Revised as of
8 July 2023
I must confess my morale always goes up when I get fed a lovely dish of morels. Doesn’t do much for my moral choices about diet, but hey, a girl’s gotta eat!
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Moral | Morale | Morel |
|---|---|---|
Moral Compass by AvocetGEO is in the public domain, via Pixabay. |
Soldiers Raising Morale is courtesy of the Israel Defense Forces under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Morchella elata by Dan Molter (shroomydan) is through Mushroom Observer, a source for mycological images. It is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Black morels are mighty tasty. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Adjective; Noun
Plural for the noun: morals |
Noun
Plural: morale |
Noun
Plural: morels |
| Adjective: Concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character
Holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct Noun: [morals] A person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do |
The confidence, enthusiasm, and discipline of a person or group at a particular time | A widely distributed edible fungus that has a brown oval or pointed fruiting body with an irregular honeycombed surface bearing the spores |
| Examples: | ||
| Adjective: The moral dimensions of medical intervention. Do not make a moral judgment on others. An individual’s ambitions may get out of step with the general moral code. The moral obligation of society is to do something about the inner city’s problems. Moral philosophy is also known as the philosophy of ethics. He prides himself on being a highly moral and ethical person. Noun: The corruption of public morals is depressing. They believe addicts have no morals and cannot be trusted. |
Their morale was high.
It’s important to keep troop morale high during war. The promise of a bonus at the end of the year can enhance employee morale. All these layoffs are killing employee morale. |
A mushroom, morels are tasty in risottos and pasta dishes.
Morels have a rich, intense flavor when fresh with a nuttier, more buttery flavor when dried. Morels are delicious when simply sautéed in butter. |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Adjective: antimoral, hypermoral, moralless, overmoral Adverb: hypermorally Noun: morality, moralities |
||
| History of the Word: | ||
| Late Middle English from the Latin moralis, which is from mos, mor-, meaning custom. The plural would be mores or morals. | Mid-18th century from the French moral, respelled to preserve the final stress in pronunciation. | Late 17th century from the French morille, which is from the Dutch morilje and related to the German Morchel meaning fungus. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Moral vs Morale vs Morel
Apple Dictionary.com
Pinterest Photo Credits
Apples in a Basket is Oxfordian Kissuth’s own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; The Scream is by Edvard Munch; White Morels is Gzirk’s own work; and, Dale Clark poses as Johnny Depp, in Pirates of the Caribbean by Carol M. Highsmith. All four images are via Wikimedia Commons with the last three images in the public domain.
