Mispronunciations

“Defuse” vs. “Diffuse”

Mispronunciations, Misspellings, Verbs, Versus

I sometimes see or hear these verbs used interchangeably.

Problem:
The verbs “defuse” and “diffuse” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The verb “defuse” — spelled D-E-F-U-S-E — was coined in the early 1940s and means to remove the fuse from, where the “de” prefix in this verb indicates negation and the “fuse” suffix refers to a cord of readily combustible material and comes from the Italian word “fuso”, which literally means spindle.

Unless you are a terrorist or sadist, you want the police to defuse a bomb.

The verb “diffuse” — spelled D-I-F-F-U-S-E — dates back to the late 1300s and means to spread or disseminate, where the “dif” prefix means apart or away and the “fuse” suffix comes from a form of the Latin word “fundere”, which literally means to melt.

Once the police have defused a bomb, they often will diffuse a message to the public about their success.

I believe that the oral/auditory confusion comes from mispronunciations of these two verbs.

I believe that the written confusion comes from ignorance about the roots of these two verbs and from misspellings originating from that ignorance or the mispronunciations.

Solution:
Remember that the “de” in “defuse” indicates negation, and remember that the “dif” in “diffuse” means apart or away.

“… wearing her pool gargles …”

Mispronunciations

I heard about this expression last Saturday at a party.

Problem:
The fourth word is incorrect.

Explanation:
My friend Nickie F. sent me more information about this expression.

She said that a friend was describing her daughter’s solution to a bath-time dilemma when the friend said, “She had gotten so tired of getting shampoo in her eyes that the next night, I walked into the bathroom and found her in the tub wearing her pool gargles to keep the shampoo out.”

As all readers should recognize, the word after “pool” should be “goggles” instead.

The speaker apparently was accustomed to mispronouncing “goggles” as “gargles”.

Sometimes one must “squint one’s ears” at what is being heard to identify what the speaker intended to say.

In this case, though, no ear squinting is required.

Solution:
“… wearing her pool goggles …”

“sequenced dress”

Mispronunciations, Nouns, Verbs

I heard about this phrase yesterday at a party.

Problem:
The modifier of “dress” is incorrect.

Explanation:
My friends Erik and Nickie F. told me yesterday about this phrase.

It seems that someone was trying to refer to a dress made of sewn-together sequins.

Apparently the originator of the phrase “sequenced dress” heard the plural noun “sequins” — spelled S-E-Q-U-I-N-S — perhaps mispronounced as the verb “sequence” — spelled S-E-Q-U-E-N-C-E — and then added a “d” to make it an adjective to modify the noun “dress”.

The potential for things to go astray in the English language never ceases to amaze me.

Solution:
“sequined dress”