How, in a year, can I have written fewer than 52 entries? The mind reels. Clearly, I'm going to have to include more minutiae and engage in less self-censorship. To wit:
I'm almost never wrong when it comes to the right spelling of a word -- to the point where I rarely even check when someone else uses another spelling because I know that person is incorrect. (This is not bragging on my part; it's just one of those things my brain retains without conscious effort.) Here's one where I'm always wrong: exorbitant. I want to spell it like exhort, with an "h." I don't really pronounce them the same way, I don't think -- "ex-ORB-i-tant;" "ex-HORT," -- nope, I definitely include the "h" in one and not the other. And it's not like the word's meaning doesn't include its own spelling hint: "ex-orbit" = "out of this world" (no, not literally, but "out of the path" isn't quite so colorful, now, is it). Still. Every time I see it, I think it's wrong, and, I go look it up, and am reminded that I'm the one who's wrong.
That's okay. I still can't retain the knowledge that someone getting "just deserts" gets something deserved, and not the moral retribution as finishing touch that my preferred spelling, "just desserts," suggests.
Posted on April 17, 2005 to pure drivel
Previously: Center of A Universe
Next Time: Words that are satisfying to pronounce
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