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As we’ve seen in earlier columns, “close doesn’t count” when it comes to word choices, at least if your goal is to speak or write standard English. Here’s another assortment of words that are often muddled.
Eminent/imminent/emanant. Eminent is an adjective that means distinguished or prominent or of high rank; think eminent surgeon or eminent theologian. Imminent, on the other hand, means impending, or happening in the immediate future, as in “disaster was imminent.” Remember it this way: imminent and immediate start with the same letters. Emanant is considerably less common, and means emanating from.
Averse/adverse. Averse, usually followed by to, means strongly opposed to, or having a feeling of distaste. “He was averse to the merger.” In investing circles, you often hear the term risk-averse, describing investors who are not comfortable taking chances with their money. The related noun would be aversion; “Jeff has an aversion to broccoli.” Adverse means unfavorable or harmful. “Even under adverse circumstances, her sunny disposition never wavered.”
Elusive/illusive/allusive. If something is elusive, it eludes you; it’s hard to attain or get hold of: “an elusive goal.” If something is illusive, it’s like an illusion—-something that looks real but isn’t. If something is allusive, it is alluding to (that is, referring to indirectly) something that’s well-known. “Achilles’ heel” is an allusive phrase; its direct meaning is vulnerability or weak point, but it’s indirectly referring to—that is, alluding to—the story of Achilles.
Speaking allusively only works if your listeners are familiar with the person or event being alluded to. If you sigh and say (as a friend did recently), “This week I gotta make more bricks with less straw,” and your listeners aren’t familiar with the Old Testament story of the Israelites in slavery in Egypt, they’ll be really puzzled about what in the world is going on with your job in sales.
Chord/cord. Chord is usually a musical term, as in “playing chords on his guitar.” Cord, on the other hand, typically refers to that ball of stuff you use to tie up the newspapers.
Grisly/gristly/grizzly. Grisly means ghastly and horrible (a grisly crime). Gristly mean like gristle; the meat was too gristly to eat. Grizzly is the bear. A related term, grizzled, describes hair streaked or tipped with gray; a man with a grizzled beard.
Peddle/pedal. Peddle means sell. Pedal is what you do on a bicycle. The New York Times ran a fashion article not long ago that mentioned peddle pushers, and irate readers rose up in a body to say, “Hey, Big Newspaper, see what terrible things happen when you fire all the copy editors?”
Tinnitus/tinnitis. Medical terms that end in –itis are common; the suffix means inflammation, as in bronchitis, appendicitis, arthritis, laryngitis, gingivitis, and the like. But tinnitus is typically NOT one of those inflammation terms. Look carefully at the word; it doesn’t end in -itis. It ends in -itus. Tinnitus is the medical term for noise in the ears that lacks an external source. The word is pronounced TIN-uh-tuss or tin-EYE-tiss. (There’s a lesson there, by the way: There’s not always One Right Way; look at KAIR-uh-BEE-uhn and kuh-RIB-ee-uhn.) At any rate, by spelling it tinnitis, that television commercial touting the herbal remedy for the noise in your ears created a word that doesn’t actually exist.
Yet.
But then, that’s the way language changes, right?
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