Month: May 2009

“black” vs. “blacken”

Verbs, Versus

I started thinking about these two verbs the other day after seeing a reference to one of them in a technical document.

I saw a reference to the verb “black”, which dates back to the 1200s, in an IPTV technical document.

The document referred to a “blacked screen.”

The transitive verb “black” means to make black.

The intransitive verb “black” means to become black.

Now consider the verb “blacken”, which dates back to the 1300s.

The transitive verb “blacken” primarily means to make black or to darken and secondarily means to sully or defame.

The intransitive verb “blacken” means to become black or dark.

For example, “blackened chicken” and “blackened salmon” and “blackened tuna”, which are popular American menu items now, are not completely black.

So it seems that one can blacken the flesh of animals used as food and can black a TV screen, but not the other way around.

“Men make four times less than women.”

General

I heard this on television about a week ago.

Problem:
The statement implies that men make a negative salary.

Explanation:
The Bravo TV channel aired an episode five days ago from its “Make Me a Supermodel” reality-television series.

As the episode went into one of its commercial breaks, Bravo presented a snippet about what male and female supermodels earn.

The visuals indicated that male supermodels earn about 2,500 per day and that female supermodels earn about10,000 per day.

In referring to the disparity in earnings between male and female supermodels, the announcer said something to the effect that “Men make four times less than women.”

Argh!

Okay, so maybe I should not expect the Bravo folks to be good with mathematics, but give me a break!

Consider what Bravo showed on the TV screen: Female supermodels earn 10,000 per day.

Four times10,000 per day is 40,000 per day, right.

Negative30,000 per day is 40,000 per day less than10,000 per day.

In other words, negative 30,000 per day is four times less than10,000 per day.

So combining the claim that female supermodels earn 10,000 per day with the claim that “Men make four times less than women.” would mean that male supermodels earn a NEGATIVE30,000 per day.

But Bravo showed on the TV screen that male supermodels earn $2,500 per day, which is one fourth of what female supermodels earn. This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“Men make one fourth of what women make.”

“retch” vs. “wretch”

Versus

I sometimes see these words written interchangeably.

Problem:
The words “retch” and “wretch” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The word “retch” — spelled R-E-T-C-H — is a verb that dates back to the mid 1500s and means to vomit when used with an object and means to make an effort to vomit when used without an object.

The verb “retch” comes from an Old Norse word that means to hawk or spit and, when spoken, sounds like hawking or spitting.

The word “wretch” — spelled W-R-E-T-C-H — is a noun that dates back to before 900 and means an unhappy person or a person of base character.

The noun “wretch” comes from the Old English word “wrecca”, which means exile and comes from the German word “Recke”, which means warrior and comes from the Old Norse word “rekkr”, which means man.

So somehow a word for “man” transformed into a word for “warrior”, which transformed into a word for “exile”, which transformed into a word that refers to an unhappy person or a person of base character.

Many readers may know the noun “wretch” from the hymn “Amazing Grace”, which includes the lyrics “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me …”

Solution:
To distinguish the “retch” that starts with an “r” from the “wretch” that starts with a “w”, remember that the latter is a noun by remembering that another, similar-sounding noun is “witch”, which also starts with a “w”.