (online)

‘Custardy’ and ‘custody’

Hannah McCall 5 Comments

Sometimes spelling custody as custardy is funny in a surreal way, but most of the time it should be avoided.

Custardy

  • resembling or having the properties or characteristics of custard

Chain fenceCustody

  • the act of keeping safe; care or guardianship of someone or something
  • imprisonment (usually before being tried)

My tip: associate custardy with custard and custody with prison.

Smellfungus

Hannah McCall 4 Comments

I’m not going to pretend I am above using the occasional choice insult. Smellfungus is an old-fashioned term, but I quite like it.

A smellfungus is an overly critical person – someone who finds fault constantly or is seemingly discontented with everything. I imagine that a grumpy, miserable person of this sort would have a facial expression akin to that of smelling something bad.

Eiffel TowerThis week’s interesting word is unusual because etymologists know exactly when it was coined. Tobias Smollett published Travels through France and Italy in 1766; he was rather unpleasant to people he met on his travels and was seemingly unimpressed and contemptuous for most of the journey. His attitude was not well received by some of his peers.

Laurence Sterne, one of those peers, later wrote A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768) in which he created the character of Smelfungus, a satirical representation of Smollett:

“The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris … but he set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every object he pass’d by was discoloured or distorted.”

Source:

The Oxford English Dictionary (online)

It’s fine to use ‘Union Jack’

Hannah McCall 2 Comments

Union JackMany people insist that a British Union flag may only be referred to as a Union Jack when it is flown on a ship.

This is not the case. It is true that a jack is a small flag used to indicate the nationality of a ship, but the widespread use of Union Jack is legitimate. The Flag Institute explains why:

“From early in its life the Admiralty itself frequently referred to the [Union] flag as the Union Jack, whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially. Such use was given Parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated that ‘the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag’.”

The OED states that Union Jack is now the usual term to describe the national flag of the United Kingdom.

It also is worth noting that the Union Jack has a correct way up. The wide white diagonal stripe should be above the red diagonal stripe on the half of the flag that is closest to the flagpole. (This is because the St. Andrew’s Cross takes precedence over the St. Patrick’s Cross.)

Sources:

  • The Flag Institute
  • The Oxford English Dictionary Online

‘Waiver’ and ‘waver’

Hannah McCall 5 Comments

Waiver and waver are homophones, but they mean very different things. I often find that waiver is used when the writer actually means waver – I presume the mistake is made because the writer has the ay sound in mind.

Waiver

  • the act or an instance of giving up a claim or right
  • a document recording the giving up of a claim or right

Waver

  • Candle flamesto hesitate between possibilities; to be indecisive
  • to swing from one thing to another
  • to become unsteady; to falter; to become weaker
  • to move back and forth or one way and another; to quiver or flicker

My tip: try to associate waiver with the giving up of a claim. It should be fairly easy to remember that waver is the spelling for everything else.

McGuffin

Hannah McCall Leave a comment

This week’s interesting word is probably familiar to film fans, but you can find a McGuffin in all sorts of narrative works.

DiamondA McGuffin (or MacGuffin) is an object, device or event that has only one true purpose: to set the plot in motion. The audience is usually initially told that the object or thing is extremely important, but the McGuffin does not often have any real importance as the plot develops. The McGuffin is the soon-to-be-stolen diamond or the missing USB drive that serves to start and drive the story.

The precise definition of a McGuffin is widely debated, but the origin is attributed to Alfred Hitchcock. The OED gives the first recorded usage as in 1939:

“In regard to the tune, we have a name in the studio, and we call it the ‘MacGuffin’. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers. We just try to be a little more original.”

– Alfred Hitchcock, Lecture at Columbia University

Hitchcock suggests he took the surname MacGuffin from a humorous story involving a McGuffin-type incident. The choice of name is not thought to be related to the word guffin, meaning ‘a stupid or clumsy person’.

Source:

  • The Oxford English Dictionary Online

‘Prescribe’ and ‘proscribe’

Hannah McCall 10 Comments

Prescribe and proscribe do not mean the same thing. In some circumstances, it may be very important to know exactly which word to use. Most people are probably familiar with prescribe because it is the correct word for ‘to issue a prescription for medicine’.

PillsPrescribe

  • to recommend or authorise the use of
  • to state authoritatively or lay down as a rule

Proscribe

  • to prohibit or forbid
  • to condemn or denounce; to outlaw or banish

My suggestion for remembering which word to use is to associate prescribe with yes and proscribe with no.

Nycthemeron

Hannah McCall 4 Comments

This week’s interesting word is a borrowing from Greek. A nycthemeron is a period of twenty-four hours – one day and one night.

It can also be spelt nychthemeron. It is a term that seems to be used predominantly in academic texts, but I think it would fit in nicely in works of a more fantastical nature.

The OED gives the earliest recorded usage as follows:

“Onely the shadowy Vale of the Night will be cast over them once in a Nycthemeron.”

– Henry More, Two choice and useful treatises. 1682

I have taken this explanation of the origin directly from Oxford Dictionaries Online because Greek language is not my speciality:

“From Hellenistic Greek νυχθήμερον period of a day and a night, use as noun of neuter singular of νυχθήμερος lasting for a day and a night from ancient Greek νυκτ-, νύξ night + ἡμέρα day.” (You can view the entry here.)

Day and night

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Won’t

Hannah McCall 4 Comments

Old writingHave you ever wondered why the contraction of will not is won’t?

Do not becomes don’t, cannot becomes can’t, and shall not becomes shan’t. Won’t does not follow the same pattern.

That is because won’t is actually a contraction of woll not. Woll is an archaic form of will; many Germanic languages have or had a similar word with a similar meaning.

Won’t fought off competition from other forms including wonnot, woonnot and wo’nt to become the standard contraction we use today.

We may no longer use woll, but it is easy to see why English has retained won’t instead of using willn’t or even win’t.

Sources: