An auger or an augur?
Having recently screamed 'apprised!' at the television in the middle of Lost in Austen (which, incidentally, I will just say I found delightfully silly, hilarious and exuberantly entertaining and I do wish its more surly and humourless critics would just go and blinkin' well 'get a life') - when a character begged to be 'appraised' of a situation . . .
And having recently (with some trepidation) pointed out to a dear and notably (or at least aspiringly) pedantic friend that the person to whom they were referring in an employment reference was 'discreet' and not 'discrete' . . .
And also (confession time now) persistently experiencing that 'have I turned off the cooker?' obsessive compulsive need to check and re-check that I've used the right 'compliment' or 'complement' for the job . . .
. . . has prompted me to bring to everyone's attention this terrifically useful list of Difficult Words on me old mate Julian's sporadic but excellent publishing blog.
May your ambiguities never again mess with your ambivalences, neither may you be loath to loathe the venal (. . . or should that be venial?)
4 comments:
I love your comments about Lost in Austen! I asked a JA fan the other day if she'd watched it and was told that it wasn't something that would appeal to her AT ALL. My mistake, but it's just a bit of fun, y'know!
I didn't catch all of the Lost in Austen but thought the bits I saw were good fun, mainly because it was consciously outrageous.
I looked at the difficult words in the middle of a sleepless night and was relieved to find that I knew almost all of the words and their proper usage. Failure might have led to more sleepless nights.
I have such a warm glow, knowing so many 'difficult' words, though probably only because I'm of the generation that cared. I could add 'testimonies' v. 'testimonials' which also had me laughing recently. And just don't start me on the number of times I've seen 'would of' on a particular internet forum. (Education, innit?)
Still the warmest glow from knowing I'm not the only fan of Lost in Austen. IMO a hoot!
AliB
That list has put the dyslexic bit of my brain in to meltdown!
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