The Word Curmudgeon #2: Stanch, Champ, Vicious Circle
Please take out your workbooks and make the following corrections:
1. When you stop the flow of blood, you stanch it, you do not staunch it.
2. Someone who is so anxious to do something he can barely be restrained is champing at the bit, not chomping.
3. And it’s a vicious circle, not a vicious cycle.
The word stanch has a very specific meaning, as does staunch. Those meanings are not the same.
Champing is also a specific thing, and it’s horse-related.
And really, don’t you think vicious circle is so much more poetic and descriptive than vicious cycle? “Yes it certainly is,” he said, answering his own question.
1. When you stop the flow of blood, you stanch it, you do not staunch it.
2. Someone who is so anxious to do something he can barely be restrained is champing at the bit, not chomping.
3. And it’s a vicious circle, not a vicious cycle.
The word stanch has a very specific meaning, as does staunch. Those meanings are not the same.
Champing is also a specific thing, and it’s horse-related.
And really, don’t you think vicious circle is so much more poetic and descriptive than vicious cycle? “Yes it certainly is,” he said, answering his own question.
posted by Steve @ 4/19/2005 10:10:00 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:19 PM,
Anonymous said…
Well, well now........ thanks for clearing THAT up for us ! You should have been a grammar teacher. Um, I mean, English teacher. No, no, teacher of English grammar. Or wait, is it grammer?
No matter. Press on regardless ;-)
At 1:30 PM,
Steve said…
Dear Anonymous:
It's "grammar" unless you're speaking of Kelsey Grammer, or of course, Grammer
and Gramper. Glad I could clear that up for you, and if you have further
questions, please don't hesitate to write. Or call.
The Word Curmudgeon
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