Revised as of
15 Sept 2022
Yeahhh, “she hertz something fierce” just ain’t gonna cut it. I know, I know, hertz vs hurts is a pair of heterographs (a subset of homophone), but it still isn’t an excuse.
No, it wasn’t in the context of “she hurts from a zap of hertz”, so don’t go there.
Instead, hertz is a measurement of frequency of wavelength.
Hurts is painful, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
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 noire for you from either end.
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| Hertz | Hurts |
|---|---|
Function Ocsillating at 3 Hertz is Thenub314‘s own work and under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
He Hurts by Victoria Borodinova is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: hertz |
Root word: hurt
Adjective 1; Noun 1, 2; Verb 1, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: hurt Third person present verb: hurts |
| The International System of Units (SI) unit of frequency, equal to one cycle per second | Adjective: Physically injured 1
Noun:
[Heraldry; hurtleberry, bruise; French heurt] A rounded azure [Southern English dialect] Another name for whortleberry 2 Verb, intransitive: [Of a part of the body] Suffer pain
Verb, transitive:
|
| Examples: | |
| The household current in the United States is sixty hertz.
A hertz measures the clock rate of a computer CPU. The selection of the frequency shift is 100,000,000 hertz. It was 1,660 hertz (cycles per second), in the range of frequencies expected to emanate from an exploding star. |
Adjective: He complained of a hurt leg and asked his trainer to stop the fight. There were so many dogs and cats with hurt paws. “You know I care,” he said, in a hurt voice. I felt so hurt and alone. Noun: The hurt of being constantly ignored was killing her. Her wariness masked a hurt. Hurts are azure roundels on a coat of arms. Verb, intransitive: My back hurts. He was hurting badly, but he smiled through his tears. Frank wasn’t hurting for money. Verb, transitive: She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. These high interest rates are hurting the local economy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. You go pick them hurts tomorrow morning. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Abbreviation: Hz Adjective: Hertzian Noun: gigahertz, megahertz |
Adjective: hurtable, unhurt, unhurting Noun: hurter |
| History of the Word: | |
| Late 19th century. Named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. |
|
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 Hertz versus Hurts
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: hurt
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Too Loud! by Nicki Dugan Pogue is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr.
