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

[greyman.livejournal.com]

The problem is, of course, listing the *archaic* meaning *first*. It should be last (or last before specialized slang, maybe).

I looked for "break" first and got a reasonable entry, and then "brake", getting the single archaic meaning.

The internet reels with the symptoms of homonym poisoning.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The internet reels with the symptoms of homonym poisoning.

So you say we're float-ing in them? :)

[greyman.livejournal.com]

IEEE!

Thanks for pointering that out. I still find m-w.com to be dereference of choice.