The inhabitants of both apiary and aviary both fly. One eats worms and the other eats pollen. I gotta say, even if those who live in an aviary eat worms, I’d still prefer to eat them than the inhabitants of an apiary…!
Yet those bees in an apiary of manmade beehives are incredibly useful. For farmers, they pollinate crops. Their honey is more easily harvested than wild bees. As for the wax, ahhh, there’s nothing like the smell of beeswax candles!
An aviary is a large bird cage. Large enough that the birds can fly around in it! One heckuva wild way to recover one’s health…if you’re a bird, and much friendlier than a zoo cage.
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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| Apiary | Aviary |
|---|---|
| Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Lexico.com: apiary, aviary | |
Apiary at the Edge of the Wood by Kay Atherton is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
1904 Flight Cage is Robert Lawton‘s work and is under the CC BY-SA 2.5 license, via Wikimedia Commons — The aviary at the Saint Louis Zoological Park in Saint Louis, Missouri. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: apiaries |
Noun
Plural: aviaries |
| A place where bees are kept
A collection of beehives Any location where bees swarm and molt |
A large cage, building, or enclosure for keeping birds in |
| Examples: | |
| Peter has a small apiary that provides enough honey for him and his family.
This year Greg is endeavoring to add to his apiary by catching a wild swarm. Together they work the land, supporting a successful raw milk dairy, a community orchard, an apiary, and a medicinal and culinary herb garden. |
Adult captive birds were observed in aviaries and zoos in England, Germany, and the USA.
After each trial, lights were used again to entice birds back to the roosting aviary. Housing for these birds should be an aviary with dimensions of at least 8 feet by 5 feet by 6 feet. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: apiarian Noun: apiarist |
Noun: aviarist |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-17th century, from the Latin apiarium, from apis meaning bee. | Late 16th century, from the Latin aviarium, from avis meaning bir. |
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 by exploring the index. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, and/or the Properly Punctuated.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Snowdon Aviary, London Zoo, is Katie Chan‘s own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. The image was cropped on the left side in Photoshop. Apiaries is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay, and is courtesy of Snappy Goat. Background removed.
