careen
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:34 pm
• CAREEN •
Printable Version
Pronunciation:
kê-reen
• Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning:
1. (Transitive) To turn (a ship) over on its side for cleaning and repairing.
2. (Intransitive) To rush headlong, swerving and tilting at high speed; to pitch or tilt to one side.
Notes: Today's Good Word was brought to Jon Freeman's attention listening to Carlotta's song "I'm Still Here" in Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In this song Carlotta croons that she has "careered from career to career". In singing so, Carlotta succumbs to a confusion of the noun career with today's word that has plagued US English speakers since at least 1923. Don't repeat Carlotta's mistake; help us obviate it altogether.
In Play: Today careen can mean racing at such a high speed as to barely maintain control of your vehicle: "When Randolph heard that Phil Anders was at Randolph's girl-friend's house, he went careening down the street on his bike like he was on fire." It can also mean to tilt or even pitch over: "Rick O'Shea turned the corner so fast, his car ran off the road, careened off a wall and overturned."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from the Middle French word carene "keel". French inherited this word from Latin karina "keel" which, used as a verb, meant "to keel (a ship)", that is, turn it on its keel. Karina originally meant "nutshell", though, which explains how the same original root (Proto-Indo-European kar-) ended up in English as hard. This sense is not too far removed from that of Greek kratos "strength, power", also from kar-, which we find in such words as democracy "power by the people", and various other '-cracies'. (We hope that today's contributor, Jon Freeman, didn't careen any in getting this Good Word to us.)
_________________
•The Good Dr. Goodword
(Feel free to "touch up" my sub-par HTML, JH.)
Printable Version
Pronunciation:
kê-reen
• Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning:
1. (Transitive) To turn (a ship) over on its side for cleaning and repairing.
2. (Intransitive) To rush headlong, swerving and tilting at high speed; to pitch or tilt to one side.
Notes: Today's Good Word was brought to Jon Freeman's attention listening to Carlotta's song "I'm Still Here" in Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In this song Carlotta croons that she has "careered from career to career". In singing so, Carlotta succumbs to a confusion of the noun career with today's word that has plagued US English speakers since at least 1923. Don't repeat Carlotta's mistake; help us obviate it altogether.
In Play: Today careen can mean racing at such a high speed as to barely maintain control of your vehicle: "When Randolph heard that Phil Anders was at Randolph's girl-friend's house, he went careening down the street on his bike like he was on fire." It can also mean to tilt or even pitch over: "Rick O'Shea turned the corner so fast, his car ran off the road, careened off a wall and overturned."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from the Middle French word carene "keel". French inherited this word from Latin karina "keel" which, used as a verb, meant "to keel (a ship)", that is, turn it on its keel. Karina originally meant "nutshell", though, which explains how the same original root (Proto-Indo-European kar-) ended up in English as hard. This sense is not too far removed from that of Greek kratos "strength, power", also from kar-, which we find in such words as democracy "power by the people", and various other '-cracies'. (We hope that today's contributor, Jon Freeman, didn't careen any in getting this Good Word to us.)
_________________
•The Good Dr. Goodword
(Feel free to "touch up" my sub-par HTML, JH.)