a weblog of wordplay by Eric Harshbarger
Front Hook: E
While my first front hook article, about ASTEROID, extolled the fact that the two words were in no way related, the example for the letter E takes a completely diffent tack. Today's front-hooked word means exactly the same thing as the beheaded word.E is for Evanish
If you look up EVANISH in a dictionary, the main definition is very likely just, "vanish".I'm always amused by words that mean the same thing but have spellings that seems to indicate people just couldn't leave well enough alone. Maybe VANISH just didn't sound fancy enough for someone, or maybe the pronouncers of EVANISH just got a little lax. Or, quite possibly there are more etymologically subtle reasons.
Whatever the case, try saying EVANISH instead of VANISH next time and see if you feel a little more upstanding.
(I also really like the word EVANISH because reading it makes me think that something is being describe as "somewhat like this person named Evan"...)
-- Eric
[25 August 2014]
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