Fell is fowl and fowl is fell, and other nice distinctions for editors
English is full of stumbling blocks. While these can prove tricky to navigate, they do create some nice distinctions for editors and proofreaders. A Swiss friend whose English was almost perfect used to trip up over idioms.
His best was fowl swoop instead of fell swoop. I see his reasoning! A fell swoop is a deadly swoop like the fate of all the chickens and their dam in the Scottish play. I can’t think of other contexts where fell is used in the old sense of mortal. A fowl swoop somehow seems better. A bird of prey descending on an unsuspecting rabbit.
Editors and proofreaders watch out for wrongly used words. The English language has thousands. Here are just two. Common culprits.
Procrastinate and prevaricate
These two are often used interchangeably by authors. Journalists are particularly culpable these days.
Procrastinate means to put off until tomorrow. Often we mean that the can will be kicked down the road indefinitely. The proofs will never be read. The typescript will be left on the shelf until the publisher is in administration.
Procrastination is the thief of time. We all do it, of course. But editors and proofreaders who delay too much rarely stay in business long. Word gets round!
Prevarication is worse
Often prevaricate is used to mean simply delay or put off. No distinction is made. Wrong.
Another nice distinction for editors. Prevaricate is different. It is worse. Much worse. Prevaricate meant to walk crookedly. Strange to think that walking crookedly was a common enough trait to have a word of its own. But there we are.
By analogy, it has come to mean putting something off or dumping it in the long grass. But there is the added tinge of deception or deviousness. Crookedness. Maybe no lies are told. But the truth is obscured and twisted. Politicians rarely do anything without prevarication. Those who do usually stay on the back benches.