During the course of watching some talk/news show, one of the hosts stated that he was a libertarian. I gasped.
His moral conduct had always seemed above reproach. His opinions were about modesty and living a good life, etc. I mentioned this to my husband who gave it about five seconds of thought.
“Oh, you are thinking of ‘libertine’, not ‘libertarian’.”
We looked it up: Libertine-- one is a rake, licentious, loose in morals; and, libertarian—one who upholds the ideals of freedom.
If these two words could be confused, what other words could be added to my list? What about these:
Warrior or voyeur
Winner or wiener
Married or mired
Insane or inane
Forge or forage
Assign or asinine
Diary or diarrhea
Philanderer or philanthropist
Pawn or porn
Largest or largesse
Military or Millinery
Marital or martial
Marital or martial
It is not merely a matter of rhyming or homonyms. These are words that kinda sound the same, but can border on offensive.
My dilemma and confusion have now been solvent.
