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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSdisinterested/uninterested
If you're disinterested, you're unbiased; you're out of the loop. But if you're uninterested, you don't give a hoot; you're bored. These two words have been duking it out, but the battle may be over for uninterested. Heavyweight disinterested has featherweight uninterested on the ropes.
If you want a disinterested, or unbiased opinion, don't ask your ex-boyfriend if you can ask his brother out. He will not be disinterested. Disinterested means impartial, having no bias or profit from something:
There is no convincing evidence for this convoluted advice, disinterested researchers say. (New York Times)
Disinterested service is a virtue ordinary human intelligence cannot grasp. (F.E. Mills)
Uninterested means neutral or indifferent, having no interest in something. Once your former sweetheart has a new girlfriend, he might be bored, or uninterested, enough for you to ask him about his cute brother. Here are some uninterested examples:
The coach had put some thoughts on paper and gave his friend the name of a possible publisher who turned out to be uninterested. (New York Times)
"He was dedicated to the automobile," Mr. Joyce said, and uninterested in mass transit. (New York Times)
If your ex is disinterested enough to give you his brother's number, he's over you and unbiased. If the cute brother is uninterested and doesn't call you back, then he's just not into you. But know this: disinterested appears almost twice as often as uninterested, and a quick scan shows that disinterested is frequently used to mean uninterested.Uninterested is down and will soon be counted out. Just like that date.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSdual/duel
Seeing double? Not quite! Dual is two, or double, but a duel is a fight. If you're getting sick of your fair-weather friend's dual personality, perhaps you should throw down your glove and challenge him to a duel at high noon.
Dual, which dates from the early 1600s, is borrowed from the Latin dualis, from duo, for two. Dual still means double or two similar parts:
The ego becomes dual, one part active, the other watching and judging. (Max Simon Nordau)
Last night's game had kind of a dual purpose — playing Oregon and sending out this version of Husky Stadium. (Seattle Times)
Duel once referred to an arranged, formal contest to the death between two people, preferably men with handlebar mustaches. These formal contests are no longer practiced, so duel has broadened to mean any contest between two people, teams, or even ideas:
In early days a properly regulated duel was an ordeal showing the judgment of heaven. (Max Simon Nordau)
In a savage duel between the regime and Islamist guerrillas, entire villages were wiped out. (Business Week)
There are dueling pension propositions on Tuesday's ballot. (Washington Post)
Save dual for double, for things that come in pairs, like your hot/cold friend with the dual personality. Use duel for an old timey sword fight, or any modern version of it. Handlebar mustache not required.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSeconomic/economical
Economic is all about how money works, but something economical is a good deal. You might take an economic studiesclass to understand the ebb and flow of cash in the world, but if you buy a used textbook for it, you're being economical.
Economic appeared in the late 1500s, referring to household management, but its sense of relating to a country's wealth first appeared in the 1800s. It's still related to economics (the study of the transfer of wealth) or economy (a country's wealth), but not thrifty (that's the other one). Here are some economic examples:
The Fed said economic conditions will likely warrant "exceptionally low" interest rates through at least mid-2013. (Business Week)
Some slowing is expected in 2012 because of global economic woes. (New York Times)
The word economical also showed up in the 1500s, referring to household management, but it refers to being thrifty or not wasteful, which is still the definition today:
Not long after The New York Times profiled an inventive and economical restaurant experiment taking place in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, the experiment ended. (New York Times)
Electric lights are economical, clean, and give more light than gas. (Rose Buhlig)
If you want an adjective related to the economy, economic is your word. If you want a word to describe something that saves money, like buying used textbooks, use economical.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSelusive/illusive
An elusive fairy is one you can't catch, but an illusive one was never really there at all. It was just an illusion!
Anything elusive is hard to get a hold of. It eludes you. Existentialism, love, and small rodents are among things people find elusive. If you can't understand what "nothingness" is, find that special someone, or catch the little mouse who eats your cake at night, then those things are elusive. Some examples:
Predicting extreme events any further than 10 days in advance has long been an elusive goal for meteorologists. (Scientific American)
He proved an elusive foe for law enforcement. (Reuters)
Something illusive, on the other hand, is not real, even if it seems to be. The word illusive is used mostly in literature, where we find our favorite illusions. If flickering candlelight is casting scary shadows on the wall, don't worry, those are illusive villains. They aren't really there. Check out some examples from literature:
Then he knew it was an illusion of his eyes, straining suddenly in that illusive light. (Charles George Douglas Roberts)
But though all my rural visions had proved illusive, there were some very substantial realities. (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
Although both words can apply to things you don't have, don't let the difference be elusive! You can't quite catch something elusive, but illusive things are just illusions. The word illusive is less common. It likes to hang around the library, where it can be easily caught.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSemigrate/immigrate/migrate
Going somewhere? Emigrate means to leave one's country to live in another. Immigrate is to come into another country to live permanently. Migrate is to move, like bird in the winter.
The choice between emigrate,immigrate, and migrate depends on the sentence's point of view. Emigrate is to immigrate as go is to come. If the sentence is looking at the point of departure, use emigrate. The point of arrival? Immigrate. Talking about the actual process of moving? Use migrate.
Emigrate means you are exiting your current homeland:
People are always saying there's no quality of life in Russia, and everyone wants to emigrate," he said. (New York Times)
Immigrate means you are coming in to a country to live:
Citizens from 17 European Union countries were given freedom to immigrate to Switzerland in 2007. (Business Week)
Migrate means to move, like those crazy Monarch butterflies that migrate from Canada to Mexico and back. It doesn't have to be a permanent move, but migrate is more than a weekend away, and it's not just for butterflies. "Snowbirds" are people who migrate south for the winter and come back north when the snow melts, or someone might migrate to another part of the country for work or to be closer to family. Here are some examples:
Nevertheless, it has often been assumed that dinosaurs did migrate.(Scientific American)
People are prepared to travel and migrate within America. (Business Week)
If you have ants in your pants and you have to move, remember:
Emigrate is from the point of view of the departure. Think exit.
Immigrate is from the point of view of the destination. Think come in.
Migrate is all about the moving. Think move
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSempathy/sympathy
Empathy is heartbreaking — you experience other people's pain and joy. Sympathy is easier because you just have to feel sorry for someone. Send a sympathy card if someone's cat died; feel empathy if your cat died, too.
Empathy was first used to describe how a viewer's appreciation of art depends on her ability to project her personality onto the art. These days it applies to anything you can basically "project your personality" on. When you feel what someone else feels, that's empathy. It's a good skill for doctors, actors, and characters from Star Trek:
Nearly all medical schools teach the importance of listening to patients and showing empathy. (New York Times)
"I've always thought of acting as more of an exercise in empathy." (Edward Norton)
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Commander Deanna Troi was an empath: she could psychically sense other people's emotions. She experienced their emotions as they did.
Sympathy is an older word, from the Greek sympatheia, for "having a fellow feeling." It's a snuggly, comforting word. It's nice to get sympathy if you're feeling under the weather. To feel sympathy for someone is to feel bad for them:
This has already proved effective at drawing attention and sympathy. (Slate)
Police show no sympathy for "polite bandit." (Chicago Tribune)
So many dramas resort to cadging sympathy for their troubled characters by killing off loved ones. (Time)
If you're feeling empathy, you're in (em) the feeling. If it's sympathy, you're feeling sorry for someone.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSendemic/epidemic
Endemic and epidemic are both words that diseases love, but something endemic is found in a certain placeand is ongoing, and epidemic describes a disease that's widespread.
A disease that is endemic is found in a certain geographic region or in a specific race of people. Malaria is endemic to parts of Africa because it's hot and skeeters love it. Tay-Sachs is a genetic disease endemic to Jews and French Canadians. On the brighter side, a plant or animal can also be described as endemic to a region. If it's in the system, it's endemic:
Many relief workers who came to Haiti lived in South Asia, where cholera was endemic. (New York Times)
Catalina endemic plants are species that occur naturally on Catalina Island and nowhere else in the world. (Catalina Island Conservancy)
Epidemic describes a disease that is widespread, affecting an "atypically large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time," according to the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary. The disease, however eventually subsides. Here are some epidemics:
The Sunshine Coast is in the midst of a whooping cough epidemic with an average of three new cases presenting every day this year. (Sunshine Coast Daily)
But we're still talking about a huge epidemic in this country where more than half a million babies are born each year preterm. (Time)
An endemic disease is restricted to a place, as with malaria, or a people, as with Tay-Sachs. An epidemic disease may happen in a specific place, but it can spread beyond that place, as with asthma or AIDS.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSentitle/title
To entitle means to give someone a rank or right, like if your perfect attendance entitles you to free ice cream at lunch. A title is the name of something, like the title of a song you wrote about ice cream.
What about that song — is it entitled or titled "Free Ice Cream at Lunch"? There's the rub. The short answer: use either one!
Entitle's main job is to give you a right, like when you're entitled to free snacks because you've done something to deserve it. If you seem to have to right to everything, you're just entitled. It also means to give something a title: Your song is entitled "Free Ice Cream at Lunch." Check it out:
As all art collectors may, Mr. Lauder is entitled to deduct the full market value of artworks donated to museums. (New York Times)
Marjorie Ingall is worried about raising "entitled, bratty, ungrateful little weasels." (New York Times)
A title is a noun — it's the name of a book, a movie, or your new hit single about frozen treats. To name such a thing, is to title it, so yes it can also be a verb (hence the confusion). Here are some:
Their report was titled: "Euro zone: Thinking the unthinkable?" (Business Week)
The distributor gave him idiot-proof instructions, such as making sure pages had numbers and the title was on the spine. (Washington Post)
Sticklers want entitle tobe used only in the sense of giving someone a right, not for giving something a name. Bah! As for your song, if you jazz up the title, it might be entitled "Punk Rock Pickle Pink Ice Cream." Or not. You can get rid of the entitled/titled problem by dropping both and letting the title speak for itself.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSentomology/etymology
Don't bug out! Entomology is the study of insects, but etymology is the study of words. They sound similar and both end in -logy, which means "the study of," but don't mix them up unless you like completely confusing people.
Entomology comes from the French entomologie and the New Latin entomologia. These come from the Greek éntomon, for insect, and logia, for study. Entomology, then, is the study of insects:
From the department of entomology you expect to learn something about the troublesome insects, which are so universal an annoyance. (A.W. Latham)
Entomology: that branch of Zoology that deals with insects and, specifically, the Hexapods. (John B. Smith)
The etymology of the word etymology is that it comes from the Old French ethimologie and the Latin etymologia. Both come from the Greek etymologia, from etymon, for "true sense," and logos, word. Today's etymology is the study of a word's history:
Dictionaries take decades to compile, while slang terms come in and out of fashion faster than you can say etymology. (Time)
In fact, Metcalf devotes a whole chapter to the various false etymologies of OK, including several you may have heard. (The Globe and Mail)
Thinking about the etymology of these words made me think about exactly why we, as designers, were originally inspired by these ideas. (Co. Design)
Remember, entomology is the study of insects, like ants. If you're talking about words and where they came from, use etymology.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSenvelop/envelope
To envelop is to surround something completely. But an envelope is a piece of paper you put your love note in and lick to seal. With enVElop, the accent is on the second syllable, while with ENvelope, the accent is on the first.
Envelop means to wrap around something completely, to surround, either literally or figuratively. Fog can envelop a city, but love might also envelop a person's mind. Here are some envelops in the wild:
Gradually this veil spread inland and quietly enveloped all things on shore. (Lillian Elizabeth Roy)
Kenya had been enveloped in violence following the contested presidential elections in December 2007. (Forbes)
An envelope is a flat piece of paper used to enclose — or envelop — documents. To push the envelope means to approach the limits of something. You might hear the envelope, please when you're waiting to find out who won an Oscar. Here are some envelopes waiting to be opened:
Related links in NPG Funding models can push the envelope, but at what cost? (Nature)
Mr. Warner drew the letter from its envelope, began casually running through it. (Inez Haynes Gillmore)
When love envelops your brain, you might forget to seal the envelope for your mushy letter. If it falls out for all to see, embarrassment might envelop you!
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSenvy/jealousy
It's no fun to feel envy or jealousy because both make you feel inadequate. Envy is when you want what someone else has, but jealousy is when you're worried someone's trying to take what you have. If you want your neighbor's new convertible, you feel envy. If she takes your husband for a ride, you feel jealousy.
Envy requires two parties, like you and that neighbor, when you want her new car and you wish you were the one riding around with the top down. You feel envy when you want something someone else has:
Tall and lean, he is wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, a dark blazer and red tie with hair every sports anchor would envy. (Chicago Tribune)
"There be many, Judith," said he, "who might envy you your health and good spirits." (William Black)
Jealousy requires three parties, like you, your neighbor, and your husband, when not only do you wish you had that cool car, but you're worried your husband is going to ride off into the sunset in it without you. Jealousy is exciting because it shows up in lovers' triangles and Shakespeare's plays:
In Shakespeare, Othello is doomed by jealousy, Lear by pride. (Slate)
The peasant, mad with jealousy, ended by driving an awl into his chest. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Professional jealousy, tortured artist blues, Spinal Tap-ish excess and other clichés abound, but nobody seems to notice. (The Guardian)
You can feel envy about something you don't have but want, but you feel jealousy over something you already have but are afraid of losing, like that husband who's always hanging out next door.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSepigram/epigraph
An epigram is a little poem or clever statement, but an epigraph is a specific kind of epigram: a witty statement that's inscribed somewhere, such as on a building or at the beginning of a chapter or book.
Epigrams are short and often catchy, and sometimes a little sassy. Wits like Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain were masters of the epigram:
The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue. (Dorothy Parker)
Censorship is telling a man he can't eat steak because a baby can't chew it. (Mark Twain)
An epigraph is a kind of epigram, but it's written on an object, like a coin, a building, or a book. An epigraph often comes at the start of a novel or short story, and gives the reader a little hint about what's to come:
A good epigraph should be more than mere adornment. (Guardian)
The epigraph to Shelley's novel is the fallen Adam's complaint to God in Book X of Paradise Lost. (Independent)
"Stop! It is here, the empire of death,'' reads an epigraph from poet Jacques Delille that has marked the Catacombs' entrance since they opened to the public in the 19th century. (Globe)
An epigram is a funny little remark or poem — you could get one by telegram! But an epigraph reminds you of your graphite pencil, because it's always written down.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSepitaph/epithet
An epitaph is written on a tombstone. An epithet is a nickname or a description of someone. Halloween graves often combine them: "Here lies Fearsome Frank, who bet that he could rob a bank."
Epitaph is usually the words inscribed on the stone, but it can also be a memorial statement about someone who has died. Epitaphs are usually grave (ha ha), but old ones can sometimes be unintentionally funny, like this one: "Here lies Lester Moore/Four slugs/From a forty-four/No less/No more." Here are some other examples of epitaph:
"Here lies one whose name was writ in water," is the epitaph he composed for his grave, in Rome. (New York Times)
Her epitaph, being written in brass instead of marble, has escaped the wear and tear of nearly three centuries. (Hunter Joseph)
He has picked out a cemetery plot, selected his tombstone and written his epitaph. (New York Times)
An epithet is a description of someone, often a nickname, like if you're tall and people call you Daddy Long Legs. It's not necessarily an insult, but these days it's used that way a lot, like a racial or sexist slur. It's the kind of thing people sling at each other, like "red headed stepchild." An epithet can be negative, but it doesn't have to be:
According to legend, it is the Golden State — an epithet that might originate from the discovery of gold in California in 1848. (The Independent)
Elizabeth Olsen still needs to be described as "Mary-Kate and Ashley's younger sister," but any day now she might shake that epithet. (New York Magazine)
Be wary if someone writes your epitaph, after all, it'll be inscribed on your grave. But don't be afraid of an epithet, or nickname, maybe they call you The Gorgeous Successful Person.
CHOOSE YOUR WORDSdisinterested/uninterested
If you're disinterested, you're unbiased; you're out of the loop. But if you're uninterested, you don't give a hoot; you're bored. These two words have been duking it out, but the battle may be over for uninterested. Heavyweight disinterested has featherweight uninterested on the ropes.
If you want a disinterested, or unbiased opinion, don't ask your ex-boyfriend if you can ask his brother out. He will not be disinterested. Disinterested means impartial, having no bias or profit from something:
There is no convincing evidence for this convoluted advice, disinterested researchers say. (New York Times)
Disinterested service is a virtue ordinary human intelligence cannot grasp. (F.E. Mills)
Uninterested means neutral or indifferent, having no interest in something. Once your former sweetheart has a new girlfriend, he might be bored, or uninterested, enough for you to ask him about his cute brother. Here are some uninterested examples:
The coach had put some thoughts on paper and gave his friend the name of a possible publisher who turned out to be uninterested. (New York Times)
"He was dedicated to the automobile," Mr. Joyce said, and uninterested in mass transit. (New York Times)
If your ex is disinterested enough to give you his brother's number, he's over you and unbiased. If the cute brother is uninterested and doesn't call you back, then he's just not into you. But know this: disinterested appears almost twice as often as uninterested, and a quick scan shows that disinterested is frequently used to mean uninterested.Uninterested is down and will soon be counted out. Just like that date.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSdual/duel
Seeing double? Not quite! Dual is two, or double, but a duel is a fight. If you're getting sick of your fair-weather friend's dual personality, perhaps you should throw down your glove and challenge him to a duel at high noon.
Dual, which dates from the early 1600s, is borrowed from the Latin dualis, from duo, for two. Dual still means double or two similar parts:
The ego becomes dual, one part active, the other watching and judging. (Max Simon Nordau)
Last night's game had kind of a dual purpose — playing Oregon and sending out this version of Husky Stadium. (Seattle Times)
Duel once referred to an arranged, formal contest to the death between two people, preferably men with handlebar mustaches. These formal contests are no longer practiced, so duel has broadened to mean any contest between two people, teams, or even ideas:
In early days a properly regulated duel was an ordeal showing the judgment of heaven. (Max Simon Nordau)
In a savage duel between the regime and Islamist guerrillas, entire villages were wiped out. (Business Week)
There are dueling pension propositions on Tuesday's ballot. (Washington Post)
Save dual for double, for things that come in pairs, like your hot/cold friend with the dual personality. Use duel for an old timey sword fight, or any modern version of it. Handlebar mustache not required.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSeconomic/economical
Economic is all about how money works, but something economical is a good deal. You might take an economic studiesclass to understand the ebb and flow of cash in the world, but if you buy a used textbook for it, you're being economical.
Economic appeared in the late 1500s, referring to household management, but its sense of relating to a country's wealth first appeared in the 1800s. It's still related to economics (the study of the transfer of wealth) or economy (a country's wealth), but not thrifty (that's the other one). Here are some economic examples:
The Fed said economic conditions will likely warrant "exceptionally low" interest rates through at least mid-2013. (Business Week)
Some slowing is expected in 2012 because of global economic woes. (New York Times)
The word economical also showed up in the 1500s, referring to household management, but it refers to being thrifty or not wasteful, which is still the definition today:
Not long after The New York Times profiled an inventive and economical restaurant experiment taking place in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, the experiment ended. (New York Times)
Electric lights are economical, clean, and give more light than gas. (Rose Buhlig)
If you want an adjective related to the economy, economic is your word. If you want a word to describe something that saves money, like buying used textbooks, use economical.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSelusive/illusive
An elusive fairy is one you can't catch, but an illusive one was never really there at all. It was just an illusion!
Anything elusive is hard to get a hold of. It eludes you. Existentialism, love, and small rodents are among things people find elusive. If you can't understand what "nothingness" is, find that special someone, or catch the little mouse who eats your cake at night, then those things are elusive. Some examples:
Predicting extreme events any further than 10 days in advance has long been an elusive goal for meteorologists. (Scientific American)
He proved an elusive foe for law enforcement. (Reuters)
Something illusive, on the other hand, is not real, even if it seems to be. The word illusive is used mostly in literature, where we find our favorite illusions. If flickering candlelight is casting scary shadows on the wall, don't worry, those are illusive villains. They aren't really there. Check out some examples from literature:
Then he knew it was an illusion of his eyes, straining suddenly in that illusive light. (Charles George Douglas Roberts)
But though all my rural visions had proved illusive, there were some very substantial realities. (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
Although both words can apply to things you don't have, don't let the difference be elusive! You can't quite catch something elusive, but illusive things are just illusions. The word illusive is less common. It likes to hang around the library, where it can be easily caught.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSemigrate/immigrate/migrate
Going somewhere? Emigrate means to leave one's country to live in another. Immigrate is to come into another country to live permanently. Migrate is to move, like bird in the winter.
The choice between emigrate,immigrate, and migrate depends on the sentence's point of view. Emigrate is to immigrate as go is to come. If the sentence is looking at the point of departure, use emigrate. The point of arrival? Immigrate. Talking about the actual process of moving? Use migrate.
Emigrate means you are exiting your current homeland:
People are always saying there's no quality of life in Russia, and everyone wants to emigrate," he said. (New York Times)
Immigrate means you are coming in to a country to live:
Citizens from 17 European Union countries were given freedom to immigrate to Switzerland in 2007. (Business Week)
Migrate means to move, like those crazy Monarch butterflies that migrate from Canada to Mexico and back. It doesn't have to be a permanent move, but migrate is more than a weekend away, and it's not just for butterflies. "Snowbirds" are people who migrate south for the winter and come back north when the snow melts, or someone might migrate to another part of the country for work or to be closer to family. Here are some examples:
Nevertheless, it has often been assumed that dinosaurs did migrate.(Scientific American)
People are prepared to travel and migrate within America. (Business Week)
If you have ants in your pants and you have to move, remember:
Emigrate is from the point of view of the departure. Think exit.
Immigrate is from the point of view of the destination. Think come in.
Migrate is all about the moving. Think move
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSempathy/sympathy
Empathy is heartbreaking — you experience other people's pain and joy. Sympathy is easier because you just have to feel sorry for someone. Send a sympathy card if someone's cat died; feel empathy if your cat died, too.
Empathy was first used to describe how a viewer's appreciation of art depends on her ability to project her personality onto the art. These days it applies to anything you can basically "project your personality" on. When you feel what someone else feels, that's empathy. It's a good skill for doctors, actors, and characters from Star Trek:
Nearly all medical schools teach the importance of listening to patients and showing empathy. (New York Times)
"I've always thought of acting as more of an exercise in empathy." (Edward Norton)
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Commander Deanna Troi was an empath: she could psychically sense other people's emotions. She experienced their emotions as they did.
Sympathy is an older word, from the Greek sympatheia, for "having a fellow feeling." It's a snuggly, comforting word. It's nice to get sympathy if you're feeling under the weather. To feel sympathy for someone is to feel bad for them:
This has already proved effective at drawing attention and sympathy. (Slate)
Police show no sympathy for "polite bandit." (Chicago Tribune)
So many dramas resort to cadging sympathy for their troubled characters by killing off loved ones. (Time)
If you're feeling empathy, you're in (em) the feeling. If it's sympathy, you're feeling sorry for someone.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSendemic/epidemic
Endemic and epidemic are both words that diseases love, but something endemic is found in a certain placeand is ongoing, and epidemic describes a disease that's widespread.
A disease that is endemic is found in a certain geographic region or in a specific race of people. Malaria is endemic to parts of Africa because it's hot and skeeters love it. Tay-Sachs is a genetic disease endemic to Jews and French Canadians. On the brighter side, a plant or animal can also be described as endemic to a region. If it's in the system, it's endemic:
Many relief workers who came to Haiti lived in South Asia, where cholera was endemic. (New York Times)
Catalina endemic plants are species that occur naturally on Catalina Island and nowhere else in the world. (Catalina Island Conservancy)
Epidemic describes a disease that is widespread, affecting an "atypically large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time," according to the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary. The disease, however eventually subsides. Here are some epidemics:
The Sunshine Coast is in the midst of a whooping cough epidemic with an average of three new cases presenting every day this year. (Sunshine Coast Daily)
But we're still talking about a huge epidemic in this country where more than half a million babies are born each year preterm. (Time)
An endemic disease is restricted to a place, as with malaria, or a people, as with Tay-Sachs. An epidemic disease may happen in a specific place, but it can spread beyond that place, as with asthma or AIDS.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSentitle/title
To entitle means to give someone a rank or right, like if your perfect attendance entitles you to free ice cream at lunch. A title is the name of something, like the title of a song you wrote about ice cream.
What about that song — is it entitled or titled "Free Ice Cream at Lunch"? There's the rub. The short answer: use either one!
Entitle's main job is to give you a right, like when you're entitled to free snacks because you've done something to deserve it. If you seem to have to right to everything, you're just entitled. It also means to give something a title: Your song is entitled "Free Ice Cream at Lunch." Check it out:
As all art collectors may, Mr. Lauder is entitled to deduct the full market value of artworks donated to museums. (New York Times)
Marjorie Ingall is worried about raising "entitled, bratty, ungrateful little weasels." (New York Times)
A title is a noun — it's the name of a book, a movie, or your new hit single about frozen treats. To name such a thing, is to title it, so yes it can also be a verb (hence the confusion). Here are some:
Their report was titled: "Euro zone: Thinking the unthinkable?" (Business Week)
The distributor gave him idiot-proof instructions, such as making sure pages had numbers and the title was on the spine. (Washington Post)
Sticklers want entitle tobe used only in the sense of giving someone a right, not for giving something a name. Bah! As for your song, if you jazz up the title, it might be entitled "Punk Rock Pickle Pink Ice Cream." Or not. You can get rid of the entitled/titled problem by dropping both and letting the title speak for itself.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSentomology/etymology
Don't bug out! Entomology is the study of insects, but etymology is the study of words. They sound similar and both end in -logy, which means "the study of," but don't mix them up unless you like completely confusing people.
Entomology comes from the French entomologie and the New Latin entomologia. These come from the Greek éntomon, for insect, and logia, for study. Entomology, then, is the study of insects:
From the department of entomology you expect to learn something about the troublesome insects, which are so universal an annoyance. (A.W. Latham)
Entomology: that branch of Zoology that deals with insects and, specifically, the Hexapods. (John B. Smith)
The etymology of the word etymology is that it comes from the Old French ethimologie and the Latin etymologia. Both come from the Greek etymologia, from etymon, for "true sense," and logos, word. Today's etymology is the study of a word's history:
Dictionaries take decades to compile, while slang terms come in and out of fashion faster than you can say etymology. (Time)
In fact, Metcalf devotes a whole chapter to the various false etymologies of OK, including several you may have heard. (The Globe and Mail)
Thinking about the etymology of these words made me think about exactly why we, as designers, were originally inspired by these ideas. (Co. Design)
Remember, entomology is the study of insects, like ants. If you're talking about words and where they came from, use etymology.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSenvelop/envelope
To envelop is to surround something completely. But an envelope is a piece of paper you put your love note in and lick to seal. With enVElop, the accent is on the second syllable, while with ENvelope, the accent is on the first.
Envelop means to wrap around something completely, to surround, either literally or figuratively. Fog can envelop a city, but love might also envelop a person's mind. Here are some envelops in the wild:
Gradually this veil spread inland and quietly enveloped all things on shore. (Lillian Elizabeth Roy)
Kenya had been enveloped in violence following the contested presidential elections in December 2007. (Forbes)
An envelope is a flat piece of paper used to enclose — or envelop — documents. To push the envelope means to approach the limits of something. You might hear the envelope, please when you're waiting to find out who won an Oscar. Here are some envelopes waiting to be opened:
Related links in NPG Funding models can push the envelope, but at what cost? (Nature)
Mr. Warner drew the letter from its envelope, began casually running through it. (Inez Haynes Gillmore)
When love envelops your brain, you might forget to seal the envelope for your mushy letter. If it falls out for all to see, embarrassment might envelop you!
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSenvy/jealousy
It's no fun to feel envy or jealousy because both make you feel inadequate. Envy is when you want what someone else has, but jealousy is when you're worried someone's trying to take what you have. If you want your neighbor's new convertible, you feel envy. If she takes your husband for a ride, you feel jealousy.
Envy requires two parties, like you and that neighbor, when you want her new car and you wish you were the one riding around with the top down. You feel envy when you want something someone else has:
Tall and lean, he is wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, a dark blazer and red tie with hair every sports anchor would envy. (Chicago Tribune)
"There be many, Judith," said he, "who might envy you your health and good spirits." (William Black)
Jealousy requires three parties, like you, your neighbor, and your husband, when not only do you wish you had that cool car, but you're worried your husband is going to ride off into the sunset in it without you. Jealousy is exciting because it shows up in lovers' triangles and Shakespeare's plays:
In Shakespeare, Othello is doomed by jealousy, Lear by pride. (Slate)
The peasant, mad with jealousy, ended by driving an awl into his chest. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Professional jealousy, tortured artist blues, Spinal Tap-ish excess and other clichés abound, but nobody seems to notice. (The Guardian)
You can feel envy about something you don't have but want, but you feel jealousy over something you already have but are afraid of losing, like that husband who's always hanging out next door.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSepigram/epigraph
An epigram is a little poem or clever statement, but an epigraph is a specific kind of epigram: a witty statement that's inscribed somewhere, such as on a building or at the beginning of a chapter or book.
Epigrams are short and often catchy, and sometimes a little sassy. Wits like Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain were masters of the epigram:
The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue. (Dorothy Parker)
Censorship is telling a man he can't eat steak because a baby can't chew it. (Mark Twain)
An epigraph is a kind of epigram, but it's written on an object, like a coin, a building, or a book. An epigraph often comes at the start of a novel or short story, and gives the reader a little hint about what's to come:
A good epigraph should be more than mere adornment. (Guardian)
The epigraph to Shelley's novel is the fallen Adam's complaint to God in Book X of Paradise Lost. (Independent)
"Stop! It is here, the empire of death,'' reads an epigraph from poet Jacques Delille that has marked the Catacombs' entrance since they opened to the public in the 19th century. (Globe)
An epigram is a funny little remark or poem — you could get one by telegram! But an epigraph reminds you of your graphite pencil, because it's always written down.
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDSepitaph/epithet
An epitaph is written on a tombstone. An epithet is a nickname or a description of someone. Halloween graves often combine them: "Here lies Fearsome Frank, who bet that he could rob a bank."
Epitaph is usually the words inscribed on the stone, but it can also be a memorial statement about someone who has died. Epitaphs are usually grave (ha ha), but old ones can sometimes be unintentionally funny, like this one: "Here lies Lester Moore/Four slugs/From a forty-four/No less/No more." Here are some other examples of epitaph:
"Here lies one whose name was writ in water," is the epitaph he composed for his grave, in Rome. (New York Times)
Her epitaph, being written in brass instead of marble, has escaped the wear and tear of nearly three centuries. (Hunter Joseph)
He has picked out a cemetery plot, selected his tombstone and written his epitaph. (New York Times)
An epithet is a description of someone, often a nickname, like if you're tall and people call you Daddy Long Legs. It's not necessarily an insult, but these days it's used that way a lot, like a racial or sexist slur. It's the kind of thing people sling at each other, like "red headed stepchild." An epithet can be negative, but it doesn't have to be:
According to legend, it is the Golden State — an epithet that might originate from the discovery of gold in California in 1848. (The Independent)
Elizabeth Olsen still needs to be described as "Mary-Kate and Ashley's younger sister," but any day now she might shake that epithet. (New York Magazine)
Be wary if someone writes your epitaph, after all, it'll be inscribed on your grave. But don't be afraid of an epithet, or nickname, maybe they call you The Gorgeous Successful Person.