Word for the Wise: “Blind” word play
March 9th, 2010
|
Author: Word lovers delight in the delicious wordplay of parkway and driveway. They gleefully note that we drive on the parkway and park on the driveway. But once you know the stories behind the words, the two terms don’t seem so odd. The early driveway named a road or way along which animals, such as stock or game, were driven. The park in parkway comes from the landscaping (or sometimes the public park) that gives the thoroughfare its touch of green.
English is filled with words that people confuse in unexpected ways -- sometimes ways that even seem downright silly. Need an example? Consider the words nyctalopia and hemeralopia.
Nyctalopia is a defect of vision characterized by reduced visual capacity in faint light
English is filled with words that people confuse in unexpected ways -- sometimes ways that even seem downright silly. Need an example? Consider the words nyctalopia and hemeralopia.
Nyctalopia is a defect of vision characterized by reduced visual capacity in faint light
or at night. The general public sometimes calls this visual difficulty night blindness, and the word nyctalopia has its roots in the Greek words for "night," "eye," and "blind."
The opposite of of nyctalopia is hemeralopia, a defect of vision characterized by reduced visual capacity in bright lights. Sometimes called day blindness, the term hemeralopia has its roots in the Greek words for "day," "eye," and "blind."
Those words seem to be antonyms, but English is odd and nyctalopia is sometimes used as a synonym of hemeralopia and hemeralopia is occasionally used to refer to nyctalopia. How can that be? Well, medical professionals don’t scramble the two that way, but laypersons sometimes do -- probably just out of simple confusion. Our advice for avoiding such mix-ups is to keep your eye on your meaning, and don't blind yourself to context.
Having difficulty seeing our meaning? Write to us. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
The opposite of of nyctalopia is hemeralopia, a defect of vision characterized by reduced visual capacity in bright lights. Sometimes called day blindness, the term hemeralopia has its roots in the Greek words for "day," "eye," and "blind."
Those words seem to be antonyms, but English is odd and nyctalopia is sometimes used as a synonym of hemeralopia and hemeralopia is occasionally used to refer to nyctalopia. How can that be? Well, medical professionals don’t scramble the two that way, but laypersons sometimes do -- probably just out of simple confusion. Our advice for avoiding such mix-ups is to keep your eye on your meaning, and don't blind yourself to context.
Having difficulty seeing our meaning? Write to us. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
Posted in Dictionary
|
Tags: "Blind" word play, Merriam-Webster, publisher of language, Word For The Wise