Revised as of 11 April 2021
It’s an heterographic trio, providing you don’t include the third person present verb, does, which is pronounced differently.
As for the “inspiration”, I couldn’t help laughing over the “doughs grazing near the stream” and later in that same story when “the doze leapt over the fence”. Yeah, pretty hard to believe the writer was so inattentive to the proper word for more than one female deer.
Nor will spellcheck help as both words are correctly spelled.
You may also want to explore “Dew vs Do vs Due” or “Dose versus Doze.
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.
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| Does | Doughs | Doze |
|---|---|---|
| Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: doe | ||
Doe, a Deer by Mickyboyc is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — A whole herd of does. |
P9150139.jpg by sun_summer is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Two doughs sitting side by side. |
Rock a Bye Baby by Lawrence Harman is under the CC BY-ND license, via Flickr. — Baby is a’doze. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Plural noun for more than one female deer Singular: doe |
Noun Plural: doughs |
Noun; Verb, intransitive
Plural for the noun and third person present verb: dozes |
| Several female deer
A female deer
|
Several uncooked breads
Noun: A thick, malleable mixture of flour and liquid, used for baking into bread or pastry Any similar soft, pasty mass [Informal] Money |
To nap
Noun: A short, light sleep Verb, intransitive:
|
| Examples: | ||
| We spotted a herd of does this morning.
The does are digging a lot, so we think they’re pregnant with baby bunnies. Does usually give birth to one joey at a time. Rats are baby-making machines, and the does mate around 500 times in a six-hour period. |
We need to mix up several doughs this morning.
The oven can cook thinner doughs but not thicker ones. Here’s how to knead yeast doughs like focaccia. Well, he does have lots of dough. |
Noun: Grandpa fell into a light doze. I’m off for a doze. Verb, intransitive: He found his mother dozing by the fire. I dozed off for a few seconds. Never doze off when you’re driving. Aunt Mary dozes when she watches TV. He always seems to doze off during the sermon. |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Adjective: doe-eyed Noun: doeskin |
Adjective: dough-like, doughier, doughiest, doughy Noun: doughiness |
Adjective: dozier, doziest, dozy Adverb: dozily Noun: dozer, doziness |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Old English dā is a female deer of unknown origin, perhaps a Celtic loan-word cf. from the Cornish da meaning fallow deer or the Old Irish dam meaning ox or the Welsh dafad meaning sheep. | Old English dāg is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch deeg and the German Teig, from an Indo-European root meaning knead. | Mid-17th century in the sense stupefy, bewilder, or make drowsy and may perhaps be related to the Danish døse meaning make drowsy. |
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.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Tour of Thailand-11, <https://visualhunt.com/f2/photo/6141974901/fb1ccd1810/>, by Edsel L and #13 Dough Ready for Second Rising, <https://visualhunt.com/f2/photo/4714685395/9c60ab0765/>, by treehouse1977 are under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license while Dozing Cat in a Bowl, <https://visualhunt.com/photo/65058/>, by dannyworking and Wildlife, <https://visualhunt.com/photo/59273/>, by Unsplash, <https://visualhunt.com/p/unsplash/>, are under the CC0 1.0 license; all are via Foter.com.
