Can I confess a pet peeve?
I am not the world’s greatest speller since I had a seizure a few years back. It was intense enough that “something” happened in parts of my brain, and certain aspects of language processing were damaged. I’ve also gotten lazy in my old age, and less likely to correct a typo if everyone will know what I meant anyway.
However, in spite of having to occasionally consult a spell-check or dictionary, and in spite of my general laziness, I remain very annoyed at people who misspell certain things.
Like the words “altar” and “alter”. The noun altar is something you find in church (in many churches you go to the altar to pray); the verb alter is to change something (you might alter (resize) clothing or neuter your cat); and the compound noun alter ego might a secondary personality.
A lot of people get altar and alter confused, and say, “come to the alter”. I’m not sure why that bugs me so much, but it does.
Better to say, “Come to the altar, and let God alter what ails you…”
November 17th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
We have a pet peeve in common! I can spot that every time as well.
November 17th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
It must be pretty common, because I see it all the time; and the few people I’ve had liberty to discuss it with really and truly have not known.