Three for the ‘price’ of one, this week – but each one a tiddler.
Whistles can be wetted, but appetites are only whetted.
Your ‘whistle’ is your throat or voice. You ‘wet’ it to lubricate it – by taking a drink.
It’s easy to see how ‘wetting’ an appetite might be assumed correct, misconstrued to be describing a drooling mouth, but ‘whetting’ is what you need. To whet means to sharpen or to enhance.
Restaurateur – a restaurant manager or professional – is spelled just so, with no ‘n’. Restauranteur is not a word, but respected media outlets such as the New Zealand Herald, The Scotsman, and The Sunday Express are among those who have previously failed to notice.
I would hope you’re now thinking ‘Hear, hear!’ – in other words, ‘Listen, listen!’ – to what I have said. Because resisting the urge to respond ‘Where, where?’ if you’re about to comment ‘Here, here!’ may be one I’ll be unable to suppress, dear reader …
I suspect, over time, that these ‘alternatives’ may eventually become acceptable, so common are they. Which others do you think might?
And what are your most commonly seen ‘tiddler’ errors (tiddlerrors?) that you’d like to consign to a literary Room 101?
I know restaurateur is correct – but it looks wrong and is impossible to say.
I don't like alright, but plenty of people (and my spell check) seem to think it's all right.
I sort of say it Rest Rut Err …
See Mistake #41 for previous thoughts (and many comments!) on all right vs alright!
I find it easier to say "a person who owns and manages a restaurant." 😉
I have to admit that I did not know that about restaurateur! I hang my head in shame. But I do know now! Not that I use the term very much, but should the need arise, I know I'll get it right.
And it's only seven extra words! 🙂
Do no such thing … it's so easy to not know when you keep seeing the error being repeated – and one tiny letter can be hard to spot!
Hee hee – I only clicked on this after reading another post because I couldn't believe you'd used wet wrongly. Now that's funny.
I'm sure I've used it wrongly somewhere before! I think we seasoned writers take for granted the fact that we may have made our most embarrassing cock-ups in print in the days before the WWW took over …