Kirk Mahoney . com

I wrote yesterday about the nouns “swine” and “pig”.

Thinking about other animals, this has made me ask even more questions: 1. What exactly does “cattle” mean? 2. How is “cattle” related to “cow”? 3. Is it preferable to refer to bovines as “cattle” or “cows”?

Dictionary.com says that the plural noun “cattle” primarily means bovine animals, esp. domesticated members of the genus Bos.

And Dictionary.com says that the first three meanings of the noun “cow” are (a) the mature female of a bovine animal, esp. of the genus Bos, (b) the female of various other large animals, as the elephant or whale, and (c) Informal. a domestic bovine of either sex and any age.

So it is preferable to use “cattle” to refer to bovines in general and to use “cows” to refer specifically to mature female bovines or to refer to the females (usually mature) of other large animals (usually mammals).

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Swine flu has been in the news a lot recently.

This has made me ask three questions: 1. What exactly does “swine” mean? 2. How is “swine” related to “pig”? 3. Why is this flu called “swine flu” and not “pig flu”?

Dictionary.com says that the noun “swine” means any stout, cloven-hoofed artiodactyl of the Old World family Suidae, having a thick hide sparsely covered with coarse hair, a disklike snout, and an often short, tasseled tail: now of worldwide distribution and hunted or raised for its meat and other products..

And Dictionary.com says that the first three meanings of the noun “pig” are (a) a young swine of either sex, esp. a domestic hog, Sus scrofa, weighing less than 120 lb. (220 kg.), (b) any wild or domestic swine, and (c) the flesh of swine; pork.

So swine flu just as easily could be called “pig flu” instead. However, given the third definition of the noun “pig”, and given the claim that this flu does not come from eating pork, it makes more sense to call this “swine flu” than to call it “pig flu”.

I sometimes see or hear these verbs used interchangeably.

Problem:
The verbs “flaunt” and “flout” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The verb “flaunt” — spelled F-L-A-U-N-T — dates back to the 1560s.

When used with an object, “flaunt” means to display ostentatiously.

When used without an object, “flaunt” means to parade oneself conspicuously.

The verb “flaunt” apparently comes from the Norwegian dialectical word “flanta”, which means to show off.

I first learned the verb “flaunt” from a Braniff Airlines TV ad, in which Braniff had stewardesses proclaim (quote) “If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” (unquote) to brag about Braniff’s superiority over other airlines.

The verb “flout” — spelled F-L-O-U-T — dates back to the late 1300s.

When used with an object, “flout” means to scorn, scoff at, or mock.

When used without an object, “flout” means to show contempt or disdain.

The verb “flout” comes from the Dutch word “fluiten”, which means to play a flute. That word also means to jeer, which apparently was often accomplished hundreds of years ago by someone playing a simple flute or whistle around another person.

Solution:
To remember that “flout” is different than “flaunt”, notice that “flout” looks somewhat like “flute” to remember that “flout” means to mock or to show disdain, as if you were playing a flute in a mocking way around someone else.

I started thinking about these two verbs the other day after seeing a reference to one of them in a technical document.

I saw a reference to the verb “black”, which dates back to the 1200s, in an IPTV technical document.

The document referred to a (quote) “blacked screen” (unquote).

The transitive verb “black” means to make black.

The intransitive verb “black” means to become black.

Now consider the verb “blacken”, which dates back to the 1300s.

The transitive verb “blacken” primarily means to make black or to darken and secondarily means to sully or defame.

The intransitive verb “blacken” means to become black or dark.

For example, “blackened chicken” and “blackened salmon” and “blackened tuna”, which are popular American menu items now, are not completely black.

So it seems that one can blacken the flesh of animals used as food and can black a TV screen, but not the other way around.

I heard this on television about a week ago.

Problem:
The statement implies that men make a negative salary.

Explanation:
The Bravo TV channel aired an episode five days ago from its “Make Me a Supermodel” reality-television series.

As the episode went into one of its commercial breaks, Bravo presented a snippet about what male and female supermodels earn.

The visuals indicated that male supermodels earn about $2,500 per day and that female supermodels earn about $10,000 per day.

In referring to the disparity in earnings between male and female supermodels, the announcer said something to the effect that (quote) “Men make four times less than women.” (unquote).

Argh!

Okay, so maybe I should not expect the Bravo folks to be good with mathematics, but give me a break!

Consider what Bravo showed on the TV screen: Female supermodels earn $10,000 per day.

Four times $10,000 per day is $40,000 per day, right.

Negative $30,000 per day is $40,000 per day less than $10,000 per day.

In other words, negative $30,000 per day is four times less than $10,000 per day.

So combining the claim that female supermodels earn $10,000 per day with the claim that (quote) “Men makes four times less than women.” (unquote) would mean that male supermodels earn a NEGATIVE $30,000 per day.

But Bravo showed on the TV screen that male supermodels earn $2,500 per day, which is one fourth of what female supermodels earn. This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“Men make one fourth of what women make.”

I sometimes see these words written interchangeably.

Problem:
The words “retch” and “wretch” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The word “retch” — spelled R-E-T-C-H — is a verb that dates back to the mid 1500s and means to vomit when used with an object and means to make an effort to vomit when used without an object.

The verb “retch” comes from an Old Norse word that means to hawk or spit and, when spoken, sounds like hawking or spitting.

The word “wretch” — spelled W-R-E-T-C-H — is a noun that dates back to before 900 and means an unhappy person or a person of base character.

The noun “wretch” comes from the Old English word “wrecca”, which means exile and comes from the German word “Recke”, which means warrior and comes from the Old Norse word “rekkr”, which means man.

So somehow a word for “man” transformed into a word for “warrior”, which transformed into a word for “exile”, which transformed into a word that refers to an unhappy person or a person of base character.

Many readers may know the noun “wretch” from the hymn “Amazing Grace”, which includes the lyrics (quote) “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me …” (unquote).

Solution:
To distinguish the “retch” that starts with an “r” from the “wretch” that starts with a “w”, remember that the latter is a noun by remembering that another, similar-sounding noun is “witch”, which also starts with a “w”.

I sometimes see or hear these nouns used interchangeably.

Problem:
The nouns “perquisite” and “prerequisite” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The noun “perquisite” — spelled P-E-R-Q-U-I-S-I-T-E — dates back to the early 1400s and refers to an incidental privilege or payment beyond regular salary or wages.

Many readers may know the informal noun “perk” — spelled P-E-R-K — which was coined in the 1800s as a shortened form of “perquisite”.

The origin of the noun “perquisite” is the Latin word “perquisitus”, which is the participle of the Latin verb “perquirere”, which means to inquire diligently.

This origin makes sense when one knows that the tertiary meaning of “perquisite” is something demanded as a particular privilege, as in (quote) “It was a perquisite of royalty.” (unquote).

In other words, the noun “perquisite” began as a reference to something demanded by royalty, and it evolved to mean something extra given to employees.

The noun “prerequisite” — spelled P-R-E-Q-U-I-S-I-T-E — dates back to the early 1600s and means something prerequisite.

So one then must turn to the meaning of the adjective “prerequisite”, which is required beforehand, with “required” coming from the “requisite” part of “prerequisite” and with “beforehand” coming from the “pre” part of “prerequisite”.

Solution:
Think of the informal noun “perk” to remember the meaning of the noun “perquisite”; think of the parts of the noun “prerequisite” to remember its meaning.

I heard about this phrase the other day.

Problem:
The preposition “in” is incorrect.

Explanation:
My friend Nickie F. told me about this phrase.

It seems that someone was telling her about his popularity with his boss.

He said (quote) “Oh well, I guess I’m not the apple in her eye anymore.” (unquote).

An “apple in one’s eye” is a humorous misstating of the idiom “an apple of one’s eye”, which means a person that one loves very much (FreeDictionary.com).

Good catch, Nickie!

Solution:
“… the apple of her eye …”

I saw this in an email message.

Problem:
The apostrophe is in the wrong position.

Explanation:
The complete sentence was (quote) “I hope to see ya’ll next year.” (unquote).

A Texan wrote the email message, and I recognized what the writer intended to say.

But “ya’ll” — spelled Y-A-APOSTROPHE-L-L — is not the correct way to write the contraction for the way that Texans say “you all”, the informal plural of the pronoun “you” in some parts of the United States.

An apostrophe in a contraction indicates where letters have been removed.

No letters have been removed between the “a” and the first “l” in the word “all”.

So the apostrophe does not belong after the “a”.

Instead, the apostrophe belongs where the letters “o” and “u” have been removed from the word “you” in the forming of the contraction.

Solution:
“y’all”

I heard this yesterday during a conference call.

Problem:
The phrase “up front” introduces a redundancy.

Explanation:
The speaker on the conference call was telling the other call attendees that he wanted to say something before he said something else.

The noun “preface” means a preliminary statement in a book or speech.

So the verb “preface” means to provide a preliminary statement.

And therefore following the verb “preface” with the phrase “up front” introduces a redundancy.

Solution:
“I want to preface this by saying …”