Lately, my ever so brilliant friends have been using phrases like 'my boyfriend is such a boring fart, synomymous with getting old'
as funny as the two phrases in the sentence are, (and as appreciative i am of what and how we use phrases in pop culture...!) i dont know which word in the first phrase is synonymous with which in the second. i smile though, and get the point.
i scrolled through a few articles and reminded myself of the differences between synonyms, homonyms (the first substring=4 of that word rings dead homonymy to me!!!)
a homonym, put simply is one of a group of words that are spelled the same, sound the same but can be used differently for example gay(happy and cheery) and gay(homosexual.... hehehe!)
a heteronym is one of a group of words that are spelled the same but have a different pronounciation, e.g. desert(leave and wander off) and desert (the arid thingy)
a synonym (thats the easy one) simply put, different words with same meaning for example efficient and effective.
please ask me why i chose this topic to blog, its just that..... its almost satirical the way these words are used vis-à-vis the raging debate going on in ugandas tabloids of late.
take a wild guess...
and oh! could you tell all your linguistically challennged friends to stop using the adverb apparently when they really mean to use actually for example 'ah, i am apparently studying Social sciences at campus' ....aaaarrrrggh! i quiver, oh how i quiver!!
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