More words you're wrong about
I may not know what “maxxing,” is, but do you know what “champing” is?
For every new word that I use wrong — maxxing, chopped, based — there is an old word that you might be using wrong. Consider:
It’s champing at the bit, not chomping.
The word “champ” has been around since the 1500s — not as a noun referring to a sports hero, but as a verb meaning to chew noisily. A kid eating a bowl of crunchy cereal would be champing at the Kix. A horse with a piece of hard metal in its mouth would be champing at the bit. Eventually the image of a horse champing at the bit before a race became a metaphor for being impatient to get started.
These days, “chomping at the bit” has become an accepted alternative — although, if we’re being technical, someone who is chomping at the bit is actually taking a bite out of it. Ouch.
It’s wrought iron, not rod iron.
There are basically two kinds of iron you get when you melt down iron ore. Cast iron (which contains more carbon) is brittle and tends to break. To be shaped, it has to be poured (cast) into a mold — like a skillet or a cornstick pan. (Mmmm, cornsticks.)
Wrought iron is more malleable, and can be worked (wrought) with a hammer and shaped into things like decorative scrolls.
Wrought iron dates to the 1600s, which is why we use an old word like “wrought” to describe it.
Now, one of the things you can shape iron into is rods, so “rod iron” is a real thing, but it’s not the word to use if you’re talking about the patio furniture.
It’s taken for granted, not granite.
If you’re being taken for granted, you are not being appreciated as you should be.
If you’re being taken for granite, you’re a statue.
It’s hurtling off a cliff, not hurdling.
“Hurtle,” a word that dates to the 14th century, means to move rapidly and forcefully. It’s related to “hurl,” which means to throw something rapidly and forcefully.
“Hurdle” is an Old English word that originally meant a fence or barrier made of twigs. After a few centuries, it came to mean an obstacle that had to be jumped in a race.
You can hurtle off a cliff, or you can hurl a rock over a cliff, but you cannot hurdle off a cliff — unless you’re at a track meet in the mountains.
It’s a clever feint, not faint.
A “feint” is a thing that is “feigned,” i.e., pretended. Juliet feigned death. Rocky made a feint with his right.
The confusion is understandable. Back in the 1300s, the word “feign” was spelled “fain” or “fein,” but then in the 1600s somebody decided to stick a silent “g” in there.
These days, “feint” is usually used as a noun, while “faint” is either an adjective (“a faint shade of red”) or a verb (“I’m about to faint in this heat.”)
No, seriously, I am about to swoon in this humidity. I’m going to go lie down.