Today we\u2019ll discuss two words whose meanings in casual conversation may vary significantly from their traditional meanings in formal writing.<\/p>\n
Despise<\/strong>\u00a0Not so long ago,\u00a0despise<\/em>\u00a0was more than just another word for\u00a0detest<\/em>. \u201cSyme despised him and slightly disliked him,\u201d wrote George Orwell in his 1949 novel\u00a01984<\/em>. Orwell knew that, strictly speaking,\u00a0despise<\/em>\u00a0means \u201cto look down on\u201d but not necessarily \u201cto dislike\u201d (although that\u2019s usually part of the deal).<\/p>\n \u201cLet no one despise your youth\u201d reads a line in the Bible (1 Timothy\u00a04:12). Note that \u201cdespise your youth\u201d does not mean \u201chate you for being young.\u201d The passage means, \u201cDon\u2019t let anyone disrespect or disregard you for being young.\u201d Disdain is not the same as downright hostility.<\/p>\n Affinity<\/strong>\u00a0Some seven hundred years ago,\u00a0affinity<\/em>\u00a0meant \u201crelation by marriage.\u201d By extension, the proper use of\u00a0affinity<\/em>\u00a0involves mutuality. But that sense of mutual attraction is often absent in contemporary uses of\u00a0affinity<\/em>. An online search reveals many examples such as these:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cShe always had an affinity for growing fruit.\u201d \u201cI have an affinity for vintage chairs.\u201d \u201cMy friend has an affinity for making things out of cardboard.\u201d In these examples, \u201cgrowing fruit,\u201d \u201cvintage chairs,\u201d and \u201cmaking things out of cardboard\u201d are passive elements, not active components in a relationship. Better to say \u201ca\u00a0talent\u00a0<\/em>for growing fruit,\u201d \u201ca\u00a0fondness\u00a0<\/em>for vintage chairs,\u201d \u201ca\u00a0flair\u00a0<\/em>for making things out of cardboard.\u201d<\/p>\n In the examples above,\u00a0affinity\u00a0<\/em>is followed by the preposition\u00a0for<\/em>. But in formal English, the phrase\u00a0affinity<\/em>\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0is despised. The editor Theodore M. Bernstein advised writers to \u201cdiscard\u00a0for<\/em>\u201d and instead\u00a0\u201cuse\u00a0between<\/em>,\u00a0with<\/em>, or sometimes\u00a0to<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are three sentences that use\u00a0affinity<\/em>\u00a0correctly: \u201cThere is an affinity\u00a0between<\/em>\u00a0the Irish and the Italians that can be hard to explain.\u201d \u201cSome people have a natural affinity\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0children.\u201d \u201cTwo vaccines containing native proteins with affinity\u00a0to<\/em>\u00a0porcine transferrin were tested.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no\u00a0affinity<\/em>\u00a0unless it is shared by both parties.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n Are these sentences all right? Do any need fixing? Suggested answers are below. <\/p>\n Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. She has some\u00a0talent<\/em>\u00a0for math. Today we\u2019ll discuss two words whose meanings in casual conversation may vary significantly from their traditional meanings in formal writing. Despise\u00a0Not so long ago,\u00a0despise\u00a0was more than just another word for\u00a0detest. \u201cSyme despised him and slightly disliked him,\u201d wrote George Orwell in his 1949 novel\u00a01984. Orwell knew that, strictly speaking,\u00a0despise\u00a0means \u201cto look down on\u201d but not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,33,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-prepositions","category-vocabulary"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1. She has some affinity for math.
\n2. This is a politician with an affinity for making headlines.
\n3. I knew she always despised me, but I didn\u2019t realize she detested me.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n2. This is a politician with a\u00a0gift<\/em>\u00a0for making headlines.
\n3. I knew she always despised me, but I didn\u2019t realize she detested me. CORRECT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"