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AWADmail Issue 570

From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Contest: One word with two definitions, differing by a letter

The contest this week was to find a word that has two definitions that differ by a letter. Many readers misinterpreted it to find a word pair differing by a letter, such as walk/wall. That wouldn't be a very interesting contest!

This contest was much more difficult that any of our previous contests. Just a few dozen readers sent entries that qualified. Thanks to everyone for participating.

The three winners, in no particular order, are:

Nubile:
Suitable to wed
Suitable to bed
-David Quintavalle, New York, New York (david pandqpress.com)

Bind:
To secure with a band
To secure with a bond
-Hwei Ying, Singapore (hweiying satokogyo.com.sg)

Sorb:
To take up and hold by absorption
To take up and hold by adsorption
-Richard John Purvis, Toronto, Canada (rpurvis596 rogers.com)

The winners will receive their choice of the word game One Up!, the T-shirt AWAD to the wise is sufficient, or a copy of my book A Word A Day.

Honorable mentions:

Fingerprints:
Evidence at a crime scene
Evidence at a grime scene
-Don Lee, St. Paul, Minnesota (donelee visi.com)

Rank:
Of or pertaining to order (file)
Of or pertaining to odor (vile)
-Janet Churn, Annapolis, Maryland (jncnet1 aol.com)

Prized:
Of or relating to prize
Of or relating to prise
-Sagarika Mukesh, Patna, India (sagarika.mukesh gmail.com)

Probative:
Serving to probe
Serving to prove
-Bob Barth, Brooklyn, New York (rhbarth verizon.net)

Sanction:
Say "yah" to something
Say "nah" to something
Dirty:
Dusty
Lusty
-John Howell, Richmond, Indiana (jhowell earlham.edu)

Ravel:
Untangle
Entangle
-Peter Montgomery, Victoria, Canada (montgomery camosun.bc.ca)

Real:
Actual
Factual
Conventional:
Formal (e.g. a formal education)
Normal (e.g. a normal childhood)
-David Steele, Tucson, Arizona (d.avid juno.com)

Tuck:
Fold "Make a tuck in the fabric"
Food "..pretty good tuck" comment about food quality in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" movie
-Risa Cohen, Mason, Ohio (rochen seapine.com)

Boot:
Shoo
Shoe
-David Smith, Sierra Vista, Arizona (dlsmithmd57 yahoo.com)

Punch:
A type of smash
A type of mash
-Suchandra Chatterjee, Bangalore, India (suchandra.ch gmail.com)

Gold:
Medal
Metal
Well:
Hole
Whole
-Robert Martin, Shanghai, China (robertmartinhk hotmail.com)

The small moveable ebony part of a violin bow that anchors -- and adjusts the tension of -- the bow's horse hair is called a frog. So I offer you:
Frog:
An integral part of a bog
An integral part of a bow
-Joel Mabus, Kalamazoo, Michigan (joel.mabus pobox.com)

Track:
Trail
Rail
-Peter Gunning, Ballito, South Africa (saints111 telkomsa.net)

Jaguar:
Car
Cat
-Steve Adelman, Newton, Massachusetts (steveadelmanmd gmail.com)

Match:
Game
Same
-Sagar Shah, Mumbai, India (sagarchess1 yahoo.co.in)

Cover:
Lid
Lie
-Michael Klein, Monroe Twp, New Jersey (klein.rebecca gmail.com)

Thriving:
Healthy
Wealthy
-Dean Schroeder, Madison, Wisconsin (orange_dean mac.com)

To put down:
Lay
Slay
-Dean Hedman, Toronto, Canada (hedmand csviamonde.ca)

Post:
A place where someone mails something
A place where someone nails something
-Larry Moss, Bloomington, Indiana (larry.moss gmail.com)

Photoshop:
A tool for making great photographs from raw images
A tool for faking great photographs from raw images
-Kevin Chang, Hampton Roads, Virginia (tartankevin gmail.com)

Royal pageantry:
Statecraft
Stagecraft
-Andrew Pressburger, Toronto, Canada (andpress sympatico.ca)

Canteen:
Water container
Eater container
-Michael Wiesenberg, Calgary, Canada (queue shaw.ca)

Earth:
The globe under our feet
The glebe under our feet
-Martine Bom, Boutersem, Belgium (martine martinebom.eu)

Hull:
Outer surface of a boat
Outer surface of an oat
-Greg Franklin, Bridgetown, Barbados (franklin_gt yahoo.ca)

From: Donn Neal (donnneal gmail.com)
Subject: Palatine

This word, with "the" preceding it, also refers to a section of Europe straddling the Rhine. Many thousands of those who emigrated to North America during the 1700s in particular did so from the Palatine (often having been "recruited" by the Penn family) and are customarily referred to as "the Palatines".

From: Kathy Smith (kathy.leapbaby gmail.com)
Subject: Palatine

The Palatines were the German-speaking immigrants to the British colonies in America during the 18th century. Many of them settled in Pennsylvania and were called Pennsylvania Dutch by the English colonists. "Dutch" was an anglicised form of the word Deutsch. You can read about the history here.

From: William Thompson (ourouse.thompson virgin.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--palatine

In 1351 King Edward III of England created the County Palatine of Lancaster (broadly the present county of Lancashire including Manchester and Liverpool) and made Henry Grosmont the 1st Duke of Lancaster. As the duke of a County Palatine, Henry had largely autonomous powers equivalent to those of the king in matters of justice and administration.

Other counties palatine were created in Chester and Durham and the counties palatine retained some of their special privileges until quite modern times.

From: Marty Brinsko (martilou21 verizon.net)
Subject: collier

Though I grew up in West Virginia, I never knew the meaning of "collier" until I went away to college. Then, the small, unincorporated area near our town named "Colliers" and the road named "Colliers Way" made sense! Yes, mining had happened there, as it had through most of our beautiful (but underappreciated) state.

From: Susan Saunders (susansaunders2008 btinternet.com)
Subject: Collier

As well as meaning a coal miner, collier can mean a coal maker (in a way). 'Grim, the collier of Croydon' is the title of an old play from Elizabethan times. Grim, of the title, was a charcoal burner, that is, he made charcoal, the main fuel for cooking in urban households at that time. There were woods growing all around Croydon, in south London, then, and the town was a centre of charcoal production for the capital. Colliers would cut wood and burn it slowly over a number of days in enclosed mounds, till nothing but carbon, or charcoal, was left.

From: John W. Cooper (jcooper stic.net)
Subject: collier

When the word liner is mentioned, one thinks of a majestic sleak passenger liner such as the Queen Mary, not a lowly slow coal liner plodding a line from Point A to Point B with a cargo of coal and then sailing back empty to Point A. However, some colliers became quite famous, such as the following three ships and a space shuttle named after one:
Ex-collier Endeavour
Ex-collier Resolution
Ex-collier Langley

From: Anne Nichol (anichol mmm.com)
Subject: lares and penates

It occurs to me that if one had two pets to name, these would be perfect! Lares and Penates :)

From: Don Wilson (donjudywilson22 gmail.com)
Subject: debark

In my college days I worked in a paper mill which had a machine which used powerful jets of water to remove the bark from logs. We called it a barker.

From: Tom Dove (tom.dove mac.com)
Subject: Debark

In 1994, I visited Port-des-Barques on the west coast of France, to see the place my Huguenot ancestor had boarded the ship that would take him to England in 1698. It was then that I realized the source of our word Debark. People and goods landed literally "from ships".

From: Chris Connell (cconnell cceditorial.com)
Subject: Lightning, lightning bug

Anent Twain's evocative phrase, before Lyndon Baines Johnson was President of the United States, he was a powerbroker in the Senate. He once said the difference between a senator and a congressman was the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit.