Revised as of
8 July 2023
I am never loath in my loathing for poorly proofread stories. And don’t cha just loathe self-righteous people like me?
One trick you might want to use with loath and loathe is to remember the a in the first stands for adjective but adding the e turns it into a verb.
Yep, this Word Confusion pair are 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.
If you found this post on “Loath versus Loathe” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Loath | Loathe |
|---|---|
Fat Calico Cat Lying on Her Back, Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia, is Famartin‘s own work is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Kitty is loath to exercise. |
Hagnaby Road, Old Bolingbroke by Dave Hitchborne is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Love it or loathe it. Winter is inevitable. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective
Alternative spelling: loth |
Verb, transitive
Third person present verb: loathes |
Reluctant
|
Feel intense dislike, hatred, or disgust for |
| Examples: | |
| I was loath to leave.
Henry was loath to admit his mistakes. Then again, Henry was nothing loath to admire himself. Tiffany was loth to get out of bed in the mornings. |
She loathed him on sight.
Jeannie loathed her history professor. Mary loathed Henry’s self-absorption. I loathe people who stab others in the back. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: loathsome, overloath, unloath, unloathed Adverb: loathly, unloathly Noun: loather, loathing,loathness, lothness |
|
| History of the Word: | |
| Old English lāth meaning hostile, spiteful is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch leed and the German Leid meaning sorrow. | Old English lāthian is of Germanic origin and related to loath. |
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 Loath versus Loathe
Apple Dictionary.com
Pinterest Photo Credits:
I Hate This Job by Ү is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via VisualHunt.
