Look, I am one of the world’s worst spellers. Serious dyslexia [or lexdixia, as I call it.] Especially hard to spell are the words that have au instead of a as the word sounds [authority], and ieu [as in milieu] and so on.
BUT, because I was raised by the ‘madwomen in black’ that is, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, I do most often know HOMONYMS, that is, words that somewhat sound the same but are spelled differently. The difference was teiko drummed into us.
Mr. Erickson recently tweeted this:
I’m pretty sure Mr. Erickson never went to Catholic school during the rattling rosary beads era that instilled fear into any half-way wise student in gradeschool.
There are two words that are HOMONYMsical. I made that last word up. Typical of people with dyslexia. We go by the rules of how it sounds, often, rather than what is considered standard English. But, I digress…
The two words are
compl-I-mentary [and]
compl-E-mentary
Mr. Erickson meant, it seems in context, the second one, but spelled out the first instead.
They words sound somewhat alike (not really) for the word compl-I-mentary has a very soft emphasis on dropping low voice on the ee sound at the end, but with the second word compl-E-mentary, in the fashion of English I was raised in, has the emphasis on the TARY at the end, quite highlighted and not ‘swallowed.’
Both are adjectives, describing a noun. As in, they had a complementary or complimentary relationship. ‘Relationship’ is the noun. [Did I mention our good nuns with yellow chalkdust on their long black skirts, banging on the greenboard til the chalk sometimes broke—Sister demanding to know what this ‘leg’ of the diagramatic sentence is called, [and we tiny dunces looking pie-eyed hoping not to be called on and make a mistake, yes?]
compl-I-mentary is from the Latin and means ‘fullfilment’… but/and I like that it also derives from the later Italian courtly complimento which means ‘fulfillment of the requirements of courtesy.’
compl-E-mentary is from the Latin complare, [did I mention nuns in black habits and starched white halos doing boot camp drills on/with us, in Latin etymology, yes?] and it means ‘completion’ as in the socket and plug are complementary to/with one another.
So, Mr. Erickson who is trying to say that ‘science’ of his wishful thinking says that women are ‘scientifically proven by animal kingdom,’ to have a natural role to be subservient to men… has to go back to grade school. So he can write…
‘…He compl-I-mented her on her nice subservience. She compl-I-mented him on the bread he brought home as it was a lovely bundt cake…. And thus this couple were perfect compl-E-ments to each other.’ Bric and brak, frick and frack, gordo y flaco, and onward.
And regarding Mr. Erickson’s assertion that we all ought act like the animals he has in mind wherein the males supposedly dominate the females and the happily submissive females dust the nest/ lair/den and make nice cupcakes… only a final tiny note about the BLACK WIDOW SPIDER and other creatures wherein the ‘science’ is to live only 14 hours, lay your eggs and die, or eat your mate, or rut with 27 out of 27 of penned Gurnseys, or stay with one another for life, or lionesses on the hunt and on and on and ON. …. [did I mention the nuns waving around biology and zoology textbooks with few pictures– but massive descriptions, that burned into our brains, ‘aves’ and all the other classes of creatures, yes? That we grew up in the northwoods and lakelands where there were 100 kinds of creatures who could and would kill you dead with one bite? Yes. ]
Mr. Erickson’s idea of science is DEFINITELY science fiction, not EVIDENCE BASED SCIENCE. It’s a rapture of his imagination and I think, he is repeating something he heard elsewhere, without investigating it for himself.
Like I said, an education from old fashioned nuns is DI driven, that would be ‘drill instructor driven.’ And though I cant vouch, as usual, for everything in this piece being spelled right, and I do write about the animal and plant worlds in my books as being fine metaphors for human individuation…
but I do know one thing that we all strive toward… IF youre going to call it SCIENCE instead of SCIENCE FICTION or poetry, or metaphor, or analogy [did I mention the nuns also drilled into us the concept of onomatopoeia –meaning a word that sounds like what it describes, such as ‘babbling brook’ sounds like the cadence of water to some], NOT TO attribute to the poor human state, nor to the animals nor to heaven or earth, made-up absurdities based on what is NOT true.
Again, as you’ve heard me say many times: Some think and consider and study, and then say and do. Others repeat thoughts without ever thinking them, and say and do accordingly.
May all be more interested in study in depth. It’s a lifelong learning process, a good one. Worth it.