Homophones

A homophone is a word that sounds like ("phone") another word but means something different: To, two, too.

Well, most of us have words we've heard but never seen written, and when we write them, we think of the alternate word....

Anyway. Just came across-- "The agent must explain the contract in Lehman's terms."  Huh? Who is Lehman? That happens to be my grandmother-in-law's married surname, but.... I had to read it aloud to get what the writer meant: "layman's terms," that is, ordinary-person-not-expert terminology. The mistake comes from not having "layman" in the vocabulary. I do, because I grew up Catholic, and the world was divided among the clergy (priests and nuns and their superiors), the laymen (us who were in the True Church but not ordained), and all the heathens (everyone else). So I know what "layman" means (not an expert), but of course to a youngster who has heard it but never seen it, it's going to mean less than the surname.

So come on, confess! When have you made a similar mistake because you didn't understand context, because you had only heard and not seen a word?


And more embarrassing even.... When have you only seen and never heard a word, so you mispronounced it? I'll start: I remember getting to college and telling a professor that I thought TS Eliot was the"epp-it-home of modern poetry." The professor gently suggested that maybe I meant "epit-oh-mee."

Groan!

Alicia (The epitome of too soon old, too late smart)