Perceptions & Pictures

WORD MIX : Beware the confusion of similarly spelled English words. A slip of the tongue, a tripping over on pronunciation when using such words could be embarrassing as well as misleading.

For example.  Erotic is not the same as exotic.  I’ll not expand on the difference here.

Then there is entomology, the study of insects, and etymology the study of word origins.  So don’t get your book-worms confused with ‘bugs’ in the word processor.

Irrelevant and irreverent are not connected, unless – for example – you think, say, the church irrelevant, and therefore you are free to make irreverent remarks about it.

Monotonous is not the same as monogamous.  although there is probably a section of society who would say the two are, in practice, the same.  No so.  But related to this are two other similar words.

Affection is only two letters short of affectation, but there is a world of difference in meaning.  The first is a genuine emotion and feeling for another person, the other is an act, a pretence, a performance: not in the same league of human sentiments or relationships.

Cole Porter wrote the lyrics to his own songs, as well as the music.  The words of many of his songs express the depth and genuineness of love between a man and a woman.  Take, for example,

I’ve got you under my skin … I’ve got you deep in the heart of me ….

Nothing superficial there.

Of course, you could always just send her a red rose, then words are not needed.  The flower will say it all, and far more eloquently.