Friday, May 04, 2007

We Are Moved

SPOGG matriarch Mrs. McC found this gem while doing a bit of computer maintenance:
I was defragmenting the drive on my PC and noticed that the files were referred to as "unmovable." I thought that the correct word was "immovable," unless Microsoft was referring to the emotional state of my Excel files.
Discoveries like this delight us. Mrs. McC is correct, of course. The word is immovable when the meaning is "something that cannot be moved."

Unmoved, on the other hand, means "not moved by emotion or excitement; unaffected, undisturbed; collected, calm," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which traces usage all the way back to 1385.

The words sound similar, but their meanings are different. User, beware!

No comments: