Search This Blog

Monday, February 25, 2013

Underrf'd and Infraer'd

I have a debilitating fear of somehow having to read aloud in public and coming across the word "infrared".
There really should be a hyphen in there.  Infra-dash-red.  Without a hyphen, I see a word that rhymes with "impaired".
The trouble is, most verbs are made past-tense by the suffix "d" or "ed".  Therefore, when I see the word infrared, with its absence of dash, I see the past tense of the verb infrare.  Of course I know there is no such word as infrare, but this merely adds to my momentary confusion as I try to discern how light becomes, in fact, frare'd or in-frare'd.
I learned I'm not the only person whose mind goes there when my good buddy Grammar Patrol read a newspaper article about underfed horses.  He was trying to figure out how exactly one derfs or underfs a horse.  Grammar Patrol's grandson quipped that in Washington State, all horses must be properly derfed.  Now tell me, should there not be a dash?  Under-dash-fed.
You're familiar with my image.  Tough and cool.  It would not look tough and cool to publicly mispronounce infrared.  This is also why it would be completely detrimental for me to meet Jeremy Renner in for real life.  I'd totally lose my tough and cool.  I'd just look underf'd and infare'd.

1 comment:

  1. A dear friend, who shall remain unnamed, experienced my shame when she herself read the word "un-named" as "unna-med". I may just call her Unna-med from now on.

    ReplyDelete