I remember my spelling text from grade three – yes, it was a textbook.\u00a0 Each week had a new list of words.\u00a0 However, the book went further:\u00a0 it covered a new theme each week as well.<\/p>\n
One magic chapter talked about homonyms.\u00a0 Homonyms, it explained, are words that sound the same but are spelled differently; dear and deer are homonyms, for example.<\/p>\n
What was my surprise to discover, 35 years later, that the Yanks don’t necessarily agree with that definition!\u00a0 Leafing through Websters yesterday, I read that homonyms are spelled the same, but have different meanings.\u00a0 An example is screen, in the following two contexts:<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0 We’ll screen<\/em> the applicants carefully. That’s homonyms from a Yank point of view.<\/p>\n I wondered if maybe I remembered the definition wrong, so I checked the Oxford Canadian Dictionary.\u00a0 Its definition comprises both the one I remember and the Websters one.<\/p>\n By the way:\u00a0 I love the -nym ending:)<\/p>\n
\n2)\u00a0 At the airport, you watch the screen<\/em> for the arrivals.<\/p>\n