- Nonplussed. What is it with this word? I know the word means utterly perplexed, but that’s not what it sounds like it should mean and it’s not how people use it. Twice in the last week, I’ve heard people use the word “nonplussed” to mean “unconcerned” or “unaffected.” I didn’t correct them. I think that’s what it should mean, dammit. Who defined this one? (Bonus: While painstakingly researching this post in the same meticulous and methodical way I fact-check every single thing I ever write in Zebra Sounds, I stumbled upon this article, 9 Words That Don’t Mean What You Think They Mean. It has vocabulary. It’s funny. It includes pictures of women in bathing suits. Something for everyone.)
- The spelling of “poignant.” (And in the interest of full disclosure, I misspelled it here, and just let spell check correct me. Which is what I do every time. You would think that eventually I would learn to spell the word, but I believe I’ve developed a sort of mental block.) Oh, and I consistently have trouble with “buoyed.” I have so much trouble with “buoyed” that the previous sentence took me around five minutes to write. I could not even get close enough for spell check to hazard a guess. I had to go find an essay in which I knew I’d used the word, and then come back here and type it in. From now on, I’m using “heartened.” When you see the word “heartened” you’ll know I mean “buoyed.”
- Unanimous. I can write it, but I have trouble saying. Same with anemone and anonymous. I really don’t like my N’s and M’s too close together. Makes me sound like I’m four years old. I can only hope people find it adorkable.
- Chartreuse. According to Wikipedia, it’s a color “precisely halfway between green and yellow,” but I always think of bright pink, a sort of vibrant magenta. It’s not a big deal. Chartreuse doesn’t come up a lot for me. I run with a crowd for whom the word chartreuse would seem pretentious and unnecessary. “Look at that chartreuse purse,” I might say, and they’d say, “Ooo, chartreuse aren’t you the little miss arty-high-fashion-highfalutin-vocabulary princess?” Or they’d probably say, “That would be very impressive, j, if only the purse weren’t pink.”
- “Turn left” (or “right”) as a command issued from the passenger seat of my car. I don’t know why it is that when I’m driving the words “left” and “right” become completely interchangeable and seem to have no bearing whatsoever on what I do at the moment of truth.
Okay, so… what trips you up?
Wild
You are so funny! That’s funny ha-ha, btw.
#1 I will not say how many of those words I was mistaken about.
#2 I actually can spell poignant, but not buoyed (had to look) so I avoid ever even thinking the word.
#3 No problem for me. And I’m sure you do sound just as adorkable as possible.
#4 This is a word I’ve known for as long as I can remember because my mother always uses it. Maybe because she’s half Norwegian? I can never spell it right the first time though.
#5 Okay, this is a biggie for me. NOT as a driver though. My husband despairs because, though I “see” the directions exactly, I say the opposite almost every time. I mean for him to turn left, but I say right! It’s a wonder he hasn’t killed me by now.
Buoyed by a unanimous vote of support to push ahead with health care reform by all those present, President Obama’s usual poignant remarks were interrupted as Pelosi screamed out, “we would have got her sooner if you had taken a left”. Nonplussed by the shriek, and the chartreuce outfit Rohm was wearing, the president pushed on with his speech even though the person only asked, “what do you want?” over the Burger King intercom!
I only get tripped up by my own silliness!
Linda, I actually made myself laugh writing this. Mostly because I’m hardly even exaggerating. Yes, actually, I did not learn to spell chartreuse until the third time I’d written it here. I will forget it by tomorrow. Like… those other two words that shall not be spelled.
Bobby, Rohm in a chartreuse outfit – it’s like he’s dressing up as Hillary for Halloween! I love the image I get of you tripping over your silliness. Happy to have you trip here with us!
Hopefully I can shed a little light on the word, chartreuse which has really fallen on hard times the last few decades. It was a very common word in the fifties and I “assume” prior to that. I don’t know “why” certain words seem to eventually fade out of existence, but I believe that chartreuse will be one of them.
Up until about five years ago I did think that chartreuse was the color you described, so it is difficult for me to think of it as half way between green and yellow, but I am working on it.
nonplussed…I always hated that word. especially once I found out I had been using wrong for years…and worse than that, wondering all the times I had heard others use it if they meant what I thought they meant or not. Stupid word.
And chartreuse. apparently I’ve had that wrong for years too. Go figure.
Thanks for getting this all cleared up. Glad I get an extra hour of sleep tonight. I’ll need it to recover!
cmw
Gerry, Really? There was a time when it was common? About 4 or 5 people (my age-ish) have told me they thought it was a pink color, too. Can you shed light on how my generation got so confused? (I don’t ask for much!)
Terre, What is up with that? I’m beginning to think we’re right and Wikipedia is wrong…
CMW, I am HEARTENED by your agreement. And, oh yeah! An extra hour! Yay! I forgot all about that, so it feels like you gave it to me. Hugs!
I don’t know why many of you younger ones thought chartreuse was pink, but I think if you asked many of us “oldies” ; ), we’d know the correct color. Speaking of color — I have noticed that you younger ones nearly always call “lavendar” purple (purple’s actually much darker than lavendar, but then, you probably already knew that j ; ) ). Wish I could be of more help ; ))))
Great post. I loved the 9 Words link. They had it exactly right on the dick ratings. Until five months ago, I thought “Nonplussed” meant calm, unperturbed and the word made it several times into the last draft of my book. Just before it went to page layout, I took out my etymological dictionary, just to check, and sure enough it meant the opposite. The word roots are fr. L. non plus (no more, no farther). Interesting how words are spoken/written without any real attention to what they really mean. That’s how a word can become a social construction.
Gerry, I am guilty of being imprecise in my color designation. Just recently, I was dazzled by how many “purples” there were in my box of Crayolas!
Maia, That’s the thing about being nonplussed. Actually, I remember when I read the latin, I thought, “Okay, that’s how I’ll remember.” But I find I just avoid it, because I worry more about being misunderstood than about being right.
Really happy to see you here. Thank you for commenting!
I loved Bobby’s post! Thanks for the link to that word article — I’m going to share it with my ‘boss’ who loves language. I enjoyed the author’s ‘dick rating’ with photos of guys I assume he sees as fitting. I felt kind of bad for Tom Cruise because I often think he gets a bum rap, but I was thrilled to see Bill O’Reilly at the top. I have a guess on what ‘trips you up’ on Chartreuse . . . in a way, it has the same feeling when you say it as “fuschia” which is similar that color you mentioned. Could be?! I actually did know the color (chartreuse), but that is because I can remember people saying someone looked ill and they were the color of “chartreuse”. A nicer version of that color is the gem stone Peridot. I will confess that the words I have been incorrect in my understanding of are (were) bemused, pristine and peruse. I have never attempted to use the word ‘nonplussed’. We are so wonderfully fortunate in this day and age that we can simply Google any word, go to Merriam-Webster and there is even a little icon to click on that helps you pronounce correctly! I have always struggled with pronunciation symbols. I’ve written too much here, but I want to just say those 3 words you have difficulty spelling are great candidates for a little trick I learned way back when (you probably know it) . . . say the word phoenetically in your head and also break it up into little words . . . for instance, buoyed . . . B U oy(!) Ed — Chart – Re -use — and Po – Ig – Nant (say it phoenetically in your head). Sorry, once again I’ve had too much caffeine before reading your post!
You’re “right there” with the rest of your generation calling “lavendar” colors “purple” — nice feeling that you are among the rest of your crowd, huh ; ))) “Just perhaps” something happened with the teachers in your generation in the schools when “colors” were being taught??? Just a thought???? I don’t know how else to explain it.
Serves me right for trying to brag about some sort of spelling technique I have — I just discovered after looking to see how the color fuchsia is described that I spelled it wrong in my post to you . . . it is fuchsia, not fuschia — sounds like it should be ‘fush-ia’. Oy! The joys of spelling ;-)
Actually, Carey, your spelling tip is great. I’ll totally use it. And I even think you maybe right that I’m confusing fuchsia (did not know how to spell it) with chartreuse. (You’ve seen one weird color name, you’ve seen them all?)
Oh, you must be so adorkable while sounding like a 4 year old ;)
I had a lot of trouble in the past when I had to type “lyrics”. It took me a few years to get it right from the first attempt.
Now I usually type a few words incorrectly, but can’t for the life of me remember right now.
I think I will revisit this post as I type them incorrectly again, since on those occasions I do notice :P
Estrella, It’s funny. I think part of it is that I now panic when I’m about to have to say one of my troublesome words. I’ll often go another route entirely, like “No one knows who wrote this,” instead of “It’s anonymous.” Shhh… that’s my secret.
And here all along I thought chartreuse was a New Zealand aborigine sand tick. Who woulda thunk it. Guess I better discontinue my reference to chartreuse as something you want to avoid down under.
Tricia, you just made me laugh so hard I snorted. Rocking the blog, baby.