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As we’ve said in earlier columns, “close doesn’t count” when it comes to word choices. Here are a few more of those word pairs that frequently trip speakers and writers up in their efforts to use today’s standard English.
Testimony/testimonial. Testimony is typically used to refer to what someone says when they’re in court telling what they saw, or (in a spiritual context) are telling about the changes God has made in their life. Testimonial, on the other hand, is usually “a recommendation of the character or worth of a person or thing.” The two words are simply not interchangeable. A Christian web site indicating that its staff members have posted their “testimonials” is using the wrong word.
Wile/while. Wile as a noun, most often seen in the plural, means tricks to lure someone into doing something (“the wiles of a dishonest salesman”). While when it’s used as a verb means to spend time idly (“He whiled away the morning playing Sudoku”). An article in a local magazine recently reported that a family “wiles away a lazy summer afternoon.” While this usage is not uncommon, and is even found in some dictionaries, it’s generally not considered the correct word in formal writing; you’d be better off to write “whiles away the afternoon.”
Elicit/illicit. Elicit is a verb that means to draw out (“His questioning elicited the fact that she was ill”). Illicit is an adjective meaning unlawful, as in “illicit relationship.”
Capital/capitol. Capital can mean main or first, or the original part of a sum of money. It can also mean the town or city that’s a seat of government (“Atlanta is the capital of Georgia”), and has numerous other meanings related to the idea of big or important. Capitol, on the other hand, is only used to indicate the building where a governing body meets. “The gold on the dome of the capitol in Atlanta came from Lumpkin County.”
Bizarre/bazaar. Bizarre as an adjective means weird and maybe even downright creepy (“My computer is doing bizarre things”). Bazaar is a noun that’s traditionally used to mean a marketplace for miscellaneous items (“Please donate items for our fund-raising bazaar”); originally it had distinctly Oriental overtones.
Tenet/tenant. A tenet is a belief. A tenant is someone who’s renting your house.
Acronym/anachronism. An acronym is a word made up of the first letters of the words of a longer phrase: NASA, RAM, NIMBY, and the like. An anachronism, on the other hand, is something that’s depicted as being used outside its proper historical time period (the “chron” part of the word anachronism means “time”). In a movie about Thomas Jefferson, if he’s writing the Declaration of Independence with a felt marker, the felt marker would be an anachronism. Similarly, when movie makers shoot a film set in the nineteenth century, they’re always having to yell at the extras to turn their dang cell phones off, so that somebody’s ringtone of “Never Gonna Give You Up” doesn’t go off just as John Wilkes Booth is yelling “Sic semper tyrannis” and shooting President Lincoln. A cell phone ringing in an Abraham Lincoln movie would be an anachronism.
But how could anybody mix up anachronism and acronym, two completely unrelated terms? Well, say anachronism (“uh-NACK-ruh-nizum”). Now say an acronym (“uh-NACK-ruh-nim”). See?
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