I see some things in published journalism nearly every damned day. Just look.
Too few people today have had any experience with horses, and it doesn't occur to them that horses are controlled with reins. To rein in a horse, the rider pulls back the reins to stop forward progress. To give free rein is to let go of the reins, allowing the horse to go where it will--in the dimly remembered metaphor, to surrender control. People who have neglected their homonyms instead write free reign. Reign is the power or rule of a monarch, so free reign is meaningless, apart from flagging the writer's imperfect education.
Because we are trapped in a presidential campaign year, figures on all sides are daily subjected to intense public criticism, often expressed as catching flak. Those of you who remember, or maybe read about, the Second World War, know that flak is a shortened form of the German fliegerabwehrkanone, or antiaircraft gun. Flak is a metaphor for criticism that is like sharp pieces of metal flying through the air at great velocity. You will often see it rendered as flack, but flack is a pejorative term for a public relations agent--a stooge. You do not want to catch a flack.
I generally skip articles on home decor, partly out of distaste for gush and partly out of apprehension of encountering references to tchotchkes on the mantle. That shelf above the fireplace is a mantel. A mantle is a cloak. Just as we're not much on horseback anymore, we're not often given to wearing cloaks. Mantle, when it is not used in various scientific senses, is a another of those metaphors worn smooth by overuse; it means authority. In 2 Kings, when the prophet Elijah is carried into heaven on a fiery chariot, he drops his mantle to his disciple Elisha. Elisha puts on the mantle of Elijah, assuming his authority as a prophet.
And these come up before I've had my second cup of coffee.
You’re trying to reign in homophone confusion.
ReplyDeleteI'll have a go at homograph confusion, too.
ReplyDeleteOne that I've seen several times is the use of "tenant" when the writer means "tenet."
ReplyDeleteStudents who aren't careful in the use of such words should be sent to the principle's office.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite such discovery was a long Sunday Magazine article in the Gray Lady several decades ago about the protein keratin, except throughout the article it was consistently spelled carotene, which is not the same thing at all.
ReplyDelete