Thursday, April 10, 2014

Words Formed in Error

Your theme this week really strikes a chord with me. The internet age means blogging. Blogging bypasses gatekeepers, which is all to the good when it comes to imparting sound political philosophy and economic theory. When it comes to careful editing, not so much. 

Otherwise skilled writers are using "lead" as the past tense of lead. They mean led. The confusion is understandable; led is pronounced the same way as the word lead, meaning the element represented by the symbol Pb. But lead most certainly is not the right word! Similarly, I see chose for choose, breath for breathe, and loose for lose. 

Worst of all, I see definately taking the place of definitely and miniscule for minuscule. Ugh! I keep telling myself these words formed in error are a small price to pay for the free flow of information. They stick in my craw nonetheless. 

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