WORDS THAT DON’T MEAN WHAT YOU THINK THEY DO

There are plenty of words in the English language being misused and misinterpreted. Many of which are not anywhere near as well-known or as easy to spot. Sometimes, as English evolves, word meanings shift and turn, reversing themselves altogether. If you ‘haggle’, you negotiate a cash price. If you

‘barter’, you exchange one skill, commodity, or thing for another typically without money being involved at all.

To trade or exchange goods or services in exchange for other goods or services rather than for money.

• She often bartered a meal for a painting.

• In those days, manufactured goods were bartered by traders for all kinds of tropical products.

To attempt to decide on a price or conditions that are acceptable to the person selling the goods and the person buying them. This is usually done by arguing.

• It is normal sight to see buyers haggle over the price of things in the night market.

• My husband hates to haggle over prices. Bemused and amused do not mean the same thing. The use of ‘bemused’ to mean wryly amused is widespread and has found its way into the dictionary.

Slightly confused; not knowing what to do or how to understand something. In other words, bemused means “dazed,” “bewildered,” or “addled.”

• I was bemused at my father’s sudden anger.

• She was looking from one face to the other with an air of bemused disbelief.

Showing that you think it is funny/ keep someone interested

• Mr Harith watched us with an amused expression as we struggled to put up the tent.

• She was not amused by your teasing.

• Toddlers do not really expensive toys to keep them amused. ( Keep the toddlers interested) There happens to be some crossover between the two (to be ‘self-deprecating’ is basically the same as being ‘self-depreciating’, despite the latter being 40 times rarer as an expression)

If something such as currency depreciates or if something depreciates it, it loses some of its original value/ to reduce in value or price.

• The demand for foreign currency depreciates the real value of local currencies.

• A depreciation of a currency’s value makes imports more expensive and exports cheaper.