#homophones

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Why do homophones exist?

Eye halve know clew.

Its A reel gambol too chews witch whirred two yews.

[gendercensus]

Just say you don’t wanna change it because it’s too much work please don’t pretend that that reply made any sense

If people wanted to have the name Ren they wouldn't spell it Wren, because Ren is a gender-neutral name of Japanese origin and Wren is an English word for a particular bird (or several particular birds, depending on where you're from).

Aside from anything else, I think it's kind of rude and disrespectful to treat them as being the same name. (They might be the same name to some people who go by one of those names, but assuming that they are the same name to everyone who goes by one of those names is rude.)

I have been treating spelling variations as different words for ages now and I'm sticking to it. For example, in the big annual survey, the pronoun set xe/xir is treated as distinct from the pronoun set ze/zir. That's because I don't know the roots of the two sets, I don't know if they're pronounced the same in all accents, etc.

So I'm just applying that rule to names as well.

But hey, let's do a survey about it. :D

[ The post we're talking about ]

[wronghands1]

[knight-in-sour-armor]

[333charliemorningstar333]

I Don't Understand The Meaning Of Jelly And Jealous

Charlie:Were breaking up... Vaggie:Why? Charlie: WHY YOU SO MEAN TO ME?!? Vaggie:I'm sorry, but what the actual FUCK do you think that I'm mean to you? HOW!? Charlie: I got Jelly from the Hell Store and you got Jelly... Vaggie:*slaps her own face* Charlie, its called jealously...Remember you were talking to that one guy after you got the jelly? Charlie:Yeah? Vaggie:I got jealous..But its also called "Jelly"... Charlie:So...Let me get this straight..You got jealous because You got the jelly yourself? Vaggie:*sighs* No...I'm say-nevermind that..Let's just get back together..Okay? Charlie:Sure...After I get the jealous out of the jar.. Vaggie:Fuck my life...

[theyuniversity]

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[acquadimore]

English Speakers of Reddit™!

Here they are in the real world (faces pandified to preserve privacy):

[sofiaflorina2021]

Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia 2024

Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, 17 May, 2024!

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

[ame-chan-unoffical]

my class went like "being gay is a sin" "being trans is a sin"

They said it was BC god made you perfect already and I said "well what if you're unhappy with being perfect? Wouldn't god want you to be happy". They said that it's wrong to change your body. I said "well if someone is deaf and they get an operation to be able to hear again, is that a sin too?"

THE BEST THING IS THAT OUR RELIGION TEACHER IS AN ALLY!! LIKE I THINK ALL OF OUR TEACHERS ARE ALLIES!! THIS IS A CATHOLIC SCHOOL !!

[petermorwood]

“E” or “O”...?

A comment in the “It Was Sugar!” post wondered if "castor" with an "O" was the American spelling for caster sugar, or a typo.

It’s a typo, but one with an interesting history.

*****

“CastOr” is the spelling when referring to castor oil (pressed from castor beans) and, even older, a hat made from felted beaver fur (Castor canadiensis).

Fans of historical fiction might occasionally read that a character “doffed their castor” - meaning, raised or removed their hat in a token of good manners to ladies or respect to superiors.

"CastEr" is the spelling for a container (or its contents) for strewing, sprinkling or throwing, as in "cast aside" or “cast a shadow”.

In homophones (same-sounding words) such as sow / sew, rein / rain, peal / peel, breach / breech etc., just one letter gives the different meaning.

Words like “cast”, however, depend on context - cast a spell, cast a bell, cast a role, arm in a cast, cast in an eye, cast of the show...

English is like that.

*****

Besides sugar casters for sprinkling sugar, there were “sand casters” of wood, ceramic or metal, which contained the powder used to blot ink before or instead of blotting-paper.

This powder might be fine sand or ground sandarac resin (two reasons for “sand caster”) but also ground cuttlefish bone, or ground pumice which was called “pounce” - the French for pumice stone is “pierre ponce” - in which case the container was called a “pounce pot”.

Blotting a letter with sand or pounce may even be the origin of the phrase “done and dusted”, meaning “job all done”, though that might just derive from a room or house completely cleaned, so YMMV.

Its use is often seen in historical films, though they often get the end of the action wrong by showing writers blowing or shaking the powder off onto the floor.

In fact blotting powder was re-usable, and was poured off the paper back into the pot, whose top was often funnel-shaped to make that easier.

Using sand or pounce continued until fairly recently: here’s a silver writing set - inkstand with matching inkwell and pounce pot / sander - hallmarked 1908.

Fountain-pens were already in use (mass-produced since 1880) though prone to leakage until that problem was fixed in, surprise,1908, so it’s not surprising that this handsome set relied on dip pens. Also, it was probably on the desk of An Important Person who had to write little more than signatures.

The pounce pot is a curious anachronism; I’ve read one source suggesting pounce and sand continued in use because they was cheap, but penny-pinching doesn’t seem an issue here.

Maybe used blotting-paper was considered unsightly, whether as a sheet or mounted on one of those rocker-blotters still used occasionally when signing treaties.

Or maybe pounce was considered more secure; if blotting-paper picks up a good reverse impression of the writing, it can be mirror-read; there’s no way to mirror-read anything from powder.

Writer Note; a fantasy story could mention a spell which makes the pounce or sand reassemble itself as the words it blotted, so re-use is done for more than mere economy. Each time pounce is poured back into the pot it gets a thorough shaking, that world’s version of a micro-cut paper shredder or multi-pass disc wipe.

This was originally about spelling variations, so yet again I seem to have wandered a bit off-topic

I do like the silver desk-set, though.

[funforahermit]

tbh i think english only has such a huge amount of homophones because your pronounciation is fucking weird

[menace-4u]

8 year old me after finding out Harold Hutchins was gay as hell :

Made me homophobic for awhile 💀

[gendercensus]

Is it really fair to have ren/wren on there twice? All of these names have widely different spellings why is this one singled out?

Some words are homophones* but they're still different words.

Like, a master baker might be able to make a doe out of dough. A ketchup hunter might need to source a sauce. An enterprising farmer might sell tickets to their maize maze.

They're different words.

Similarly, some names are spelled differently and sound the same. They're different names.

[ This ask is a reference to this nonbinary name tournament ]

~

* Gay phones.

[ineffableobikin]

Bestie fic writers, it’s time for another edition of Helpful Homophone Hint from your friendly neighborhood beta!

If you’re pulling on/straining something — a string, tension, a Force bond, etc. — you’re pulling it taut.

If you once learned something from a teacher, you were taught.

I naturally have an eye for these kinds of homonym mixups, so it’s okay if you don’t! Let me beta read your fic and I’ll catch all these for you. 😃 It’s my way of giving back, for all the hours of enjoyment fanfic has given me!

(As always, fic writers, thank you for sharing your work with the world!! I appreciate you!)

[ksodirty]

[taylorswiftandx]

has she ever rhymed a word with a homophone? tyy

Ooh interesting! This one will take me longer to do a complete search. For now, here's one that sort of fits, from Afterglow: "I blew things out of proportion, now you're blue" except that the actual rhyme with "blue" would be at the end of the next line, "Put you in jail for something you didn't do."

Thank you!