Adjectives

“Loath” vs. “Loathe”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Verbs, Versus

I sometimes see these two words mixed up in writing, and I sometimes hear them mixed up in speech.

Problem:
“Loath” and “loathe” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
“Loath” is an adjective that means reluctant or unwilling. “Loath” is usually followed by “to”, as in “Mary was loath to call her sister about their brother’s death.”

“Loathe” is a verb that means abhor, or dislike greatly, as in “Mary loathes making cold sales calls.”

I sometimes hear the verb “loathe” where the adjective “loath” is required. Misuse of “loathe” as a substitute for “loath” — especially in speech — seems to support my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. The verb “loathe” is simpler to pronounce (with the “th” sound like in “smooth”) than is the adjective “loath” (with the “th” sound like in “thin”).

Solution:
Use “loath” as an adjective (usually followed by “to”); use “loathe” as a verb. Remember that “loath” and “thin” have the same “th” sound, whereas “loathe” and “smooth” have the same “th” sound.

“ARTIC FRONT”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Misspellings

I saw this in a headline on the Weather Channel.

Problem:
The adjective is misspelled.

Explanation:
The correct spelling of the adjective is “arctic”.

Wondering about the frequency of the misspelling of “arctic”, I searched Google separately for each of “artic front” and “arctic front” with the quotation marks included in each search. I got about 3,110 matches for the former and about 44,300 matches for the latter. That’s a dominance ratio of more than 14:1 in favor of the correct spelling.

I then searched Google for each of “artic” and “arctic” (with no quotation marks necessary for the searches). I got approximately 11,300,000 matches for the misspelled adjective(!) and approximately 63,000,000 matches for the correctly spelled adjective. That’s a dominance ratio of less than 5.6:1 in favor of the correct spelling.

That’s equivalent to saying that more than fifteen percent of all occurrences of this adjective on the Web are misspelled! Shame on the Weather Channel for having at least one staff member in that 15%. The adjective “arctic” is a weather term, after all!

I believe that the misspelling of “arctic” as “artic” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to say “artic” than to say “arctic” (given that it takes concentration to say the hard “c” sound immediately before the “t” sound), and speech has a spillover effect into spelling.

Solution:
“ARCTIC FRONT”

“Driver License” vs. “Driver’s License” vs. “Drivers’ License”

Adjectives, Plurals, Possessives, Versus

I have wondered for years about which of these is the correct form.

Problem:
The fifty state governments in the USA are inconsistent in the way that they refer to licenses issued to drivers.

Explanation:
I searched the Web for the form used by each of the fifty state governments.

Some state government had two official ways to refer to these licenses. Most state governments had only one way. No state government used “Drivers License” (plural, with no possessive apostrophe).

Here are the names of the states whose governments use one or more of the three forms on their own websites:

  • “Driver License” (35 states):  Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana (also in “Driver’s License” list), Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania (also in “Driver’s License” list), South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin
  • “Driver’s License” (16 states):  Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana (also in “Driver License” list), Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania (also in “Driver License” list), Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming
  • “Drivers’ License” (1 state):  Delaware

Ignoring the two “undecided” states (Indiana and Pennsylvania), we see that “Driver License” is favored by a ratio of more than 2.35 to 1 over “Driver’s License” (thirty-three states vs. fourteen states).

Solution:
I doubt that the fifty state governments ever will agree on a single form for referring to licenses that they issue to drivers. The best for which we can hope is that any given state government with multiple ways will settle on a single form and that Delaware will come to its senses about “Drivers’ License”.