Pet peeve of the day

[unixronin]

People who don't know the difference between 'break' and 'brake'.  It seems to be becoming more and more widespread.

On this subject, damn Merriam-Webster to the blackest pits of hell:  They're compounding the problem by returning the same page for both queries, which is just going to help convince people that they're the same fucking word.  And I don't have a subscription to the OED....

(Does anyone know a non-subscription online English dictionary that does NOT simply forward to dictionary.reference.com?)

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UPDATE (thanks janetmiles for pointing me at OneLook):  The Cambridge Dictionary of American English, for one, has separate and distinct listings for brake and break, and is quite clear on the understanding that the latter is NOT a device for stopping a vehicle.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Curious. What are the URLs to the two result pages? When I go to m-w.com and search for break or brake, both queries drop me onto the same dictionary.reference.com page. The URLs differ in the query word, but it's the same page with the same content.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=break&x=0&y=0

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=brake&x=0&y=0

-Ogre

Curiouser and curiouser.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's odd and interesting that the same query that, for you, stays on m-w.com dumps me onto dictionary.reference.com instead, the same as dictionary.com does.

It's also odd and interesting that the m-w.com page lists as its main entry for 'brake' the archaic past of 'break', as in "Then toke he hys Staffe, and over his Legge he brake yt."