Word Chat
March 10th, 2010 by DebraDavisHinkle
Word Chat For March
Each month one SLO NightWriter member will blog on three – five words. They can be words that are your favorite, funny or pretty sounding. Maybe the are misused often or you just learned them, whatever. All words should be grouped together–you choose the theme or make one up.
Here are the first three words:
Peruse – (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition)
1. to study, to examine or consider with attention and in detail
2. to look over in a casual manner
Now which is it? I thought the definition was the first one, but I hear people use the second definition. I don’t understand, since I think these are opposites.
Affect - (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/affect)
verb (used with object)
1. to act on; produce an effect or change in: Cold weather affected the crops.
2. to impress the mind or move the feelings of: The music affected him deeply.
3. (of pain, disease, etc.) to attack or lay hold of.
noun
4. Psychology. feeling or emotion.
5. Psychiatry. an expressed or observed emotional response: Restricted, flat, or blunted affect may be a symptom of mental illness, especially schizophrenia.
6. Obsolete. affection; passion; sensation; inclination; inward disposition or feeling.
Effect – (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/effect)
verb (used with object)
noun
1. something that is produced by an agency or cause; result; consequence: Exposure to the sun had the effect of toughening his skin.
2. power to produce results; efficacy; force; validity; influence: His protest had no effect.
3. the state of being effective or operative; operation or execution; accomplishment or fulfillment: to bring a plan into effect.
4. a mental or emotional impression produced, as by a painting or a speech.
5. meaning or sense; purpose or intention: She disapproved of the proposal and wrote to that effect.
6. the making of a desired impression: We had the feeling that the big, expensive car was only for effect.
7. an illusory phenomenon: a three-dimensional effect.
8. a real phenomenon (usually named for its discoverer): the Doppler effect.
verb (used with object)
10. to produce as an effect; bring about; accomplish; make happen: The new machines finally effected the transition to computerized accounting last spring.
In case you haven’t guessed, my group’s theme is “words that confuse.” Each time I hear peruse, I ask myself which definition was meant. In addition, each time I want to use affect or effect I have to look them both up.
Please submit your “Word Chat” to: slonightwriters@yahoo.com
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