Misleading Meanings of English Words

1. Relating to, or having the characteristics of an eagle.
2. Resembling a curved hook like that of an eagle's beak.

An excessive desire; especially, for wealth; covetousness or avarice.

Referring to being free of bias and self-interest; impartial.

In traditional usage, disinterested can only mean "having no stake in an outcome": Since the judge stands to profit from the sale of the company, he can't be considered a disinterested party in this legal dispute.

Despite critical disapproval, disinterested has come to be widely used by many educated writers to mean "uninterested" or "having lost interest".

1. To weaken or to destroy the strength or vitality of.
2. To deprive of strength; to debilitate.

Sometimes people mistakenly use enervate with the meaning "to invigorate" or "to excite". Too many people assume that this word is a close cousin of the verb energize.

In fact enervate does not come from the same source as "energize" which is from Greek energos, "active". It actually comes from Latin nervus, "sinew" and so enervate means "to cause to become out of muscle"; that is, "to weaken" or "to deplete of strength".

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1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.

Enormity is frequently misused to refer simply to the property of being great in size or extent, but there are many who prefer that "enormousness" (or a synonym such as "immensity") be used for this general sense and that enormity be limited to situations that demand a "negative moral judgment".

This distinction between enormity and "enormousness" has not always existed historically, but nowadays many observe it.

Pertaining to being easily broken into small fragments, crumbled, or reduced to powder: The builders used friable asbestos insulation in the new house.

1. Relating to a flattering or insincere behavior in an offensive way: Roy thought his neighbors were embarrassingly fulsome in expressing their appreciation for taking care of their mail delivery while they were away on vacation.
2. A reference to a large size or quantity; plentiful; generous or abundant: The farmers were happy to have a fulsome harvest despite the severe winter conditions that existed earlier in the year.

Ted's parents served him a fulsome meal to celebrate his birthday.

The original meaning of fulsome was "full, abundant", but the dominant sense of the word currently is conveying offensive to the senses or sensibility."

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1. Hippophobia is a psychological fear of horses not of hippopotamuses.
2. Sufferers of hippophobia usually experience an anxiety when they see horses approaching them.

Descriptive of being very small in number, amount, or degree; while "infinite" means very great and seeming to have no limit.

Characteristic of being easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; flammable.

Historically, flammable and inflammable meant the same thing; however, the presence of the prefix in- has misled many people into assuming that inflammable means "not flammable" or "noncombustible".

The prefix in inflammable is not, however, the Latin negative prefix in-, which is related to the English un- and appears in such words as "indecent" and "inglorious".

Instead, this in- is an intensive prefix derived from the Latin preposition in and it also appears in the word enflame, but many people are not aware of this derivation, and for clarity's sake it is advisable to use only "flammable" to give any kind of warnings about burning or catching on fire.

1. Relating to showing innocence and a lack of worldly experience, cunning, guile.
2. Pertaining to being openly straightforward or frank; candid.

1. Pertaining to being showily but falsely attractive: The advertisement used for the car was meretricious, a lot o flash, but very deceptive.
2. A reference to being based on pretense; deceptively pleasing: In old novels, the villain frequently uses meretricious compliments to seduce the innocent heroine.

1. Pertaining to being offensive to the point of arousing disgust; foul: There was a noisome odor from the garbage container.
2. Descriptive of a harmful or dangerous condition or situation: The noisome fumes from the container could cause serious harm to those who are living in the house.

Characteristic of not being at this exact moment but in a short while; soon: Shirley said that she would be here presently.

1. The study of the structure of poetry and the conventions or techniques involved in writing it, including rhyme, meter, and the patterns of verse forms.
2. A particular system of versification to change from prose into metrical form.