The Deal With Dearth
Sorry for the delay. I've been a little bit under the weather of late.
A few months ago I was speaking with a friend and we were shocked to find that we both mis-knew a word. We both thought the word "viscous" meant that something was fluid. In reality, it means exactly the opposite - that something is sticky. Somewhere along the line we had both mis-learned the word. To this day I feel like a little part of my past is flawed.
I bring up this story because recently I was on the opposite ends of one of these linguistic flip-flops. It happened with the word "dearth." On several occasions in the past two months I have used the word several times only to find that my fellow conversee believed the word to mean the exact opposite of its definition. I even went so far as to ask several co-workers straight up what the definition was. Everyone was wrong.
Before you go Google the definition, ask yourself, what does dearth mean? What do I mean if I tell you that there is a dearth of equipment. I totally expect all readers of this blog to know correct definition (wink wink).
What I find especially interesting is not just if you knew the word or not, but whether you thought it had the exact opposite meaning. Leave a comment saying if you got it right or not. It will be like an informal poll.
Real Definition
9 Comments:
I use dearth exactly right.
Having a dearth of something is the opposite of being maggoty with said something.
My mind still reels with our mutual viscous folly. I now simply avoid the word altogether.
How about the deal with bimonthly, and literally? Those actually can mean the exact opposite! Check out http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bimonthly and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/literally
I got it right!
There may be a dearth of comments on your blog (seeing as there are only three, out of the possible thousands who read it) - but isn't it nice to know that you have smart friends? ;)
Yay, I speak good English... I got it right!!!! (I speak English very well too). And I knew what viscous meant as well. I had a crazy chemistry teacher in 8th grade who loved that concept.
Thanks for making me feel smart!!!
Well, it seems that our fellow Brandeis alumni are quite well-educated. And a little bit obsessed with reading blogs... :-)
dearth=lack of.... right?
HA! Just checked, got it right.
I speek English good.
The Boston Globe screwed up in a similar fashion last summer, using the word "balmy" to refer to unpleasantly humid weather, when balmy in fact means soothing and mild.
I was right.
Viscous doesn't quite mean "sticky". A viscous liquid is thick - like honey (or glycerol, or the anti-fade I was trying to pipet in small quantities today), yes, but only in the way you have to wait so long for it to flow down when you invert the container, nothing to do w/ its stickiness.
Tovah is right, viscosity is a measure of a substances fluidity. Adam, I am shocked to find out that you didn't know "dearth" is tha antonym for "plethora."
Post a Comment
<< Home