Word Confusion: Aid versus Aide

Posted May 4, 2015 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
17 June 2023

It was disconcerting to read of the aide that was being given to a group of refugees. Now, I’m not sure if he (or she??) was being handed over to be a meal or a servant. Either way, it was grim.

If they’d said aid, that I would have understood. ‘Cause, ya know, refugees need help. And that’s what aid is, assistance, support, saving someone’s bacon . . . not being the bacon in this pair of heterographs!

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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Aid	Aide
Finnish Traffic Sign No. 715 modified by Antti Palsola is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — The Finnish put up first aid street signs.	GCC/JMHS Nurse’s Aide is courtesy of the Germanna Community College is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.
Part of Grammar:
Abbreviation ¹, ²; Noun ³; Verb ³, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: aids Gerund: aiding Third person present verb: aids Past tense or past participle: aided Present participle: aiding	Abbreviation ¹; Noun ² Plural for the noun: aides
Abbreviation: Agency for International Development ¹ Artificial insemination by donor ² Noun: Help, typically of a practical nature ³ Financial or material help given to a country or area in need A person or thing that is a source of help or assistance [Historical] A grant of subsidy or tax to a king Verb, intransitive: Help, assist, or support someone or something in the achievement of something ³ Verb, transitive: Help, assist, or support someone or something in the achievement of something ³ Promote or encourage something	Abbreviation: Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment ¹ Noun: An assistant to an important person, especially to a political leader ² A military officer acting as a confidential assistant to a senior officer
Examples:
Abbreviation: AID “work advances US national security and economic prosperity, demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience” (Power). AID is “a procedure in which a fine catheter (tube) is inserted through the cervix (the natural opening of the uterus) into the uterus (the womb) to deposit a sperm sample from a donor other than the woman’s mate directly into the uterus” (Stöppler). Noun: He saw the pilot slumped in his cockpit and went to his aid. Within six weeks, he was walking with the aid of a walker. They flew in 700,000 tons of food aid. The Red Cross sends in aid convoys. The concert was in aid of the earthquakes in Asia. Exercise is an important aid to recovery after heart attacks. Computers can be a useful teaching aid. Verb, intransitive: The heel of the shoe was slanted to aid in climbing hilly terrain. The church aided in the effort to improve services to the elderly. It aids in the prevention of tooth decay. Verb, transitive: Women were aided in childbirth by midwives. Diet and exercise aid healthy skin. Townspeople aided the prisoners’ attempt to escape.	Abbreviation: AIDE “was initially developed as a free replacement for Tripwire licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License” (AIDE). AIDE is “an open source file and directory integrity checking utility, with Oracle Linux Automation Manager to automate checking configuration inconsistencies across a large number of hosts” (United). Noun: He’s a presidential aide now. Hospitals are using a lot of nurse’s aides these days. Students interested in political studies sometimes apply to be congressional aides. He’s acting as General Marshall’s aide-de-camp as of last Thursday.
Derivatives:
Adjective: aidful, aidless, unaided Adverb: unaidedly Noun: aider
History of the Word:
November 3, 1961 Ca. 1461 the idea of human artificial insemination was discussed. In 1784, Lazzaro Spallanzan performed the first artificial insemination in a dog. Late Middle English from the Old French aide (noun), aidier (verb), based on the Latin adjuvare, from ad- (towards) + juvare (to help).	AIDE was originally written by Rami Lehti and Pablo Virolainen in 1999. Its first known use was in 1670, from the French aide de camp, meaning literally, camp assistant Aide alone was first used in 1777.

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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.

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Resources for Aid versus Aide

“Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment.” Wikipedia.com. 18 Feb 2022. Web. 29 Aug 2022. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Intrusion_Detection_Environment>.

Apple Dictionary.com

The Free Dictionary: aid

Ombelet, W and J. Van Robays. “Artificial Insemination History: hurdles and milestones.” National Library of Medicine. 2015. Web. 29 Aug 2022. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4498171/>.

Power, Samantha. “What We Do.” USAID. 12 Aug 2022. Web. 29 Aug 2022. <https://www.usaid.gov>.

Stöppler, Melissa Conrad. “Medical Definition of AID (artificial insemination by donor). 29 Mar 2021. Web. 29 Aug 2022. <https://www.medicinenet.com/aid_artificial_insemination_by_donor/definition.htm>.

“Using Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment with Oracle Linux Automation Manager.” Oracle.com. May 2022. Web. 29 Aug 2022. <https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/linux/using-advanced-intrusion-detection-environment.pdf>.

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