Jots and Tittles: Capitol punishment.
The English language contains quite a lot of homophones, which is a very complicated word for something quite simple: two (or more) words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently, often with very different meanings.
For example, consider the words “capital” and “capitol”. Americans get these words confused very often (although some Brits are not much better), probably because of a hazy idea that they are connected with Washington D.C. You often see references to the capitol city or capitol punishment, but the word required in both cases is “capital”, with an A. The word “capitol” refers to a building in which a state legislature meets; “the Capitol” is either Jupiter’s temple in Rome, or the building in Washington where the United States Congress meets. Despite this, Washington is not the “capitol city” but the “capital city”: “capital” here meaning “main”, “important” or “extremely serious”: hence capital city, capital letter, capital punishment.
Very often, using the wrong word can make a sentence mean something quite ridiculous. If Peter waits with baited breath, that would mean that he has, for example, hooked a worm to his breath in order to attract fish. The word required here is “bated”.
Confusion of homophones appears to be on the increase. It’s always dangerous to make assumptions, but I suspect that over-reliance on spell-checkers plays a big part. Spell-checkers work simply by checking words against a list of possible words: if the word is not in the list, it is underlined and an alternative is suggested. However, spell-checkers don’t know what words mean and they can’t think: if you type She accepted the complement with good grace, a spell-checker only knows that the word “complement” exists; it has no way of knowing that it’s the wrong word here, and the word should be “compliment”.
For an extreme example, try running this through a spell-checker (set to English):
Eye wont two sea ewe inn my rheum write now. Did yew right this? Their are sew many miss takes inn it. Pleas rite it once moor.
All the words in that text are spelled correctly, and yet it is complete nonsense. This is the reason you should never rely on computers to do the job for you.
Here is a list of some homophones. English has many more to offer; this is just a random selection.
| Word | Definition | Homophone | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| affect | (verb) to influence: “His death affected me.” (noun) feeling, emotion |
effect | (verb) to accomplish, to bring about (noun) result; the power to bring about a result: “His death had an effect on me.” |
| aural | relating to or perceived by the ear | oral | relating to the mouth, or spoken |
| away | distant | aweigh | hanging clear of the bottom: “Anchors aweigh!” |
| bated | moderated, lessened | baited | (of a trap) made attractive by the placement of something designed to entice |
| breach | gap; infraction: “A breach of etiquette.” | breech | the lower part of something |
| capital | main, most important; severe | capitol | the meeting place of a state legislature |
| complement | make whole; something that completes a thing | compliment | praise |
| desert (verb) | abandon | dessert | a sweet course near the end of a meal |
| discreet | careful, unobtrusive | discrete | unattached |
| forego | go before | forgo | relinquish, do without, abstain from |
| grisly | horrifying | grizzly | grey, grey-haired; however, ursus horribilis is better known as the “grizzly bear”. |
| hale | (adjective) healthy (verb) drag, forced to go |
hail | greet, salute; ice pellets as precipitation |
| hoard | accumulation of valuable objects | horde | crowd |
| lead (noun) | a base metal, chemical symbol Pb | led | past tense and past participle of the verb “to lead” |
| pore | (verb) examine carefully (noun) opening or space |
pour | flow; cause to flow |
| principal | chief; of great importance (noun and adjective) | principle | fundamental belief or understanding (noun only) |
| rack | put under strain; framework | wrack | old word for “wreck”, now only surviving in the expression “wrack and ruin” |
| sleight | dexterity; deceptiveness: “sleight of hand” | slight | slender; frail |
| strait | restricted, confined: “straitjacket” | straight | not bent |