There are several authors on SOL (no, I am not naming names) who use discrete when they mean discreet. I really don't understand why. Maybe it's just a bloody spell checker causing it.
end of rant
Ian
There are several authors on SOL (no, I am not naming names) who use discrete when they mean discreet. I really don't understand why. Maybe it's just a bloody spell checker causing it.
end of rant
Ian
Discreet vs Discrete
The spell checker won't complain because both are valid words: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/discreet-discrete-definitions-examples.
I'm not native English so I probably wouldn't have noticed it and read the meaning from the context, well, until now that is ;)
I'm not native English so I probably wouldn't have noticed it and read the meaning from the context, well, until now that is ;)
Same here. Really funny is German has only one word for both (as in Middle English) "diskret".
I didn't even realize there are two different spelled words in English and would've used 'discrete' for both.
Keet, I looked-up "discreet" in the Dutch Wiktionary. My knowledge of Dutch isn't even mediocre, did I understand correctly in Dutch 'discreet' and 'discrete' are used interchangeable for both?
HM.
Keet, I looked-up "discreet" in the Dutch Wiktionary. My knowledge of Dutch isn't even mediocre, did I understand correctly in Dutch 'discreet' and 'discrete' are used interchangeable for both?
Dutch has "discreet" for both meanings: https://www.woorden.org/woord/discreet
In Latvian there's just one loan word too, same for both uses. Makes discrete mathematics (which works with whole numbers exclusively) a subject of nerdy jokes. That word pairing with math can be useful for distinction actually, something like:
His trade was discrete mathematics, but his passion was discreet observation.
discrete when they mean discreet
I used to do that. Hopefully I've cured myself.
Yesterday I read a classic by a top SOL author in which they got their usages of compliment and complement exactly wrong.
AJ
A unit citation is issued when the top brass want to compliment a complement.
Do you have a citation for that book?
Do you have a citation for that book?
I believe it would be unethical of me to fat-shame the author (and his acknowledged editor), especially since I haven't reported the errors. But it's a common enough mistake.
AJ
I believe that one comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee. Ask for a refund.
Yesterday I read a classic by a top SOL author in which they got their usages of compliment and complement exactly wrong.
I'm reading a book "Highly Irregular" by Arika Okrent. I just came across, to my surprise
Discrete and discreet ... are the same word, or were ... but we ended up spelling them differently. ... Both go back to the Latin discretus for 'separate' or 'distinct'.
and a couple of paras discussing how the 2 spellings came about.
Ian
That's a pair I've never managed to memorize which is which. When I run into one of them on an editing job, I always check a dictionary to confirm. At least I know to check.
discrete when they mean discreet
I still screw that one up from time to time. Most them from not verifying spell wrecker before moving on.
A mnemonic I saw very recently and possibly on this very forum was, that in discrete, with talks about separation of things, the two "e" are separated.
There are authors who always get it wrong, there are (far less) authors who always get it right and there are those who mix and match.
Just to add to the fun, "discretion" has to do with "discreet" and not the other word.
Lazeez used to have some "tips for authors" and discreet/discrete was one of the traps mentioned. Maybe it's still around but I can't see it.
there are (far less) authors who always get it right
Sharp intake of breath!
Surely you mean 'far fewer' rather than 'far less'!
AJ
Surely you mean 'far fewer' rather than 'far less'!
Nah, authors are a bulk commodity - they're not discrete. :)
You may want to rethink that, around 49 500 stories on this site and I'd guess at 5000 authors.
The similar spelling of discretion probably leads to it often being paired with discrete, instead of the proper pairing with discreet ...
Discreet vs Discrete
Add principal vs principle to the list? Schools have principals, though the incumbents might have no principles.
Add principal vs principle to the list?
And pour v pore?
As Butch pores over the treasure map, a decidedly unhappy Sonya pours her beer over his head.
AJ
I once had a very good cup of coffee poured in Pore Columbia. A nice little town in the eastern Andes, the residents were generally poor, but good natured.
Princip,a principled principes shot the Princeps & started WWI. Does that make him a proto-grammar nazi?
Add principal vs principle to the list?
Hit that in the story I've just been reading, where one of the characters talked about paying off the principle.
AJ
When in doubt, simply jump to Google and simply type in one of the words and a "vs". It will add the other word and you can read the definitions.
For example, "peel vs" will add "peal."
Just encountered another one in a forum post:
tail - tale
I wonder how you read a tail, unless it's the tail of tale :D
You read the tale of the tail in braille.
If you are rich, tall and handsome you don't get slapped.
There are several authors on SOL (no, I am not naming names) who use discrete when they mean discreet.
In the story I'm currently re-reading, the author used 'discretely' instead of 'discreetly'. The editor missed it too :-(
AJ
I could write that, but it'd be because my fingers were moving slightly faster than my brain. That happens :)
Definitely, defiantly far too often appears where it definitely doesn't belong.
Is this a failure of the spell-checkers, or a result of the authors defiantly ignoring the rules?
Is this a failure of the spell-checkers, or a result of the authors defiantly ignoring the rules?
It's not a failure of the spell checkers. Each word in itself is correct and a spell checkers should not mark it. To check for the right word in context is a grammar checker. Catching the wrong usage of a word in a sentence is much more difficult and the various available grammar checkers can give widely different results.
It's not a failure of the spell checkers.
But it can be caused by auto-correct when auto-correct chooses the wrong word (wrong as in "not the word you intended"). If auto-correct is turned off, spell-checker underlines the word so you spot it. But if auto-correct changes it to the "wrong" word, you don't notice it.
But it can be caused by auto-correct when auto-correct chooses the wrong word
Which is why the first thing anyone should do in a new word processing program is check the settings to make sure that auto correct is turned off.
Only if you can't configure it.
I used both types:
those with a base setting you could only turn off completely, (which I did with those dumb implementations)
others where you could select which one of it's base settings to turn off.
I usually let it correct very short words, like in German 'dre ' to 'der '; 'dei ' to 'die '; in English I would let it correct 'teh ' to 'the '.
Then I added some long, difficult to spell words I had to use frequently in a longer text by defining short not existing words like 'anzx' as placeholders to them (I know of no words ending on 'zx' in German – or English). This is better than to do final or multiple search-and-replace runs if you are working for weeks on a long manuscript. A good auto correct feature will happily do the replacing on the fly.
HM.
But it can be caused by auto-correct when auto-correct chooses the wrong word (wrong as in "not the word you intended").
Yep, see Dominions Son's reply:
Which is why the first thing anyone should do in a new word processing program is check the settings to make sure that auto correct is turned off.
Concrete should be against crete (like pro and con) although procreate and con create are not construction material. And if you travel to the Mediterranean Island, Crete is probably a Greek island
According to Advanced Search, 14 SOL stories contain "peel of laughter" and 29 SOL stories contain "peels of laughter".
AJ
According to Advanced Search, 14 SOL stories contain "peel of laughter" and 29 SOL stories contain "peels of laughter".
You caught me there.
Because English is my second language I had to look it up.
All spelling variation I came up with are genuine words – beel, beal, peel and peal. I read the entries in Wiktionary
and found the correct would be peal(1)
A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, laughter, of a multitude, etc.
It couldn't be peal(2)
Noun
peal (plural peals)
A small salmon; a grilse; a sewin.
BTW, Wiktionary's two last entries for peel are
Etymology 7
Noun
peel (plural peels)
Alternative form of peal ("a small or young salmon")
Etymology 8
Verb
peel
Misspelling of peal: to sound loudly.
HM.
Just encountered this one today:
I was waiting for him in the living room when he immerged.
which should have said 'emerged':
emerge - to come into view, to come out of a situation
immerge - to plunge into, under, or within anything, especially a fluid; to dip; immerse.
In Ka Hmnd's story The Thief Taker in the actual chapter 6 is this description of a fight:
I fainted and then brought the other stick around to strike him.
'faint' instead of 'feint' is one of his regular errors, another is 'anti chamber'.
HM.
anti chamber
Is that another description for the big room with the blue ceiling an green carpets?
In a story I was reading to day, it was claimed that during the Second World War, the US interred ethnic Japanese.
Since some of them survived to tell the tale, they must have been buried alive ;-)
AJ
To be fair I think the correct word there has become a bit obscure.
I don't think I've ever heard it used outside of historical references to WWII.
It's used quite frequently in conflict scenarios eg internment camps. And the other branch of meaning still extant today and from the same root, occurs frequently in business where unscrupulous employers hire unpaid interns rather than pay the minimum wage.
AJ
I just looked into one of the stories which are up to archival and stopped reading when still in the first (real) paragraph.
After writing about a couple of retrieves, each about 80 pounds and a paragraph break mid-sentence, s/he (CindyUSA)
wrote this:
After a few minutes of normal conservation, Jim showed
I decided my mediocre English doesn't need further damage and abandoned the story.
HM.
Martial Arts / Marital Arts
I can understand the confusion. There's a good bit of overlap between them. Battle of the sexes and all that. :)
There is at least one story that offers 'Marshal Law'
IIRC, I read this from at least two different authors (or one writing under 2 pen names). Trying to verify this I just realized full text search is for premium members only.
HM.
13 stories contain 'marshal law' and 2 stories contain 'marshall law' - one of which is by Michael Loucks although the instance doesn't appear in the preview text.
AJ
There is at least one story that offers 'Marshal Law'
Okay, but is that one a misspelling of martial law, or a reference to a lawman whose last name is Law? :)
Okay, but is that one a misspelling of martial law, or a reference to a lawman whose last name is Law? :)
The two or three cases I've seen it should have been martial law, but in one story it was used in dialogue, so it may have been deliberately used.
I can think of parents with the family name Law christening their son Marshal.
HM.
I can think of parents with the family name Law christening their son Marshal.
Yes, but does he grow up and join the US Marshal Service?
My Last name is Samples, I threatened to name my child Free, Justice if a boy, Candy if a girl. Hoped for a boy. since Candy Samples was a famous porn star. Who was apparently really named Candy Samples? She showed up on my genealogy search years ago. So, parents can at least think cruel, even if SOME get smart. (Female (feh-mal-ay) because the orderly named the child while the mother sleep. but really just the generic label to identify the unnamed child)
parents can at least think cruel,
I worked with someone named Grey Staples.
Everyone else had a grey stapler. He was the only one who had a brown one. But he had "G R E Y" is those decal letters across the top of his brown stapler.
And I mentioned it before about the woman in the bed next to my wife in maternity at the hospital who named her daughter: Mary Chris Moss.
There are many good military names of that sort.
Marshal Law
Private Parts
Colonel Panic (especially for computer science people :))
General Destruction
Major Damage
Corporal Punishment
and I am likely missing some others (and not using e.g. Captain Obvious, where Captain is still a rank)
"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my disk?"
The best DOS error message I ever got was caused by my missing a key on a debug command. In the days of 4.77MHz clock speeds, I would wring another few % performance from the machine by running 'debug' and entering the command 'o 41 40', which slowed the DRAM refresh rate right down freeing up that time for the CPU to use - it changed the rate at which the on-board timer requested the DMA chip to read (and so refresh) a memory location. One time, I hit 'o 41 0' (missed the 2nd 4) which instead whacked the refresh rate up to the absolute maximum, but the machine wasn't quite frozen, just v-e-r-y s-l-o-w. Rather than just hit reset I decided to explore, so I typed in 'dir a:' at the DOS prompt (it took a while as for each key I needed to wait 10s or so with the key down until it was recognised, then wait again before pressing the next key). Hit Enter, the floppy started whirring, and waited...and waited...and waited... Just as I was thinking of giving up and hitting Reset, DOS came back with the error message
Out of paper error writing drive A
The best DOS error message
Well, mine goes back way before DOS. Before PCs. When TSO (Time Sharing Option) on the mainframe was new. And it wasn't really an error message.
One system programmer wrote a help system for using TSO. He created a command he named "help." The programmer on TSO would type in "help" followed by the TSO command he needed help with. So I wondered what would happen if I typed in "help help". The result was:
"help only helps those who helps themselves."
So I wondered what would happen if I typed in "help help". The result was:
"help only helps those who helps themselves."
Funny, but I would have taken that as a challenge and tried the command "help themselves". :)
Edited to delete what could be seen as a personal attack. Insomnia is a bitch. I'll refrain from further inane commentary.
Yup, Being bass-ackwards is a pain. Nothing quite like waking up tired and going to bed wide awake.