I never scrimp when it comes to boiled shrimp. I absolutely adore it, and I always have it for my birthday. So when I read about someone having scrimp, I gotta wonder if they mean they have to scrimp. That part of their cost cutting involves, gasp, no shrimp!
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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| Scrimp | Shrimp |
|---|---|
| Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: scrimp, shrimp; Lexico.com: scrimp, shrimp | |
One Pea by Erich Ferdinand is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Yep, somebody scrimped on this meal! |
Boiled Shrimp. Seafood Background. by Marco Verch is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Verb, intransitive & transitive
Third person present verb: scrimps |
Adjective; Noun; Verb, intransitive
Plural for the noun: shrimp, shrimps |
| Verb, intransitive: Be thrifty, sparing, frugal, or parsimonious
Verb, transitive:
To keep on short allowance
|
Adjective: [Of food] Made with or containing shrimp Of or relating to shrimp or their catching, processing, and marketing Noun: [Informal; derogatory] A small, physically weak person Verb, intransitive: |
| Examples: | |
| Verb, intransitive: I have scrimped and saved to give you a good education. They scrimped and saved for everything they have. He spends most of his money on clothes and scrimps on food. Verb, transitive: Maguire, silver-haired but with a youthful face, looks surprisingly well put together for a man who scrimps on his clothing budget. Gina quit her job and scrimped together enough money to open her own salon. Can you scrimp and save enough to cover that cost? |
Adjective: I’ll have a shrimp salad. You taking the shrimp boat out in the morning? Helen described her new shrimp pink dress. Noun: Penaeus duorarum are the commercially important pink shrimp. How can you go out with him? He’s such a shrimp! Verb, intransitive: At Trebetherick you paddle on Daymer Bay or shrimp off Gully. You can shrimp from the shore anywhere but you need special custom-made nets. Down on the river there are public fishing piers that you can shrimp from. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: unscrimped | Adjective: shrimp-like, shrimpy Noun: shrimper, shrimping |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-18th century in the sense keep short of food from the Scots scrimp meaning meager; perhaps related to shrimp. | Middle English is probably related to the Middle Low German schrempen meaning to wrinkle, the Middle High German schrimpfen meaning to contract, also to scrimp. |
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 Confusion posts by exploring its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, the Properly Punctuated, Word Confusions, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Fresh Boiled Prawns – Easy East by Alpha is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr.
