Words are important. They are the vehicles of thought. Without words (spoken, written, or “signed”), we cannot fully and effectively communicate with others. God used words to communicate His will to us (I Corinthians 2:11-13). Contrary to the thinking of many, it is not just the thoughts of the Bible that are inspired, but the very words by which the inspired writers penned the autograph (original) manuscripts of the various documents (books) that constitute the Holy Scriptures (II Peter 1:19-21; et al). So important are the very words of scripture that Paul made an important argument based on the singularity of a noun (Galatians 3:16). In the English language this was the difference in whether a single letter (an “s”) was used or not! God’s ultimate communication to mankind was in the person of Christ who in His eternal and pre-fleshly state was designated as “the Word” (John 1:1-3, 14). It was He who spoke words that were “spirit and life” (John 6:63), the One who had “the words of eternal life” (verse 68). His apostles, along with the various inspired prophets of the New Testament era, spoke words by which their hearers could be saved (Acts 11:14). By our words we will be justified or condemned (Matthew 12:37), and by the collective word of Christ and His apostles as set forth in the New Testament all of us will be judged (John 12:48).
Words are easy to misuse. The comedian Norm Crosby made a good living with his malapropisms. “Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravitation.” “Women’s function is to proculate the human race.” “Cleopatra walked up to Caesar, courtesied to him, and asked him if she could make him a salad.” “These are proved fallacies.” “My wife is a very auspicious woman…she don’t trust nobody!” “Entertainment that is so collapsible and perfunctory.” “We can milenniate all the trouble in the world.” “Even a good articulator like me has trouble renouncing his name.” “His rise to fame was vitriolic.” “A serious performer, he should be raised to a pinochle.” “President Johnson declared war on puberty.” “My wife has extra-sensible perception.” We all got a laugh out of Norm and his misuse of words.
Following are some pairs and groups of words that are often confused and used wrongly. How well can you define each word and know the proper way to use it? (And for those who ask, yes, I have often used the wrong word. I recalled preaching a sermon in which I was discussing the number of containers to be used for the Lord’s Supper in serving the fruit of the vine. I mentioned a church that believed in only one container, as opposed to a large number of individual containers. Yet that same church, I said, had “two large ‘gobblers’ on the Lord’s Table, one for each side of the auditorium.” A good brother, Dr. Wentworth Morris, Chairman of the History Department in the local university, said to me after the sermon, “Hugh, I think you meant to say ‘goblets’ instead of ‘gobblers.’” Indeed, I did!)
Check yourself out on your use of the following twenty pairs/groups of words. The dictionary is still a very valuable book to consult.
* Past/Passed
* Regimen/Regiment (I have heard the latter used where the former was the correct word)
* Affect/Effect
* Your/You’re
* Fixated/Asphyxiated (I have heard the latter used where the former should have been used)
* Sew/Sow/Sow (the first two sound exactly alike but with entirely different meanings, the third word has a different sound and is a barnyard animal)
* Inflection/Deflection (again, I have heard the latter used where the former should have been used)
* Alter/Altar
* Extended/Distended
* Straight/Strait (which is used in the KJV of Matthew 7:13-14?)
* Compliment/Complement (I frequently see these misused)
* Prerequisite/Perquisite (similar in spelling but a big difference in meaning)
* Sight/Site/Cite
* Prophesy/Prophecy
* There/Their/They’re
* Counsel/Council
* Led/Lead/Lead (the last two words are spelled the same but pronounced differently and with different meanings. The last word has the same sound as the first word in this group but with a completely different meaning. Is it pencil “led” or pencil “lead”?)
* Systemic/Systematic (I have seen newspaper articles where the second word is used when the first word should have been used)
* Principal/Principle
* Capital/Capitol
* Symbol/Cymbal
To paraphrase the New Testament writer James, “If anyone does not sometimes use the wrong word, he is a perfect man” (James 3:2). And, of course, no one is!
Hugh Fulford