Friday, June 22, 2007

Oh, for the love of pete

The phrase is to "pique" one's interest, not to "peak" one's interest. I have seen this mistake made at least four times this week. What the hell? Do newspapers not have editors anymore? Am I the only person in the world who knows ANYTHING???? AAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Okay, I know I'm not. All you lovely people know things, too. The rest of the world, though? Idiots.

10 comments:

Mary said...

I've seen this a couple of times this week, too! Drives me nuts!

But of course, I didn't know how to properly pronounce "segue" before I met you, so maybe I'm part of the problem. ;)

SUEB0B said...

I think someone should meat out justice to those editors bwaaa haaa haa. I crack myself up.

metalia said...

That error annoys me to no end... although inasmuch as I just learned that I was misspelling another phrase (i.e., I thought it was "another THING coming" as opposed to "think.") I suppose I'm really not one to talk. :)

lizgwiz said...

mary, ah, but I'm sure you knew how to SPELL it. ;)

suebob, you crack me up, too. Has anyone ever compiled a list of the usage errors encouraged by an over-dependence on spellcheck? Meat/mete, peak/pique...countless others.

metalia, how 'bout we're each allowed one? ;) What annoys me most lately is that I'm seeing these errors in "legitimate" news sources, where presumably someone is supposed to be checking such things.

3carnations said...

I'm not sure I knew that one...But I sure do now; thanks. I used to think it was for "All intensive purposes", too.

shelleycoughlin said...

I hate when people use "supposably" instead of "supposedly". It makes me want to freak out on them just a little bit.

M.Amanda said...

Ha, I thought it was "another THING coming" until I was about 16.

I had a college professor who referred to someone as being "knave." I thought, "What the heck does that mean?" Then I realized he was mispronouncing "naive." Yikes.

lizgwiz said...

3car, I tend to be more understanding of errors caused by mishearing phrases, particularly phrases that are primarily used in spoken language. But phrases that are more common in written language should be used correctly by professional writers, in my opinion.

npw, yeah, "supposably" gets me, too. Like "irregardless." Or, as my next-door neighbor says, "flustrations."

spark, that is scary. Teachers should know better. I had a junior high school English teacher call me up to her desk once because I'd used the word "din" in an essay, and she didn't believe it was a real word. I had to look it up in the dictionary and show it to her. Eegads!

3carnations said...

Hubby used to have a boss that said "flustrating". He found it terribly annoying. Every once in a while, if I'm trying to drive him batty (in the nicest possible way), I will say something is very flustrating.

Stefanie said...

Yet another fine example that you are among kindred spirits here, Liz. :-)