Thursday, March 10. 2005

How to Spell Lesson 101

Good afternoon, earnest students. This entry is to feed your minds with something useful other than my usual prattle.

ahem

Today, we shall learn how to spell a very useful word. A word that is most commonly used and yet most difficult to remember.

That word is DIARRHEA - Excessive and frequent evacuation of watery feces, usually indicating gastrointestinal distress or disorder. (Taken from Dictionary.com).

It's very easy to remember how to spell it actually. After all these years of struggling to write it over email or the coffee table, I finally cinched it. I feel like jumping out of my bath tub and shouting 'Eureka!!', only I don't have a bath tub and I'm sitting in my office, looking very prim and proper like everyone else.

Ok, back to the topic on hand. Here's the tip:

The formula is diar (like diary) and rhea (someone's name) = diarrhea

But wait...there is a hitch to this Coolcat spelling method though... you'll never look at anyone named Rhea the same way again.
Posted by coolcat in Learn English The CC Way at Permalink | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)
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*Yeah.. I'll never look at anyone named Rhea with a straight face again.. grin snicker

Incidentaly the "qualifying" password for this comment is "movementxx" hmmm Bowel Movement? how appropriate.. wink
#1 Anonymous on 2005-03-11 05:56 (Reply)
*Heheh, it's a sign! A sign that it's indeed the correct way to spell this tormenting word.
#2 Anonymous on 2005-03-11 05:58 (Reply)
*Hehee... this is such a weird entry.
#3 Anonymous on 2005-03-11 06:20 (Reply)
*I can't spell all the difficult words,especially those wierds one, and i am too lazy to remember them also.
#4 Anonymous on 2005-03-11 06:26 (Reply)
*Hate to burst your bubble, especially after you learnt to spell this.
It's spelled DIARRHEA in the USA. But the Brits spell it DIARRHOEA. So, you'll find many docs in M'sia doing that too (most are British-trained).
It's actually of Latin origin. From the words 'Diai-rey Ar'. Which means 'To make smelly soup.'
And if you actually believe that, you're more gullible that I imagined :-)
#5 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 02:12 (Reply)
*James - What to do, this is how I release stress.

Mrkiasu - Hi there! Me not big on difficult words either but over the years have come up with some cool ways of remembering long words like 'laboratory'. The key is to associate it with something or to make it weird enough so that you can remember it easily.

Vagus - Wei, you think me gullible ah? Anyway, me very happy to finally learned the American way of spelling it. Shall forego the British version - too brain-taxing for words :-P
#6 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 02:27 (Reply)
*Vagus is right about the spelling. I just mentally pronounce it like it's spelt in order to remember how to write the silly thing :-P The other word I really hate to attempt to spell is manoeuvre!!!!
#7 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 03:30 (Reply)
*Call me bias but I believe in British English as the proper English. To me, American English has destroyed the English language, easier or not. It's just my opinion.
#8 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 04:02 (Reply)
*By the way, how come your timing on this blog is one hour slow? I just entered the entry at 4:05pm but the time stated is 3:02pm
#9 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 04:04 (Reply)
*Irene - Rote learning, eh? For this particular word, no matter how many times I tried to 'rote' it, it just doesn't work. Until yesterday, that is :-P

Jo - Hee, different strokes for different folks. Me will go for the easiest way to spell. Hey, thanks for the note on the time diff. Methinks it's because my host is located in Aust and it's daylight savings now. Have adjusted it accordingly but when the daylight savings ends, your comments will be then one hour faster.
#10 coolcat (Homepage) on 2005-03-12 06:16 (Reply)
*British English.. diarrhoea.. i think I can remember it now.. :-)

Yeah we know why you like the British.. some affiliation & association eh? ;-)

Vagus thanks for the info... :-)
#11 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 09:39 (Reply)
*Yea, it's all very confusing for us too. Diarrhea/Diarrhoea, Esophagus/Oesophagus, Edema/Oedema. Grrr.
Wasn't sure how gullible you'd be, coolcat, but it was sure worth a try ;-)
#12 Anonymous on 2005-03-12 13:19 (Reply)

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