nobody asked…

Sometimes we get on a roll. You know, jump on a hot streak where nothing can go wrong for a few minutes. Then,

.

W H A M !

Someone or something hits you upside the head and sends you spinning uncontrollably through space and time back to someone else’s tortured and distorted vision of reality. The reality of just how common and ordinary and fallible you really are. How human. Oh, the piteous shame of it all… Gasp…

I could pull a Republican style cover-up and just sweep it under the carpet. Or claim that my etymological faux pas was really an embedded test to find out who in my vast audience is paying attention. Which reader has the smarts and intelligence and sharp eye to find camouflaged errors? And the audacity to bring their findings to my attention…. Gasp number 2…

No, I’ll come clean and fess up. Might be good for my soul, should I ever decide to acquire one. On May 26, just three short days ago, I wrote a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek post titled Shattered Dreams… , which contained these lines:

At the age of 7 or 8, I did not connect the dots relating education to occupation. My educational goal of Spelling was not complimentary to what I really wanted to do when I grew up. So what? That disconnect was years away…

Now, most days I know when to use complimentary vs. complementary. On May 26, I had an attack of the stupids while writing and proofing the post. Looking back at the usage in the context of the surrounding sentences, my complimentary should have been complementary.

To complement is to provide something felt to be lacking or needed; it is often applied to putting together two things, each of which supplies what is lacking in the other, to make a complete whole… [Ref. dictionary.com]

While double-checking myself over at dictionary.com, I also discovered that though they are two separate words with different spellings and meanings, these two homophonic words share some common roots and meanings. In fact one of the obsolete or archaic entries show compliment and complement to be synonymous. Ah ha! I knew I didn’t err in the spelling (How embarassing would that be in a post bragging about spelling ability?), but in the usage. If I admit to being obsolete and archaic (Guilty as charged…), then perhaps the usage is not wrong, just born of antiquity.

[With tongue firmly out of cheek, I offer sincere thanks and admiration for the bearer of the news that I might have made a mistake. Fear not, fair lady, I do not shoot messengers. However, I have fired my chief copy editor for allowing this controversial situation to develop. Job applicants may submit resumes along with salary requirements and chocolate offerings to my email address as shown on my Contact page. - WR]