Happy almost Spring!
The other day I received this from one of you wonderful readers:
I was wondering—are those just misspellings or are they homophones (sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings) and homographs (spelled the same but sound different and have different meanings)?
Homomphones:
- there/their/they’re
- break/brake
- steak/stake
- see/sea
- eight/ate
Homographs:
| Quarter | quarter (to cut in four, or ¼ of something) | quarter (an american 25 cent piece) | |
| bat | bat (a wooden stick you hit a ball with) | bat (a winged mammal) | |
| bar | bar (a place you hang out to play darts and drink) bar | (serving of chocolate) | bar (piece of metal) |
| right | right (a direction you turn) | right (correct) | right (a power or privilege) |
Okay, so that’s the grammar. But what I was interested in was what do these alternate spellings mean, if anything? Let’s see!
(I had to hunt around for these. I used AI, Merriam-Webster, Oxford dictionaries, and others.)
| rane | Verb: (mildly archaic) steal; commit robbery |
| hale | Adjective: free from defect, disease, or infirmity; healthy, vigorous verb: haul or pull |
| gail | Proper noun: Gail, female name meaning “joy.” Diminutive of Abigail meaning “my father’s joy.” |
| drissle | Misspelling of drizzle (noun): light rain falling in very fine drops. |
| thundre | Misspelling of thunder (noun): the sound that follows a flash of lightning and is caused by sudden expansion of the air in the path of the electrical discharge |
| litnin | Misspelling of lightning (noun): the flashing of light produced by a discharge of atmospheric electricity |
| tawnaydoes | Misspelling of tornado (noun): a mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud |
| frizzing | Verb: form into small tight curls; to fry or sear with a sizzling noise |
| colde | Adjective: an archaic spelling of the word "cold". "Cold" means having a low temperature, especially when compared to the human body |
So some are archaic spellings, some are misspellings, and some are homophones. I thought it was a cute meme. I know, you’re wondering, did I have to take it this far? Yeah, I did. It’s who I am. 😊
Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications
Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com
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