Today we look at a common Type C Wordo. (If this is your first Wordo Alert, there’s a definition of a wordo at the end of this article.) You can make the wrong choice between two words that seem to mean the same thing such as presume and assume or infer or imply, and, in casual conversation, it’s no biggie. In more formal writing, though, this type of wordo shows the lack of a fine-tuned vocabulary.
“Don’t give me another one of your lame alibis,” my boss told me when I said I was late because the bus had engine trouble on the way to work. Here’s where those famous words of Ron White, the White Collar Comic, come to mind. “I had the right to remain silent. I didn’t have the ability.” Or, as my Uncle Dud used to say, “Never miss an opportunity to just shut up.” I missed one that day. Before I could stop it, my foot leapt right into my mouth. “I think you mean reasons,” I said. I won’t go into what came after that, but suffice it to say, there are times to teach your boss fine distinctions between words and times not to. But, by doggies, I was right.
He didn’t mean alibis. As I never got a chance to explain, an alibi, particularly as a legal term, is a defense based on proving that you weren’t there when the crime was committed. If being late for work was the crime, I didn’t need an alibi for not being there. I pretty much had to not be there in order to be late.
More precisely, the lame things I’d been giving him were reasons for being late. A reason is simply a statement of what caused something to happen. It’s closely related to why. True, alibi gets used a lot to mean a reason, but it’s more closely related to where than why. Fact is, according to the guardians of precise writing, if you don’t want what you write considered questionable, you’ll use this sentence as a guide: If that’s the best excuse you can come up with for not keeping our appointment, you’d better have an air-tight alibi for the time between 8:00 and 10:00 this morning.
When I was a kid, someone who always had some “very good” reason for doing or not doing something was referred to as Alibi Ike. I guess Excuse Ike didn’t have the same ring to it.
wordo (wûrd•ō) n. Related to a typo but without a spelling or typographical error. Results from a choice of the wrong word from among similar or related words.
Type A: a choice of the wrong form of related words, e.g., its vs. it’s and their vs. there.
Type B: a wrong choice from among homophones, e.g., site vs. sight and principal vs. principle.
Type C: a wrong choice between words with similar or overlapping meanings, e.g. strategy vs. tactics and aggravate vs. annoy.
[poss. British English ]
