Verbs

“Persecute” vs. “Prosecute”

Verbs, Versus

Most people do not confuse these two verbs, but their similarity deserves a blog post.

Problem:
These two verbs are spelled so similarly that there definitely is potential to treat them as synonyms, which they are not.

Explanation:
This verb “persecute” dates back to the first half of the fifteenth century.

“Persecute” begins with the prefix “per”, which means utterly or thoroughly.

The other part of “persecute” is related to the word “sequence”, a definition of which is something that follows.

Knowing these roots, it is easy to understand how the verb “persecute” means to pursue persistently with oppressive or harassing treatment.

The verb “prosecute” dates back to 1432 but apparently did not get applied as a legal term until 1579.

“Prosecute” begins with the prefix “pro”, which in this verb means favor for some party.

As with “persecute”, the other part of “persecute” is related to the word “sequence”, a definition of which is something that follows.

Knowing these roots, one can understand how the verb “prosecute” means to seek to enforce or carry on.

Solution:
Think harassment when you see the verb “persecute”; think legal proceeding when you see the verb “prosecute”.

“Photos are always welcome.”

Devolution toward Simpler, Outsider's Perspective, Passive Voice, Verbs

An American wrote this sentence the other day in an email message to my wife.

Having lived several years in England, she told me that it looked odd to her.

She would have written “Photos are always welcomed.” — with a “d” at the end.

In other words, she sees this as a passive-voice sentence (in which the actor is not specified).

The active-voice form of the sentence could be “We always welcome photos.”

Given that speaking or writing in the passive voice requires the use of the past participle of a verb, the passive-voice form of “We always welcome photos.” requires the past participle “welcomed” — with a “d” at the end.

I believe that the American tendency to drop the “d” from the past participle “welcomed” in “Photos are always welcomed.” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

It is simpler to say “welcome” (without the “d”) than to say “welcomed” (with the “d”). And, even if someone says “welcomed” (with the “d”), many American listeners will not hear the “d” and will write “welcome” (without the “d”) instead.

“Moisturize”

Verbs

This verb bugs me.

What is wrong with using the verb “moisten” instead of “moisturize”?

Why must it be “Moisturize your face with Wet-o!”?

Why cannot it be “Moisten your face with Wet-o!”?

Perhaps some people who use “moisturize” like the “z” sound at the end of the verb.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following verbs (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “moisten” — 1,540,000 matches
  • “moisturize” — 1,520,000 matches

This tells me that “moisten” is 1.01 times as popular as “moisturize” on the Web.

The verb “moisten” dates back to the 1570s, whereas the verb “moisturize” dates back to World War II.

I have a hunch that the verb “moisturize” was coined by advertisers. If this hunch is true, then the Google search results show that advertisers within about sixty-five years have made “moisturize” almost as popular as a word that had a 370-year head start.