100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles: The American Heritage Dictionary Reference for Commonly Confused Vocabulary - Softcover

Editors Of The American Heritage Dictionaries

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1328710327 ISBN 13: 9781328710321

Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

A book with real cache . . . or is it cachet??

100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles presents words that people can’t keep straight, no matter how hard they try. It features helpful notes that provide guidance on tricky usage issues: the confusion between lend and loan, between plurality and majority, whether free rein is spelled “rein” or “reign.” Each entry has a full definition and etymology, and most are accompanied by quotations from classic and contemporary authors that show how the words are used in context. 

 

With updates to some of the definitions and etymologies based on revisions made to the American Heritage Dictionary, a refreshed and diversified quotation program, and a brand-new cover design to match the updated series look, there’s no doubt this is the book people have been looking for; a book that readers will pour (pore?) over, a book that is both masterful (masterly?) and laudable (laudatory?).

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

The EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARIES are trained lexicographers with a varied array of interests and expertise.

 

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100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles

By Editors of the American Herita Dictionaries

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Copyright © 2010 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-328-71032-1

Contents

Title Page, 
Contents, 
Copyright, 
Preface, 
Guide to the Entries, 
Pronunciation Guide, 
Pronunciation Key, 
100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles, 
adherence, 
adhesion, 
adopted, 
adoptive, 
amend, 
baleful, 
baneful, 
beyond the pale, 
cache, 
cachet, 
condemn, 
congenital, 
contemn, 
contemptible, 
contemptuous, 
delegate, 
deprecate, 
depreciate, 
distinct, 
distinctive, 
emend, 
energize, 
enervate, 
exceptionable, 
exceptional, 
expedient, 
expeditious, 
faze, 
flounder, 
founder, 
free rein, 
gambit, 
gamut, 
gibe, 
gotten, 
gybe, 
historic, 
historical, 
hoard, 
horde, 
injustice, 
jibe1, 
jibe2, 
jibe3, 
jive, 
lend, 
load, 
loan, 
lode, 
majority, 
masterful, 
masterly, 
militate, 
mitigate, 
no holds barred, 
old, 
older, 
ordinance, 
ordnance, 
passed, 
past, 
peace, 
peremptory, 
phase, 
piece, 
plurality, 
pore, 
pour, 
practicable, 
practical, 
preemptive, 
rationale, 
rationalization, 
relegate, 
repress, 
restive, 
restless, 
shined, 
shone, 
sleight of hand, 
slew1, 
slew2, 
slew3, 
slough1, 
slough2, 
slue, 
suppress, 
tenant, 
tenet, 
throe, 
toe the line, 
unexceptionable, 
unexceptional, 
unjust, 
venal, 
venial, 
waive, 
wangle, 
wave, 
wrangle, 
The 100 Words, 
EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE, 

CHAPTER 1

adherence (ad-hîr['ens)

noun

1. The process or condition of adhering. 2. Faithful attachment; devotion: "rigid adherence to ... the teachings of a single man" (Janet Reitman).

[From French adhérence, from Latin adhaerentia, from adhaerens, adhaerent, present participle of adhaerere, to stick to : ad-, to + haerere, to stick.]

In concept at least, adherence and adhesion both involve the sticking of one thing to another, but adherence appears predominantly in figurative contexts while adhesion is predominantly physical. So you might describe a glue as having good adhesion to glass. But adherence is almost never used in this way.

Adherence sees a great variety of nonphysical uses. People can maintain their adherence to the tenets of a religion or philosophy, or demonstrate their adherence to procedure or a set of rules (such as a strict dietary or exercise regimen), but it sounds strange to speak of a person's adhesion to a faith or a diet.

Interestingly, while these two nouns have gone down separate paths, they share the same verb: adhere. Mud adheres to your boots, and people adhere to their beliefs.

Scientific evidence exists that atherosclerosis and coronary insufficiency can be reversed by adherence to a conscientious program of lifestyle modification involving a strictly vegetarian, low-fat diet, yoga, meditation, group therapy, and moderate exercise.

— Andrew Weil, M.D., Natural Health, Natural Medicine

2

adhesion (ad-he'zhen)

noun

1. The process or condition of sticking or staying attached to a surface. 2. The physical attraction or joining of two substances, especially the macroscopically observable attraction of dissimilar substances. 3. A fibrous band of scar tissue that binds together normally separate anatomical structures.

[From French adhésion, from Latin adhaesio, adhaesion, from adhaesus, past participle of adhaerere, to adhere; see adherence (#1).]

SEE NOTE AT adherence (#1).

Her plump upper lip clamped onto the lower as a snail's broad foot clamps onto a leaf, the adhesion indicating that she found the topic distasteful and had nothing more to say upon it.

— John Updike, The Widows of Eastwick

3

adopted (e-dop'tid)

adjective

1. Having taken on the legal responsibilities as a parent of a child that is not one's biological child. 2. Having become the owner or caretaker of a pet, especially one from a shelter. 3. Being a place that one has moved to or resettled in: one's adopted country.

[Past participle of adopt, from Middle English adopten, to adopt, from Old French adopter, from Latin adoptare: ad-, to, towards + optare, to choose.]

Children are adopted by parents, and we normally refer to an adopted child but to adoptive parents, families, and homes. When describing places, you can use either adopted or adoptive, but there is sometimes a slight difference in emphasis. She enjoys living in her adopted country emphasizes that she has chosen to live there. She enjoys living in her adoptive country suggests that she has adjusted to living there or has been accepted in the community.

4

adoptive (e-dop'tiv)

adjective

1. Characteristic of or having to do with adoption. 2. Related by adoption: "increased honesty and sharing between birth families, adoptive families and adoptees" (Robyn S. Quinter). 3. Being a place where one has moved or been accepted as a new resident.

[Middle English adoptif, from Old French, from Latin adoptivus, from adoptare, to adopt: ad, to, towards + optare, to choose.]

SEE NOTE AT adopted (#3).

5

amend (e-mend')

verb

1. To change something for the better; improve: We took steps to amend the situation.2. To alter the wording of a legal document, for example, so as to make it more suitable or acceptable. 3. To enrich soil, especially by mixing in organic matter or sand.

IDIOM:

make amends To make reparations for a grievance or injury caused to someone.

[Middle English amenden, to remedy, correct, emend, from Old French amender, from Latin emendare: e, variant (used in front of certain consonants) of ex-, out + mendum, fault.]

Amend and emend look similar, sound similar, and have similar meanings. In fact, they even come from the same word in Latin. The two words are what linguists call doublets, words that derive from the same word in another language, but have taken different forms and meanings because they were borrowed at different times or were affected by an intermediary language (as a Latin word being borrowed through French). Travel and travail, and chase and catch, are other examples of doublets.

Etymologically, amend and emend both mean "to take away a defect or fault," that is, to change something so as to improve it, but each word's range of application is different. When something is amended it is usually improved by an addition or revision,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1328710327
• ISBN 13: 9781328710321
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simone Casetta; casetta@mondadori.it; ; Via Mondadori 1,; Segrate Milano; 20090; Italien