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Thanks for participating in our eggcorn hunt a couple weeks ago. We know a lot of you found all of them, but here’s the answer key just in case: Original: He had a deep-seeded fear of jellyfish, so she knew the postponement of the scuba diving trip was, for all intensive purposes, a cancellation. She quickly began pouring over travel guides to find another way to spend their time off. Corrected: He had a deep-seated fear of jellyfish, so she knew the postponement of the scuba diving trip was, for all intents and purposes, a cancellation. She quickly began poring over travel guides to find another way to spend their time off. We’ve already covered for all intents and purposes and pore over in this newsletter. But we haven’t written about the third eggcorn: deep-seated. And, you guessed it, that’s what we’re covering this week. The confusion between “deep-seated” and “deep-seeded” is multifaceted (and perhaps deep-seated in some cases). It all starts, of course, with the fact that “seated” and “seeded” sound pretty much the same. Add to that the fact that seeds go deep into the ground, but how deep can a chair or couch really get? But to seat is to position yourself or someone (or something) else. And there’s evidence that the origin of the phrase “deep-seated” has to do with diseases (as in, things situated deep within the body), not plants. Want to call the whole thing off? You can simply swap “deep-seated” for “deeply rooted.” 🤷♀️🌱 ❤ Team Stylebot
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Tomorrow is “Star Wars” Day. For the uninitiated, the informal holiday is a play on the date, May 4, and one of the franchise’s most well-known phrases: “May the Force be with you.” Now, if you strictly follow the rules, you would write “May the fourth.” That’s because the ordinals “first” through “ninth” are spelled out, then you start using numerals at “10th.” But since we use numerals for all dates, most people celebrating this holiday write “May the 4th.” You’ll sometimes see it written...
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month begins next week. The month celebrates such a diverse group that there's not even one consistent name used to refer to it. Since labels such as "AAPI" are easy to reach for but can often be imprecise, we're sharing a portion of the newsletter we sent last year to mark AAPI Heritage Month. If you've subscribed to this newsletter since May 2023, this will be new. And if you've been with us longer than that, we hope this serves as a good...
Monday marks the 54th annual Earth Day, a day meant to encourage environmentalism, sustainability and climate action. To celebrate, we’re digging a little deeper on the terms climate change and global warming. The terms are often used interchangeably, but global warming is only one aspect of climate change. Global warming is exactly what it sounds like: The temperature of the Earth as a whole is on the rise. But this temperature rise doesn’t happen equally everywhere, with temperatures rising...