Revised as of
14 July 2023
You have to be creative to be a writer, to weighed through . . . I mean, to wade through all the research, to have weighed out the perfect words . . . get the show down, and pull your readers in. Make them weigh in and vote for your story with their pocketbooks.
And knowing the difference between this pair of heterographs will go toward weighing the scales in your favor.
There’s a post, “Wae vs Way vs Weigh” that explores the noun weigh. If you’re interested in getting nautical, check out “Under Way vs Underway vs Under Weigh“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my waya 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.
If you found this post on “Wade versus Weighed” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Wade | Weighed |
|---|---|
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29 SAM 4475 by Alec Perkins from Hoboken, USA, is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Makes me want to go for a wade . . .! |
Transformation Picture is MiTaEm‘s own work is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — He weighed himself . . . and decided to drop that weight. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: wade Third person present verb: wades |
Morpheme: weigh
Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: weighs |
| Noun: An act of wading Verb, intransitive:
To play in water To walk through water, snow, sand, or any other substance that impedes free motion or offers resistance to movement [Obsolete] To go or proceed Verb, transitive: To pass through or cross by wading
To wade a stream |
Verb, intransitive: Find out how heavy (someone or something) is, typically using scales
Assess the nature or importance of, especially with a view to a decision or action
Verb, transitive:
Assess the nature or importance of, especially with a view to a decision or action
|
| Examples: | |
| Noun: We had a lovely wade, didn’t we, dinkums? We went for a wade in the shallows. Verb, intransitive: The professor has to wade through that stack of papers before tomorrow morning. He waded into the yelling, fighting crowd. Nicola waded in and grabbed the baby. It was such a chore, wading through all that mud. Verb, transitive: We all waded through the swirling waters, choked with downed trees and carcasses to get to the untouched bank. Let’s go wading in the crick! |
Verb, intransitive: His unhappiness would weigh on my mind so much. The evidence weighed heavily against him. Her guilt weighed on her. Verb, transitive: The vendor weighed the vegetables. When the twins were born, they weighed ten pounds. She picked up the brick and weighed it in her right hand. She weighed out two ounces of loose tobacco. The consequences of the move would need to be very carefully weighed. They weighed the benefit against the risk. The evidence weighed heavily against him. The men have weighed anchor. She weighed her words before she speak. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: wadable, wadeable, unwaded, unwading | Noun: weighing |
| Phrasal Verb | |
| weighed in weighed in at weighed in with weighed into weighed out weighed someone down weighed someone up weighed something up |
|
| History of the Word: | |
| Old English wadan meaning move onward, also penetrate, is from a Germanic word meaning go (through), from an Indo-European root shared by the Latin vadere meaning go, as in vade mecum. | Old English wegan is of Germanic origin and related to wagon and wain, and to the Dutch wegen meaning weigh and the German bewegen meaning move, from an Indo-European root shared by the Latin vehere meaning convey.
The early senses included transport from one place to another and raise up. |
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 Wade versus Weighed
Apple Dictionary.com
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Weigh Station 1 mile, Wakulla County US98 WB, is Michael Rivera‘s own work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license and La Rouvre is a personal picture taken by Vincent. Both are via Wikimedia Commons. Red-and-White Freight Truck and White Trailer Truck are via PickPik. These last three are in the public domain.
