For observations about odd/interesting features of English. I’ll begin.
3 words which are frequently confused with each other.
Wary, weary, and leery.
Of course, the definitions of wary and leery are very close and they could safely be used interchangeably. But weary is sometimes confused with wary and weary is also sometimes confused with leery. Especially by my friend Larry.
That is all.
A definition:
turpitude |ˈtərpiˌt(y)oōd| noun. depravity; wickedness : acts of moral turpitude. ORIGIN late 15th cent.: from French, or from Latin turpitudo, from turpis ‘disgraceful, base.’
I became curious about this today when reading a legal reference to “moral turpitude,” realizing I’ve never once seen the word “turpitude” except paired with “moral” and yet it appears to be redundant.
I can’t speak for Larry, but Dale–I’d be leery of posting that to the Chiff.
Seriously. Very wary. Nary a chiffer can resist such a come on. (I don’t mean the leary type.) Trust me. This thread will very soon make you weary.
Chiffers? I dare’ye.
There are many forms of turpitude. Assuming that morality is the only venue for turpitude exhibits narrow-mindedness and lack of vision. Although I am still investigating the many facets of turpitude myself, I can vouch for the fact that, contrary to some peoples’ opinion, turpitude does not necessarily turn one’s urine into turpentine.
djm
I have enough trouble with Larry, Mo and Curly, much less willy, nilly, and silly. I don’t think I got much out of this week’s English lesson.
Leery - to leer excessively; the state of leering
Well, haven’t WE been awfully leery today??
Keep your leery face to yourself!
Though they tried to make the tough trough design work, it never was thoroughly thought through, so it failed.
English spelling is one of the most difficult kinds of spelling in the world. In all the languages I have studied, English is the hardest. Even in Hebrew, which goes “backwards” and doesn’t use vowels, at least you always know what sounds the letters make.
I believe this must be true. I’m fond of the classic “ghoti” illustration.
Most people here will know it.
How does one pronounce, in English, “ghoti”?
The answer is “fish.”
The ‘gh’ is pronounced as in the word “tough.”
The ‘o’ is pronounced as in the word “women.”
The “ti” is pronounced as in the word “caution.”
So, I guess it could have been 3Ghoti Productions.
Though they tried to make the tough trough design work, it never was thoroughly thought through, so they threw it out.
I like how I used this word without knowing what it meant.
Oh, I thought you meant a drug-taking type.
How can “cleave” mean both cling together and split in two? That has always seemed quite odd to me. It’s almost insane really. I’m sure I could (and should) look it up.
I’ve found that their, there, and they’re are sufficiently advanced for the average American to spell.
I cringe at accept and except being interchanged.
Bathe and breathe seem to be misunderstood as the Old English spellings of bath and breath.
Very few even know the word cite exists and most think site is the IM version of the word sight, much as l8r is to later. I can’t seem to get through to people that they are three different and distinct words.
Than and then, want and wont, want and won’t, and even to, too, and two are words I see used incorrectly.
Dale, you must be hanging out with some high-brow people. The ones in my neck of the woods would have to be well-read to even use the words weary or wary in a sentence, much less incorrectly. 
We were just discussing this morning the fact that some people pronounce “coupon” as “cyoupon”. Wyizzzit?
I don’t know what the dictionary says, but in geology, most minerals will have a direction in their crystalline structure where the molecules are weak, called a cleavage plane. Along this plane, the molecules are both held together weakly, and can be broken cleanly.
This is why many minerals can be broken into shapes – such as salt which can be broken into square shapes, or mica which breaks into thin sheets.
Other minerals lack such weak planes and cannot be broken into clean shapes. Quartz is such a mineral. Quartz fractures in shell-shapes called concoidal fracturing which is not along a plane.
Anyway, the geological usage of the word cleavage probably came after its original meaning. So my little geology lesson was of no help at all. Sorry for the diversion.
from http://etymonline.com/?term=cleave
cleave (1)
“to split,” O.E. cleofan “to split, separate” (class II strong verb, past tense cleaf, past participle clofen), from P.Gmc. *kleubanan, from PIE base *gleubh- “to cut, slice.” The old, strong p.t. clave was still alive at the time of the King James Bible; and the p.p. cloven survives, though mostly in compounds. Cleavage in geology is from 1816. The sense of “cleft between a woman’s breasts in low-cut clothing” is first recorded 1946, when it was defined in a “Time” magazine article as the “Johnston Office trade term for the shadowed depression dividing an actress’ bosom into two distinct sections” [Aug. 5].cleave (2)
“to adhere,” O.E. clifian, from W.Gmc. *klibajanan, from PIE *gloi- “to stick.” The confusion was less in O.E. when cleave (1) was a class 2 strong verb and cleave (2) a class 1 verb; but it has grown since cleave (1) weakened, which may be why both are largely superseded by stick and split. Cleaver “butcher’s chopper” is from 1483.
From http://www.takeourword.com/TOW197/page2.html
Do you know the origins of the word cleave and how it came to have two meanings that are direct opposites?
Indeed we do! That’s what we’re here for, Chay. These were originally two different words that evolved, perhaps with the influence of one upon the other, so that they have the same spelling but retained their different meanings.
Cleave “split” comes ultimately from Old English cliofan/cleofan. There were cognates in Old Scandinavian, Old High German, and Old Norse. The Old Teutonic root was *kleub-, and we even get a pre-Teutonic root with this one: *gleubh! Both meant “split”. The pre-Teutonic root is thought to be the source of Greek gluph- “cut with a knife” and Latin glub- “peel, flay”. The Old English inflected forms became cleave, clove and cloven, though cleft appeared in the 14th century and has survived.
Cleave “cling” was clifian/cleofian in Old English. It also had cognates in Old Scandinavian, Old High German, and Old Norse. Its Old Teutonic root is *klibojan, from *kli- “to stick” (source of climb, clay and clam). The Old English forms gave rise to clive (the given name Clive is not related; it comes from Old English clif “cliff”) and cleve/cleeve in Middle English, and it was cleeve that survived, and it came to be spelled cleave, perhaps by influence of cleave “split”.
Clover the plant is not etymologically related to either of the cleave words, coming instead from an Old English word which simply meant “clover”. Clove the spice is the dried flower bud of the clove plant, and it is named clove because the dried bud looks like a nail (Latin clavus). A clove of garlic is, however, related to cleave “split” as it is a part that has split from the main garlic bulb. The Dutch word for garlic is knoflook or, literally, “clove leek”.
I knew that one was supposed to be in there, but I forgot it by the time I’d put it together. Thanks!
I keep a can of turpitude out in the shed.
Hope this helps–
Tom
I agree!
I just got hold of a book by Edward Gibbon, The History of the Roman Empire vol. IX, printed 1802! The spelling is almost identical to modern day spelling of english. With the exeption that “s” is spelled with a letter that resembles “f”. All modern languages are evolving all the time - pronounciation and semantics are changing. At some point the written language of any language will be a fossilized relic of how the language was once pronounced. I suspect the spelling of english reflects how it was spoken in Shakespeares days?! (or perhapes a little earlier). I know that there has been some experiments with an upgraded version of english spelling (called modern english or something like that). I can tell you - it looks weird! And the drawback with a spelling reform is ofcourse that to a new generation the older litterature will become unreadable. On the other hand to have a written language that relects the pronouciation will make learning easier. Spanish spelling is for instance both very logical, consistent and close to present day pronounciation.
That’s called a medial s. The s as we know it today was the terminal s, called so because it was only used at the end of words.