Words that confound your inferior brain

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I wanted to see if I was the only one with words that no matter what, every time I read them, I don't understand them. For me it's "misled." I know is means "led in the wrong direction," but for some reason, once I didn't know what it meant, thought it was pronounced "mize-uld," and meant something like digruntled. Now every time I read it, I misunderstand the sentence unless I think about it. Anyone else have words that they never get right?

― Will M., Sunday, 15 April 2007 18:57 (eighteen years ago)

ONCE still weirds me out somehow. "Ohntz? What the hell is this?.......oh right."

― Abbott, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:14 (eighteen years ago)

I've made that "misled" mistake many a time.

― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 16 April 2007 05:20 (eighteen years ago)

Assinine, pernicious, anodyne. I always, ALWAYS have to look'em up. I love those words but I always forget their meaning. :-(

― nathalie, Monday, 16 April 2007 08:04 (eighteen years ago)

Asinine of course. I do know how to spell it.

― nathalie, Monday, 16 April 2007 08:04 (eighteen years ago)

No matter how many times I look it up, I never know what the hell "impunity" means. Wait, you mean, he does something with impunity, so he's free from prosecution, or no, he's without impunity, so he's without fear of--no, he's without something and, and...and then my brain just dies.

Also, when I was young I misread "Mistral's Daughter" as "Mistrial's Daughter" so now whenever I see the word "mistrial", I pronounce it in my head as miss-tree-ull, and it still takes me a few seconds to go, "Oh! Miss Try Ull! Dumbass!"

What a relief to know someone else has "misled", too.
Great topic!

― craven, Monday, 16 April 2007 09:07 (eighteen years ago)

ONCE still weirds me out somehow. "Ohntz? What the hell is this?.......oh right."

I have problems with Once as well - whenever I see it written down (and my god this sounds pretentious) I read it as "on-thay", i.e. the Spanish for "eleven". I blame the Tour de France.

― Mark C, Monday, 16 April 2007 10:17 (eighteen years ago)

You bastards. I never had a problem with once, but I will now.

I still don't understand what ingenuous and disingenuous mean, and I never will.

― accentmonkey, Monday, 16 April 2007 15:00 (eighteen years ago)

countless times I have read "miniseries" written, well, like that, and thought

what is a "minizzeries"

or

that's not how you spell "ministries"

― Grandpont Genie, Monday, 16 April 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago)

I still don't understand what ingenuous and disingenuous mean, and I never will.

i always used to confuse them with ingenious and disingenious (which doesn't even exist) but now i think of ingenue and that sorts me out.

― ledge, Monday, 16 April 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago)

Hmm. That is helpful. Thanks ledge.

Palimpsest. There's another one that I can't get into my head, no matter how many times it's explained to me. I can't grasp the meaning of it, and I think it's spelled palimpest.

― accentmonkey, Monday, 16 April 2007 15:26 (eighteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

a recycled parchment

― Snorkels, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 02:03 (seventeen years ago)

ALL OF THEM

― Abbott, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 02:08 (seventeen years ago)

This has been bugging me for quite some time:

DECEPTIVELY

If something is deceptively large, is it larger than it seems or smaller than it seems? I would have to go with it being LARGE, but in a deceptive way, so it actually seems small. But I can never be sure.

― Not the real Village People, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 18:13 (seventeen years ago)

Pretty sure "deceptively large" means something SEEMS smaller than it IS. Ex: in a room with a low ceiling and lots of nooks and crannies, you might not notice that it's really 1000 feet sq.

― Laurel, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 18:25 (seventeen years ago)

I have a problem with "went" - the longer I look at it the wronger it looks.

― snoball, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 18:46 (seventeen years ago)

Is 'deceptively large' not just estate agent speak for small?

― AlanSmithee, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 22:15 (seventeen years ago)

Oh hmm, you know, the longer I look at it, the less sure I am. I think part of the problem is that use of "deceptively XX" should prob be with some kind of verb of appearance/perception, ex "looks deceptively small". I'm not sure it's something a building, for example, can be, it can only appear to be.

― Laurel, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 22:19 (seventeen years ago)

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