During my years of teaching, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I ever had students \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even at the college level \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who consistently spelled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a lot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as two words. To that I say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Alot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of students can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell the difference.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I believe the bigger problem is simply using the wrong word. There are, after all, many synonyms for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a lot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d including \u00e2\u20ac\u0153many\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plenty.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
When was the last time you heard someone confuse \u00e2\u20ac\u0153compose\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153comprise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll wager that most people who (mis)use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153comprise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d do so in a sentence like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The U.S. is comprised of 50 states.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d No! The U.S. comprises 50 states, and not the other way around. The country is not comprised of anything.<\/p>\n
Yet another form of verbal confusion is using \u00e2\u20ac\u0153compromised \u00e2\u20ac\u0153when we mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153comprised,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which has an entirely different meaning and takes us in a different direction. For example, when my wife says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I took out the meat from the freezer to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unthaw it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I have had to compromise my grammar-cop personality in order to remain married.<\/p>\n
Similarly, people often confuse \u00e2\u20ac\u0153condone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153condemn\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and come up with something like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I condone your stealing the money,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when they mean they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t approve of the theft.<\/p>\n
Another word that has only recently come into our language has an unusual spelling and appears extremely difficult to pronounce. The clashing of certain consonants too often appears like trying to read a telephone book from the Czech Republic. And in case you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re one of the few people away from TV or a newspaper last week, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the word: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covfefe.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The power of mass media and its tremendous effect on the language, using a word coined by our president, illustrates the fluidity of language. Most words have a discernible origin, which most dictionaries explain. Other words \u00e2\u20ac\u201d often the result of a mispronunciation or a misunderstanding \u00e2\u20ac\u201d have worked their way into the language, on the basis of what the object looks like, sounds like or does.<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see how many ways we can parse the word.<\/p>\n
But first, let me explain that The Donald obviously failed to proofread the message he was transmitting. It looks as if Trump overlooked a typo in writing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153coffee\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and forgot to go back and correct it.<\/p>\n
According to multiple sources, on Facebook, Twitter and Messages, the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covfefe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has been trending all week.<\/p>\n
The presence of two Fs and two Es suggests Trump was referring to coffee. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still much enjoyment in speculating on Trump\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intentions.<\/p>\n
Here are some snippets submitted by people on the Internet:<\/p>\n
My friend, Martin Sommerness, a journalism teacher at Northern Arizona University, says he loves the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153smell of covfefe in the morning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his assumption referring to a drinkable liquid. Trump\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new word doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t appear in any dictionaries \u00e2\u20ac\u201d yet. And though coffee is a popular guess as to what the word is, there are other guesses.<\/p>\n
One person asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even the point of CNN if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going commercial-free with covfefe coverage?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
As people search for the word Trump coined all by himself, the dictionary provides a host of words the editors believe may have been intended: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153coven,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cover,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covey\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153curee.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The name of the Golden State Warriors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 super hoopster, Steph Curry, might even join the list.<\/p>\n
Some people suggest that if the definition of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covfefe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is so darned important, they should try a non-English dictionary, such as a Norwegian tome. But others have shot it back to the suggesters: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nope, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccovfefe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a Norse word either.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So, does that word with the awkward combination of fricative sounds have a future in English or any other language? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m betting that, if we consider the source, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll soon come across \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covfefe,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 even if its widespread usage is intended as a criticism of the man who won the election by such a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yuge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d margin.<\/p>\n
Remember back in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s, when every teenage male dreamed of Liz Taylor and Debbie Reynolds? And giddy girls would imagine a lifetime with Richard Burton or Eddie Fisher?<\/p>\n
What was the result of the widespread admiration teens heaped on those Hollywoodians? Well, one result was that millions of parents showed their admiration by naming their kids Debbie and Liz. These are, it must be stressed, acceptable names, but what if?<\/p>\n
What if, in the near future, Trump fans choose to honor the multi-millionaire president by naming their offspring \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Covfefe,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or some variation thereof?<\/p>\n
People will be saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We think \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccovfefe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is such a wonderful name, but several of our neighbors already named their boys and girls the same thing. So we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re calling our son \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCovvy.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 We wanted to shorten the name of our other child, a girl, to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFefe,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but that was already taken.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During my years of teaching, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I ever had students \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even at the college level \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who consistently spelled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a lot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as two words. To that I say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Alot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of students can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell the difference.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I believe the bigger problem is simply using the wrong word. There are, after all, many synonyms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}