Tricky Words

Here are some words that I, at some point in my life, have misunderstood or used incorrectly, or at least had to work really hard to get their meanings correctly embedded into my memory.

dearth -- This one used to puzzle me completely. I think it may have been because it's often used in the same construction as the antonymic "wealth": a dearth of answers, a wealth of answers. I don't remember looking it up, but I probably did, to find that it means lack of or scarcity.

nonplussed, as in, "The unsolicited, angry email left her nonplussed." -- To me, this is one of those inside-out words. It sounds like something failed to happen -- as if she was not affected -- and that's how it often gets misused. But actually, nonplussed means confounded.

belie -- Actually, I figured this meaning out during high school, but I see it misused so often that I am starting to get it backwards myself. It is a bit inside-out, I have to admit. In essence, it means to contradict, such as "Her ragged clothes belied her fat bank account." But it is often used to mean "reveal the underlying truth."

erstwhile -- For the longest time, I could not remember that this word means former. I always thought it meant "would-be."

sanguine -- I finally looked this word up and memorized it while I was in grad school. I still remember being surprised that it meant cheerful. I had long ago realized it had some connection to the root word "sangue," which is French for "blood," but I had inferred a more bloody-minded meaning, unlike the the actual derivation, which is that a cheery person has pink cheeks.

palate palette pallet -- I do know the difference among these, but I have to be careful to taste with my palate, paint with my palette, and pile things onto the pallet. (And even writing that made my eyes cross.)