Word Confusion: Calendar vs Calender vs Colander

Posted July 5, 2018 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of 14 April 2021

I get it, really I do. We’re all pressed for time, and some characters are really “pressed” when they enter events in their calender. Sure hope they put a tarp down with all the blood that’ll pour out like water through a colander!

They might want to calendar in a friend to be standing by and get them to the hospital in this trio of heterographs (a subset of homophone).

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 noir for you from either end.

If you found this post on “Calendar vs Calender vs Colander” interesting, consider tweeting it to your friends. Subscribe to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

Return to top

Calendar Calender Colander
Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: calendar, calender, and colander; Collins Dictionary: calendar; Merriam-Webster: calendar; Oxford Dictionaries: calender and colander

Twelve months worth of calendars on a turquoise background

Calendar by Demiahl is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay.


Calender at the historical Verla groundwood and board mill (Finland)

Calender by I, Alexei Kouprianov is under the CC-BY-SA-3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

An old calender at the historical Verla groundwood and board mill in Finland.

Four colanders in orange, lime green, and white are filled with vegetables on a granite counter top

Produce Stand by shorts and longs (<https://visualhunt.com/author/109425>) is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via VisualHunt.

Some cheerful-looking colanders filled with veggies.

Part of Grammar:
Adjective; Noun; Verb, transitive

Plural for the noun and third person present verb: calendars
Past tense or past participle: calendared
Gerund or present participle: calendaring

Noun 1, 2; Verb, transitive 3

Plural for the noun and third person present verb: calenders
Past tense or past participle: calendered
Gerund or present participle: calendering

Noun
Plural: colanders

Variant spelling: cullender

Adjective:
Such as that appearing on certain popular, conventional calendars

Noun:
A chart or series of pages showing the days, weeks, and months of a particular year, or giving particular seasonal information

  • A system by which the beginning, length, and subdivisions of the year are fixed
  • A timetable of special days or events of a specified kind or involving a specified group
  • [North American] A datebook

A list or register, especially one arranged chronologically, as of social events, appointments, work to be done, or cases to be tried in a court

A list, in the order to be considered, of bills, resolutions, etc., brought before a legislative body

[Obsolete] A guide or example

[British] A university catalog

Verb, transitive:
Enter (something) in a calendar, register, or timetable

Noun:
A machine in which cloth or paper is pressed by rollers to glaze or smooth it 1

A machine for impregnating fabric with rubber, as in the manufacture of automobile tires

[In Islamic countries; also qalandar] One of an order of Sufic mendicant dervishes founded in the 14th century 2

Verb, transitive:
Press in a calender 3

To subject (material) to such a process

A metal or plastic container with a perforated bottom, for draining and straining foods after washing or cooking
Examples:
Adjective:
I love humorous calendar art.

She was a calendar girl from way back.

Noun:
I’ve got to get this into my calendar, or I’ll forget!

The Chinese calendar had a year-length of 354 days with twelve months, and in the nineteenth year it added seven months.

Introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar which had been established in 46 BC by Julius Caesar.

The Hindu and Jewish calendars are both lunisolar calendars with the former noting Hindu and most Indian festivals and the latter used to determine religious holidays.

The Muslim calendar is a lunar one used by Muslims and reckoned from AD 622.

Check the college calendar for the next game.

They couldn’t get us on the court calendar until next month.

Where’s your calendar?

There was a calendar on the wall above, with the important dates circled.

It is one of the British sporting calendar’s most prestigious events.

Franklin joined her and the children whenever his crowded calendar allowed.

They tried to make a calendar of Spain’s festivals.

Keep a calendar of necessary repair appointments to track service histories.

Verb, transitive:
Should we calendar the meeting now?

Work is busy, so actually calendaring out my schedule helps me to elbow in some room between appointments to maintain my own sanity.

It was at their discretion whether to index or calendar the records.

And then calendar some time for yourself, not just once a year, but on a regular basis.

Indeed, the recently calendared Scottish records indicate that Anna was “engaged in startling vigorous political activity” from 1590 to 1603.

If Pete doesn’t calendar everything, none of it will happen.

My calendar confirms that this was calendared as an 8am appointment, Max.

Noun:
“In 1836, Edwin M. Chaffee, of the Roxbury India Rubber Company, patented a four-roll calender to make rubber sheets” Wikipedia).

“The purpose of a calender is to make the paper smooth and glossy for printing and writing, as well as of a consistent thickness for capacitors that use paper as their dielectric membrane” Wikipedia).

A calender is used to put the glazed finish on chintz, the watered effect in moire, and vinyls.

When a uniform thickness is required for coating Lithium-ion cells or polishing magnetic tapes, use a calender.

Calender is a title given to a saint who is at a very high level of spirituality.

A calender advances stage by stage into the Being.

Verb, transitive:
All calendered films contain materials that are listed by FDA in the Code of Federal Regulations 21 CFR.

The calendering process provides a uniformity of thickness that surpasses the uniformity achieved by extrusion.

The magnetic media then is calendered in a stack of rollers to improve the packing of the magnetic pigment and smoothness of the media, again giving a boost in the electromagnetic performance of the media.

The existence of separate groups of ‘merchants’ concerned with the organization of ginning, spinning, weaving, calendering, and dyeing shows the development of a significant degree of division of labour.

After calendering, the media is slit into the desired tape width.

The facing webs, with the elastomeric fibers between them, are calendered together thus adhering the facing webs together via contact adhesion with the elastomeric fibers.

Later refinements included calendered surfaces produced by passing sheets through rollers.

Always drain cooked pasta in a colander to get rid of excess water.

As soon as Marie gets home with her fruit and vegetables, she rinses them and lets them drain in her colander.

Strain the marinade through a colander to eliminate the chunky bits.

The best way to reheat noodles is to pour boiling water over them in a colander, then allow them to drain.

Line a colander or sieve with cheesecloth or gauze and set it over a bowl.

The secret is to bake the pumpkin first, then mash it through a colander, and use it like mashed apples in a pie.

I gold leafed a colander before turning it into a ceiling fixture for my kitchen light.

Place the grated flesh in a colander over a bowl and then use a spoon to squeeze out as much moisture as possible.

Place a colander over the top of a bowl and pour the mussels and clams into this, shaking well to catch all of the cooking juices.

Pour bulgur/onion mixture into a large colander or sieve lined with cheesecloth and press lightly to remove any liquid.

Copper saucepan lids, ancient colanders, and long-handled toasting forks hang from the buttery yellow walls and beamed ceiling.

When the beans are ready, remove the herbs, and drain the beans into the colander, reserving their cooking liquid in the bowl beneath.

The screenplay, which has more holes in it than a colander, isn’t the only problem, although it is by far the most obvious one.

Tip it into a colander, gently press out the excess liquid, and then return it to the pan and toss with the butter and some seasoning.

Derivatives:
Adjective: calendarial, calendarian, calendaric, calendric, calendrical, uncalendared
Noun: calendaring
Verb, transitive: calendarise [British], calendarize
Noun: calenderer
History of the Word:
Middle English from the Old French calendier, from the Latin kalendarium meaning account book, which is from kalendae. Late 13th century in the surnames of persons who used such a machine.

  1. 1510s, from the Old French calandreur, which is from the Medieval Latin calendra meaning cloth-pressing machine, so called from the shape of the machine used, from the Latin cylindrus, which is from the Greek kylindros meaning roll, cylinder.
  2. From the Persian kalandar.
  3. From the Middle French, 1510s, calandre, the machine name, from the Medieval Latin calendra. See 1.
Late Middle English, 1400–50, colyndore, perhaps (with nasalization) from the Old Provençal colador, which is from the Medieval Latin cōlātōrium and equivalent to the Latin cōlā(re) meaing to strain as a verbal derivative of cōlum (strainer) + –tōrium (-tory; a suffix affixed to Latin loanwords).

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 more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

Return to top

Pinterest Photo Credits:

In Black Raspberries, <https://visualhunt.com/f2/photo/2743866040/e2458da0ef/>, by EraPhernalia Vintage . . . [‘playin’ hook-y’] ;o, <https://visualhunt.com/author/d59322>, which is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license via VisualHunt, I created a right side, so it would slip into the Calender Machine (background removed) by Cjp24, and for the more interesting background, I created a 17% transparency and adjusted the perspective on Sousse Mosaic Calendar by Ad Meskens, both of which are under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. I then adjusted the perspective in Photoshop for 2015 Calendar, <https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=98606&picture=2015-calendar>, by Karen Arnold, <https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/browse-author.php?a=32495>, and in the public domain via Public Domain Pictures.net, so it would appear to be pressed out from the calender.

Kathy's signature