Words with A Hairline Difference

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

03 February 2026

A few years ago, I mailed a piece to a leading British daily. One of my sentences was: Certain religious texts must be emended. When the piece appeared, I noticed at once that the word   ' emended ' was changed to ' amended.' A tad exasperated, I immediately mailed the editor-in-chief of the broadsheet that my original syntax was correct and it ought to have been ‘emended ', not ' amended.' The erudite and extremely humble editor-in-chief mailed back that he was a bit confused about the word ' emend' as 'amend ' was more in vogue. I explained that ' emend ' is used when texts are anointed, explained and (re)phrased. In fine, laws are amended, but texts are emended. To further elaborate, to amend is to make a change to something, often with the aim of improving it or correcting it. It's commonly used in the context of legal documents or statements. On the other hand, emend refers specifically to the process of revising text to correct errors. It's most often used in the editorial and publishing world. He got it and apologised.

Here lies the beauty of a language. The practitioners of English, especially, the native speakers must be aware of these subtle alterations in orthography to use a word for which French novelist Gustave Flaubert (pronounced as Flaubeau) coined an apposite term, mot juste. ' Words with a hairline difference in orthography enrich a language,' wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein. Do you know, a rare English word ' irenic ' (pacifist or peace-loving/ aiming or aimed at peace) is often changed to ' ironic' by the greenhorn copy editors across the world? Or ' grate' (sounding irritatingly and naggingly harsh on ears) is often rephrased as ' great '! 'Wont' (one's customary behaviour) often becomes 'want'! Literary, 'wont' means, " (of a person) in the habit of doing something; accustomed. For example, " He was wont to arise at 5.30 every morning. " 

Unkempt (only for the dishevelled hair) is more often than not confounded with 'unkept' (untidy/promise, assignment not honoured). So, you can't say: He has unkept hair. You ought to say: He has unkempt hair, but his room is unkept or he unkept his promise/vow.

A 'puritan' is often used to connote a 'purist' as if both the words are same and connote the same meaning. Sorry, they ain't. A 'puritan' is a person who's ethically or morally tilted. Like, ' his puritanical views on family and marriage.' But a purist is someone different. He or she gives utmost importance to the traditional style and decorum. For example, ' T-20 cricket cannot please a purist' or ' Sunil Gavaskar's batting was a purist's delight.'  In today's parlance, rather than lingo, a grammar-Nazi (though I abhor this ridiculous term) is a purist, a hardcore purist at that.

Now comes the word ' specious.' It means misleading or plausible: Specious arguments. Spacious as you know is commodious. The point is, subtleties in a language must be learnt, assimilated and imbibed. All languages have such deft terms which may sound similar, but aren't homonyms either. In classical Urdu's danakashi (eating or taking a meal) is jokingly pronounced as danakushi (bird-watching, ogling at lovelies and beauties or plain baterbaazi in the parlance of Central India). Hindi's veerangana (a valiant woman) is often spelt or pronounced as ' vaarangana ' (a woman of questionable morals). Sanskrit's ' dwip' (elephant) and 'dweep' (island) sound similar, but connote altogether different meanings.

Pashto's Vaaziq (a person of integrity) can also mean a 'thief' (Vaazik). It's just the difference in ' kaaf ' and ' qaaf ' (not chhota kaaf or bada kaaf, it's an obnoxious way to distinguish) because ' qaaf ' is a fricative sound, whereas ' kaaf ' is lingual and also easier to pronounce.

Qasam (not 'kasam') and Khasam (Arabic for husband and also for an enemy! By the way, Is a husband woman's avowed foe??) sound similar when the latter is enunciated by a Dakhani speaker of Urdu (Gulbarga, Hyderabad and Bidar) who can't differentiate between ' qabra' (tomb) and ' khabar ' (news).

The Persian word ' shutur ' (camel: Shuturmurgh or ostrich because it looks like a camel) and shuttur (Persian for a gourmet) are written and pronounced almost similarly, but are different in connotations.

The bottom-line is: An ultra-fine difference lends exquisiteness to a language and we must learn as well as use that to create an audio-lingual effect. Your language will assume a rainbow of shades, hues and crispness.

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.

URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/words-hairline-difference-/d/138693

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