I may never ride in the...calvary?

I don't know if this bugs anyone else as much as it bugs me, but I can't stand it when people use the word "calvary" when what they really mean is "cavalry". They are two entirely different words, with two entirely different meanings. I was watching a TV show the other night and one of the characters mentioned something about the other one "calling in the calvary", and I could not restrain myself from saying to the screen, "It's cavalry! Cavalry, not calvary!"

This mix-up commonly occurs in the little Sunday school song most of us grew up singing:

"I may never march in the infantry, ride in the ________ , shoot the artillery, I may never zoom o'er the enemy, but I'm in the Lord's army! Yes, sir!"

Most kids grow up singing about riding in the calvary, whatever that might mean! And hey, since this song is sung in church, where the word "Calvary" is used quite a bit in its proper sense, I can't fault the little ones for not questioning its placement in the song. But it makes a lot more sense for them to sing about riding in the cavalry!


Calvary

Pronunciation: \ˈkal-v(ə-)rē\
Function: noun
Etymology: Calvary, the hill near Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified

1 : an open-air representation of the crucifixion of Jesus

2 : an experience of usually intense mental suffering




Cavalry

Pronunciation: \ˈka-vəl-rē\
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian cavalleria cavalry, chivalry, from cavaliere

1 a: an army component mounted on horseback b: an army component moving in motor vehicles or helicopters and assigned to combat missions that require great mobility

2: Horsemen: "a thousand cavalry in flight"


No real point to sharing this with you...I just wondered if this bugs anyone else, or if I'm the only one that notices when people make this very common mistake!

Onomatopoeia

Main Entry: on·o·mato·poe·ia
Pronunciation: "ä-nuh-"mä-tuh-'pE-uh"
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiia

1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss)

2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense
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I love onomatopoeic words -- they add zest to a language! When writing, especially writing for children, you want to use lots of these types of words. I've listed some of my favorites below...leave me a comment with some of yours!

These are words that beg to be said aloud, with feeling -- go ahead, give it a try (you might want to wait until you're alone, otherwise you might get some funny looks)!

CRUNCH

SWOOSH

ZIP

TINGLE

SMASH

BONK

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP :-)

BUZZ

BEEP

HUSH

Thanks for indulging the ramblings of a language lover!

Dr. Suess -- in Latin!

Two books that I ordered from Amazon.com arrived today:

Cattus Petasatus and Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!















Yes, perennial Dr. Suess favorites The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, in Latin!

I don't speak Latin. I've never studied it. But I love words and language, and etymology fascinates me. The official definition of etymology is: the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language. See, to me, that's exciting! I often pick up connections between words in English, Spanish, or Russian, and a lot of it traces back to the original Latin or Greek or whatever.

So I am having a lot of fun reading through these books and seeing if I can recognize any of the words based on the fact that so many of our English words have Latin roots and foundations. (Thankfully, there's a handy vocabulary list at the back of each book!)

These books are so much fun for language lovers like me! I had a great time reading through Virent Ova! Virent Perna!! this morning. If you like languages, too, learning a little Latin really broadens your "vocabularic" horizons (yeah, I made that word up just now)! And these fun books are a great way to start!

I'm such a nerd!