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Despite contemporary society” s heightened sensitivity about rape, we still remain perhaps fortunately unconscious of many of the transformations of the root meaning in words with positi

RATIONALE/RATIONALIZATION

When you’re explaining the reasoning behind your position, you’re presenting your rationale But if you’re just making up some lame excuse to make your position appear better—whether to yourself or others—you’re engaging in rationalization

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RAVAGING/RAVISHING/RAVENOUS

To ravage is to pillage, sack, or devastate The only time “ravaging” is properly used is in phrases like “when the pirates had finished ravaging the town, they turned to ravishing the women.” Which brings us to “ravish": meaning to rape, or rob violently A trailer court can be ravaged by a storm (nothing is stolen, but a lot of damage is done) but not ravished The crown jewels of Ruritania can be ravished (stolen using violence) without being ravaged (damaged)

To confuse matters, people began back in the fourteenth century to speak metaphorically of their souls being “ravished” by intense spiritual or esthetic experiences Thus we speak of a “ravishing woman” (the term is rarely applied to men) today not because she literally rapes men who look at her but because her devastating beauty penetrates their hearts in an almost violent fashion Despite

contemporary society” s heightened sensitivity about rape, we still remain (perhaps fortunately)

unconscious of many of the transformations of the root meaning in words with positive connotations such as “rapturous."

Originally, “raven” as a verb was synonymous with “ravish” in the sense of “to steal by force.” One

of its specialized meanings became “devour,” as in “the lion ravened her prey.” By analogy, hungry people became “ravenous” (as hungry as beasts), and that remains the only common use of the word today

If a woman smashes your apartment up, she ravages it If she looks stunningly beautiful, she is

ravishing If she eats the whole platter of hors d” oeuvres you’ve set out for the party before the other guests come, she’s ravenous

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RECREATE

REINVENT

The expression “no need to reinvent the wheel” loses much of its wit when “recreate” is substituted for the original verb While we’re at it, "recreate” does not mean “to engage in recreation.” If you play basketball, you may be exercising, but you’re not recreating

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REAL/REALLY

The correct adverbial form is “really” rather than “real”; but even that form is generally confined to casual speech, as in “When you complimented me on my speech I felt really great!” To say “real great” instead moves the speaker several steps downscale socially However “really” is a feeble qualifier “Wonderful” is an acceptable substitute for “really great” and you can give a definite

upscale slant to your speech by adopting the British “really quite wonderful.” Usually, however, it is better to replace the expression altogether with something more precise: “almost seven feet tall” is better than “really tall.” To strive for intensity by repeating “really” as in “that dessert you made was really, really good” demonstrates an impoverished vocabulary

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REALTOR

For some reason, this word is often mispronounced as “real-a-ter" instead of the proper “ree-ul-ter.” Incidentally, realtors insist that this is a term originally trademarked by the National Association of Real Estate Boards (now renamed the “National Association of Realtors” ), that it must be

capitalized, and that all non-members of that association are mere “real estate associates.” Common usage, however, calls both “real estate agents,” despite their protests

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reason because

REASON BECAUSE

We often hear people say things like, “the reason there’s a hole in the screen door is because I tripped over the cat on my way out.” The phrase “is because” should be “is that.” If you wanted to use

“because,” the sentence should be phrased, “There’s a hole in the screen door because I tripped over the cat.” Using both is a redundancy, as is the common expression “the reason why.” “The reason being is” should be simply “the reason being.”

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REBELLING/REVOLTING

Even though “rebel” and “revolt” mean more or less the same thing, people who are revolting are

disgusting, not taking up arms against the government

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REBUT/REFUTE

When you rebut someone’s argument you argue against it To refute someone’s argument is to prove

it incorrect Unless you are certain you have achieved success, use “rebut.”

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RECENT/RESENT

There are actually three words to distinguish here “Recent,” always pronounced with an unvoiced

hissy S and with the accent on the first syllable, means “not long ago,” as in, “ I appreciated your

recent encouragement.” “Resent” has two different meanings with two different pronunciations, both with the accent on the second syllable In the most common case, where “resent” means “feel bad

about,” the word is pronounced with a voiced Z sound: “I resent your implication that I gave you the

chocolates only because I was hoping you’d share them with me.” In the less common case, the word

means “to send again,” and is pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S sound: “The e-mail message

bounced, so I resent it.” So say the intended word aloud If the accent is on the second syllable,

“resent” is the spelling you need

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REDUNDANCIES

There are many examples of redundancies in these pages: phrases which say twice what needs to be said only once, like “past history." Advertisers are particularly liable to redundancy in hyping their offers: “as an added bonus” (as a bonus), “preplan” (plan), and “free gift” (but look out for the shipping charges!) Two other common redundancies which are clearly errors are “and plus” (plus) and “end result” (result) But some other redundancies are contained in phrases sanctioned by

tradition: “safe haven,” “hot water heater,” “new beginning,” and “tuna fish."

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reeking havoc

REEKING HAVOC

WREAKING HAVOC

“Reeking” means “smelling strongly,” so that can’t be right The phrase simply means “working great destruction.” “Havoc” has always referred to general destruction in English, but one very old phrase incorporating the word was “cry havoc,” which meant to give an army the signal for pillage To

“play havoc with” means the same thing as to “wreak havoc." Avoid as well the mistaken “wreck havoc."

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