It was actually paean and paeon that caught my attention. I was curious as to what the difference was, and it’s pretty darn minute.
A paean is a song of praise while the paeon is used to construct the paean. You know, one of those rules of poetry.
Peon is what came up while I was exploring, and it made sense to include this working class person, as who is more likely to need a paean to make their workday easier?
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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| Paean | Paeon | Peon |
|---|---|---|
Apollo, Hyacinthus and Cyparis Singing and Playing by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — A paean for Apollo. |
Delphichymn was posted by en. user Ziggur and is in the public domain, via Wikipedia.org. — An example of paeon in a paean to Apollo*. * I’m taking liberties, as it’s impossible to find a visual of a paeon. |
Castigo a peones, 1862, Troncoso, Angostura, by E. Cachoirs and E. Chaigneau is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun
Plural: paeans Alternative spelling: pean [US] |
Noun
Plural: paeons |
Noun
Plural: peons, peones |
A song of praise or triumph
A hymn of invocation or thanksgiving to Apollo or some other ancient Greek deity |
[Classical prosody] A metrical foot of one long syllable and three short syllables in any order. | A Spanish-American day laborer or unskilled farm worker
[In South and Southeast Asia] A low-ranking worker such as an attendant, orderly, or assistant Any person of low social status, especially one who does work regarded as menial or unskilled
[In India and Sri Lanka] A messenger, attendant, or orderly
A bullfighter who uses banderillas (darts thrust into a bull’s neck or shoulders)
|
| Examples: | ||
| He sang a paean of praise for the great poets.
His books are paeans to combat. The film received a paean from the critics. |
Still, the first paeon can be heard as a regular, distinct element, especially in the first version of the poem.
Take notice that the outriding feet are not to be confused with dactyls or paeons, though sometimes the line might be scanned either way. Rarely used in English poetry, paeons were often used in the traditional Greek paeans to Apollo. |
He has many peons working his farm.
In this world, you are unable to control any peasants or peons directly. Spanish-speaking peon laborers from Venezuela arrived in the nineteenth century to clear forests and work in cocoa cultivation. Racing drivers aren’t exactly normal nine-to-five peons. “They talk about who’s in charge and who are the peons,” he says. This political art project was designed to compensate the impoverished peons of Mexico for the failure of the 1910–1919 revolution led by Zapata and Pancho Villa. The elder son is a peon at a nearby school. Harvesting of the plant was a speculative enterprise, with Indian debt peons spending months in the forest harvesting, drying, and baling the crop. During the preliminary phase the footmen, peones, or capeadores work the bull with large magenta and gold capes while carefully appraising its agility, intelligence, dangers, sight and, most importantly, its strength. |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Noun: paeanism | Adjective: paeonic | Noun: peonage |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Late 16th century, via the Latin from the Greek paian meaning hymn of thanksgiving to Apollo (invoked by the name Paian, originally the Homeric name for the physician of the gods). | Early 17th century, via the Latin from the Greek paiōn, the Attic form of paian meaning hymn of thanksgiving to Apollo. | From the Portuguese peão and the Spanish peón, which is from the medieval Latin pedo, pedon- meaning walker, foot soldier, from the Latin pes, ped- meaning foot. |
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 Paean vs Paeon vs Peon
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: paean, paeon, peon
“Philodamus, Aristonous & Isyllus: Paeans.” Attalus.com. n.d. Web. 6 Aug 2010. <http://www.attalus.org/poetry/paeans.html>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Woman Singing in Front of Crowd, <https://www.peakpx.com/448074/woman-singing-in-front-of-crowd-photo>, is under the CC0 license, via Peakpx. Aesclepius, National Archeological Museum of Naples, by Elliott Brown is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.
