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?)

---

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

[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."