{"id":835,"date":"2012-10-29T18:47:38","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T00:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=835"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:22:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:22:57","slug":"thats-what-that-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/definitions\/thats-what-that-means\/","title":{"rendered":"That\u2019s<\/em> what that means?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know many avid readers, and I wish I read as much as they do. But to my surprise, very few of them read with a dictionary on hand. When I ask why, the answer is some variation on \u201cIt ruins the mood\u201d or \u201cI want to relax, not study\u201d or the most self-deluded one: \u201cI can figure out most words from the context.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for that last one, I can only say that I myself have guessed wrong on a word\u2019s meaning too often to count, and many times if I had gone with what I guessed and not bothered to look it up, I\u2019d have gravely misunderstood some of the author\u2019s fundamental premises \u2014 yes, the stakes are that high.<\/p>\n

I can illustrate this with a simple example: \u201cJoe inferred that the judge was disinterested.\u201d There are many smart people who would take that sentence to mean, \u201cJoe insinuated that the judge didn\u2019t care.\u201d Boy, would they be wrong.<\/p>\n

The sentence actually means, \u201cJoe decided that the judge was unbiased.\u201d Huge difference there. Would you rather have a judge who\u2019s fair or one who wants to go home? \u201cDisinterested\u201d means \u201cimpartial.\u201d It does not mean \u201capathetic\u201d \u2014 that would be an uninterested<\/em> judge.<\/p>\n

And because so many people mistakenly think infer<\/em> is a synonym for imply<\/em>, a reader might see \u201cinferred\u201d and think Joe was hinting at something, when in fact he had reached a conclusion.<\/p>\n

If just a simple seven-word sentence can cause such a misunderstanding, imagine tackling difficult authors like Lawrence Durrell or William Faulkner. Without a dictionary nearby, what you get out of these writers\u2019 books might be a far cry from what they actually wrote.<\/p>\n

So here are a few words that may not mean what you think they mean. Misinterpreting a key word can distort the meaning of a sentence and set off a chain reaction of misunderstanding that leaves the reader with a message the author never dreamed of sending.<\/p>\n

Livid<\/strong>\u00a0 When someone is \u201clivid,\u201d do you think of red, white, or blue? The best answer is blue, not red. \u201cLivid\u201d does not mean \u201cred-faced with anger.\u201d The Latin lividus<\/em> means \u201cof a bluish color.\u201d Second-best answer is white: \u201clivid\u201d can be a synonym for \u201cpale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benighted<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cHe was a benighted soul in an enlightened time.\u201d Many people associate it with \u201cknighted,\u201d and think \u201cbenighted\u201d is a good thing to be. Far from it. Note the lack of a k<\/em> \u2014 don\u2019t think \u201cknight,\u201d think \u201cnight.\u201d A benighted soul is clueless, ignorant, \u201cin a state of moral or intellectual darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scarify<\/strong>\u00a0 is a benighted synonym for \u201cterrify\u201d \u2014 scarify<\/em> has more to do with scar <\/em>than scare<\/em>. It means to scratch or make superficial incisions. It also has agricultural applications having to do with seeds and soil.<\/p>\n

Meretricious <\/strong>\u00a0When you hear it, the first two syllables echo \u201cmerit,\u201d and the word resembles meritorious<\/em>. The similarity ends there. It means \u201cflashy,\u201d \u201ccheap,\u201d \u201ctawdry\u201d: \u201cThe candidate made a meretricious display of piety.\u201d<\/p>\n

(This tip was contributed by veteran copy editor Tom Stern.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know many avid readers, and I wish I read as much as they do. But to my surprise, very few of them read with a dictionary on hand. When I ask why, the answer is some variation on \u201cIt ruins the mood\u201d or \u201cI want to relax, not study\u201d or the most self-deluded one: […]<\/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":[10,12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-humor"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835"}],"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=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}